Are all Realtors created equal?

Everywhere you go you hear doom and gloom about the real estate market but it is really picking up!

Currently I have more pre-approvals than I have had in the last few years and these clients are shopping. I have done 4 purchases this week, 3 were first time homebuyers and 1 of them were clients moving up the property ladder.

This got me thinking about the clients who have property to sell before they take the next step and those first time homebuyers who really don’t know what the process is. When you are looking for a realtor what are the questions you should ask?

I spoke with my best realtor Scott Carpenter of the Carpenter Real Estate Group, and he gave me this list of questions clients should use when interviewing a realtor. These are for buyers and sellers.

1. Do you work as a full time Realtor?
2. Do you have an assistant?
3. What are and what aspect of the market do you specialize?
4. Do you have a marketing plan specifically designed to sell my house?
5. How do market properties directly to buyers?
6. What club status have you attained in you company?
7. Will you produce a flyer of my house with a picture displaying my home?
8. Do you have a written business plan and mission statement?
9. How often will I hear from you after my home is listed?
10. Do you have a no obligation, quick cancellation guarantee?
11. How will you let me know what you are doing to market my property?
12. How do you find potential buyers?
13. What other marketing techniques will you use to get my property sold?
14. In what ways do you encourage other Realtors to sell my property?
15. What can I do to help sell my property?
16. How confident are you that you can sell my home? Why?
17. How many listings do you have? What percentage of them sells?
18. What is the market trend right now?
19. Based on what you know about my situation, should I sell now?
20. If I give you my listing, what are the things you will do in the first weeks to sell the property?

If you know an outstanding Realtor let me know and I will put them on my list of Great Realtors.