6 Questions Every Agent Must Answer

Your agent should have answers, not excuses. There are some basic questions that anyone who has the responsibility of selling a home should be able to answer:

1. HOW LONG WILL IT TAKE YOU TO LIST MY HOUSE?

   • When you decide it is time to list your home, taking a week to get your home on the market could cost you the buyer that was going to pay top dollar for your house. Don’t let a realtor play around with your investment by making you conform to their schedule. 

     We guarantee to have your home professionally photographed and on the market within 3 days from the time the listing agreement is signed. If an agent says they can list your home immediately, they aren’t taking the time to get high quality professional photography done (we pay for high quality photography). If you ask “How long?” and they respond with “It depends,” that is a sign of trouble.

     What you need instead is representation that is familiar enough with the process that they can tell you “as soon as we get documents signed, we will have it listed within 3 days,” and that is what you get with Maven Real Estate. Dependability and clarity.

2. HOW IS THE CORRECT LISTING PRICE DETERMINED?

   • It is extremely common for agents to price a home too low in order to make their job easier. It is also very common for an agent to just agree with the price you want to list it for because they don’t want to disagree with you. Some will even suggest you list your home for sale at a higher price than you should because they just want to tell you what you want to hear. Unfortunately, many agents are merely seeking to get a sign in your yard and pick up clients with the cell number they place on the sign. 

     You want representation that tells you the truth, but you also want them to understand they work for you, not the other way around. If an agent doesn’t provide a reasonable range for the sale price of your house with supporting documents, run.

3. WHAT ACTIONS WILL YOU TAKE TO SELL MY HOME?
   • Ask the agent if they have a marketing plan for the properties they list. Many agents will give you a line like the following: “I’ll list your home on thousands of websites and the Oklahoma City MLS,” giving the impression that they are putting in work to get your home listed on a bunch of different websites, but here’s the truth: ANY agent can put your home in the OKC MLS and it will automatically be sent out to thousands of websites. In fact, most agents have a marketing plan that simply assumes a person’s home will sell eventually if they just type information into the MLS. Beware of a non-existent marketing plan and a marketing plan that is too reliant on a particular website or gimmick. Some agents rely upon their “30+ years in the business” to convince people they are connected enough to find a buyer others can’t. The bottom line is you need your house to gain attention and you don’t need a complacent agent who is too dependent on their own “years of experience.”
4. HOW MANY PEOPLE WILL YOU HAVE HELPING WITH THIS PROCESS?
   • The reality is that an excellent listing agent is always working on your behalf. The last thing you need is one agent who doesn’t answer their phone when you call, or when someone wants to see your property. Even if a single agent is well-intentioned, life is busy and they may not have their phone beside them at all times. At Maven we protect ourselves from this error by having a sign number (405-835-3434) that dials to all of us at the same time, that way we can guarantee a response. If you are dealing with an agent who works by him/herself, they are extremely limited in their availability and ability to work on your behalf.
5. WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE FOR YOU TO WORK BUYERS?
   • You often meet “the listing agent” of a team at your listing appointment. The problem with this is typically that listing agent has the interest in selling your home, but the rest of his or her team of buyer’s agents do not have any interest in getting your place sold. You need to hire a team of agents that not only list the home but also work aggressively to find buyers. When our team lists your home, you have three agents always looking for a buyer for your home. We make hundreds of phone calls a day to prospective buyers, have a system that provides us with contact info for 1300 new buyers per month, and this is why we bring the buyer to a good portion of the homes that we list. (See the page titled “Working Buyers” for an amazing story of the lengths we'll go to work potential buyers and get your house sold.)
6. WHAT WILL FOLLOW UP LOOK LIKE WITH POTENTIAL BUYERS AND MYSELF?

   • We make sure you receive feedback from showings that take place on your property by contacting agents repeatedly until feedback is received. It is also true that not every agent interprets feedback the same way. At Maven, we look for opportunities to overcome objections people propose for not putting an offer forward on a home we list for sale. If agents do actually get feedback from a showing, they often interpret the feedback as “well, I guess it wasn’t the right property for them,” when maybe a potential buyer has an obstacle that can be overcome. Most agents won’t actively seek to solve these concerns or hurdles but will instead communicate to sellers “I guess we need to do a price change.” If a home is struggling to get under contract other agents might even volunteer to do open houses, but this thought as well as the one of a necessary price decrease are more rooted in simply keeping your listing, as opposed to getting your home sold. You need a group of agents who overcome objections proposed by potential buyers and their agents in the follow-up process, and you need agents who proactively sell your home instead of just reacting when they think they are about to lose the listing. Think carefully about how persistent the agent is that you hire and be sure that 3 tenacious agents is greater than 1.

These are all questions that should be asked of any person you would consider selling your home, and anyone worth hiring should provide you answers to these that aren’t vague and general, but specific, and they should do so with confidence.

To get your home re-listed quickly and effectively, please contact us.