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How to Choose the Right Agent When Selling Your Home

You have decided to sell your Los Angeles home and are in the process of picking an agent to represent you. They are not difficult to find. They may still be knocking on your door, sending you postcards in the mail, or maybe cold calling you. There are hundreds of them with online websites, and someone may have referred one to you. So how do you choose the right one for you?

The same way the agent working for the buyer represents that buyer, the agent working for the seller represents that seller and we may form an opinion, true or false, of the client based on their representative.

In a seller’s market if you price your home right and put it on the MLS it will probably be under contract very quickly, although going under contract doesn’t necessarily mean it will sell. Anything can happen during the escrow process. How the other side sees you is a large part of the equation.

Put yourself on the other side.  How would you feel about a seller who is represented the following way?

  • The listing entered into the MLS for all to see is badly worded, incomplete and has mediocre pictures. Even worse, would you bother pursuing a listing that has NO pictures. Before entering a listing into the MLS an agent has plenty of time to take pictures or have pictures taken which will show the property in the best light. A home with bad or no pictures is in danger of not being shown.
  • Showing instructions state that the listing agent should be contacted via email. People who want to see your home may have questions or need a quick response, especially those who have a short window to view your place, out-of-towners, etc.  Why is an agent not available by phone? Are they too busy?
  • It takes a day or so for your agent to respond to calls, or you may have to call them two or three times to get a resp0nse. How motivated to sell does this make a seller look?
  • Your agent doesn’t work on weekends, the prime house-hunting time.  Obviously selling your home is not a priority.
  • The agent you hired is not the one who is working your listing, and many times doesn’t know anything about the house. And often when sitting an open house they are there to pick up buyers especially if they are not being compensated on the sale of your property. If you hired an agent with a team then that team should be up to speed on your home. and presumably motivated to sell it.
  • An agent is difficult to pin down for an appointment and may not be flexible. How flexible are contract negotiations going to be?

When you hire an agent to sell your home make sure you understand how involved they are going to be and how they are going to make selling your home a priority. There are some great agents and you feel good about dealing with them. However, sometimes you wonder why a home has been on the market for a while and then you try and get hold of the agent and your question is answered.

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