20 Questions to ask your realtor
As a Realtor who has worked with hundreds of sellers, I've found that those homeowners who take the time to find the right agent are consistently happier with their home- selling experience than those who don't. It's the first and most critical step in selling your home.
As a general rule of thumb, you're looking for an agent who:
- Has the experience, qualifications and abilities to sell your home for top dollar.
- Has in-depth knowledge of your area and the market in general.
- Will work hard on your behalf.
- Has resources to support the sales effort.
- Will keep you well-informed during the process.
- Has a personality you are comfortable with.
By asking the following questions, you can dramatically improve your odds of saving a successful home-selling experience:
- How long have you been an active, full-time Realtor?
- What professional designations do you have?
- How many homes have you listed in the last 6 months? The past year?
- How many homes have you sold in the last 6 months? The past year?
- What's the average amount of time one of your listings is on the market before it sells?
- How does your average sale price compare to the original list price?
- How many homes are your currently marketing? (A successful top producing agent may be more effective at managing many listings than a less experienced agent.)
- What can you tell me about your share of the marketplace compared to other Realtors in the area?
- What percentage of your business is based on referrals?
- Do you have a personal staff? How many are licensed? (A Realtor who has a support team to handle office chores and routine details can usually devote more time to the business of serving a client's highest priority needs and getting the home sold.)
- How will you market my home?
- Do you have your own personal website? How many hits daily?
- How will you stage my home?
- How will you keep me informed?
- What listing price would you recommend for my home? How did you arrive at it's price?
- What's your pricing/marketing philosophy 30/60/90 days down the road?
- What is your commission on a sale? What if I sell it myself?
- Can you provide me with references?
- Do you have any personal marketing materials I can review? (The quality of a Realtor's own marketing pieces is a good indicator of how well he/she will represent you and your property.)
- Am I comfortable with this person? (This question is not for the agent-it's for you!)
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Don't list your home until you have read this
The specific agent you choose, not just the company, makes all the difference in whether or not your house sells, and it can also affect the net proceeds from the sale. Take a minute to read the following comparison between The Dunn Team and other agents, and you'll see all the benefits you receive from The Dunn Team's Innovative Real Estate System.
What Most Agent's Offer |
What the Dunn Team Offers |
| Availability
Once you have listed, they contact you occasionally-if at all. Sometimes you call and leave a message, but don't get a return call. |
Availability
The Dunn Team's professional staff works strictly for you and is available to you Monday through Friday. We are familiar with your property and transaction, so we can always answer your questions. Benefit to you: Availability! You can always get in touch with someone who can answer your questions. |
Service After Showings
No calls or follow-up after each showing. |
Service After Showings
Our Listing Manager monitors each showing. We request feedback about your home from the showing agent and mail a written report to you once a month. In addition, you receive updates about the real estate market and about our marketing efforts for your home. Benefit to you: You are kept up-to-date on the marketing of your home. You are never left in the dark because you are a high priority to our team. |
Staff
Single agents try to do everything to manage the sale of your home, or they enlist the help of a very limited staff. Many times agents use SHARED office staff and then claim the staff is a part of their team, even though the staff works for every agent in the office. |
Staff
We have chosen a select group of professionals with expertise in many different areas to work exclusively for you. We watch out for your interests and negotiate on your behalf. Your interests become our goal and that means we work our hardest to sell your home quickly, for the most money and with the least amount of hassle. Benefit to you: Several real estate professionals working for you for the price of one. |
Advertising
The agent may throw a classified ad in the newspaper. Their office chooses the media and which houses will be advertised. They may type up a feature sheet, or worse yet, copy an interoffice form to advertise your home. |
Advertising
The Dunn Team advertises your home in a monthly print publication and on 12 websites on the internet including Realtor.com. Your home is also marketed with brochures, flyers, interoffice Hot Sheets, and more! In addition, we professionally print a feature sheet with a photograph of your home for those agents and buyers that view your home. Buyers can also call a 24-hour message center that records the call so that we can follow up with details about your home. Your home is marketed around the clock! Benefit to you: Your home receives much more exposure and calls are responded to by professional sales people whose goal is the same as yours-getting your home sold! |
Signage
The agent places a sign in the yard. |
Signage
The Dunn Team provides you with a sign and a brochure box that is tended to weekly by our team courier. Your brochure box contains beautiful, full-color picture brochures on your home. Benefit to you: Your home is advertised to anyone who drives by your home or any of our listings and wants immediate information. |
Technology
The agent places your listing in the Multiple Listing Service computer and keeps their fingers crossed that someone brings them a buyer. |
Technology
The Dunn Team advertises themselves and their innovative real estate system on the multiple internet sites so that your home can be selected from an international market as well as locally through the Multiple Listing Service. Benefit to you: Your home gains maximum exposure to local, regional, national, and international buyers. |
Pricing Your Home
Most agents offer pricing of the home that is too high in order to get your attention and your listing. But the agent doesn't usually stand behind the price for very long, eventually relying on drastic price reductions in order to get the home sold. |
Pricing Your Home
The Dunn Team assists you in pricing your home correctly in the beginning. Buyers are precious, and overpriced homes drive them to other prospects. We give you market updates regularly and, through feedback, adjust the price on your home only if necessary. Our knowledge of local and national trends allows us to accurately advise you of when and when not to adjust the price. Benefit to you: You receive the highest price for your home in the shortest time with the least amount of hassles. |
Aggressive Sales Attitude
Most agents hope other agents will sell the home for them. They don't aggressively sell it themselves because they either don't have enough buyers themselves or don't have time to show the home. |
Aggressive Sales Attitude
The Dunn Team takes your home directly to the buyer through their dedication to pro-ACTIVE sales. Their sales program includes telemarketing, direct mail, magazines, and an inter-connected brochure box marketing system. In addition, The Dunn Team matches buyers to your listing via our unique computer program. We search for listings that meet each buyer's specific criteria and then set showings for those properties. The Dunn Team also includes "Buyers' Partners" who are dedicated exclusively to helping buyers and showing properties. They are not bogged down trying to list properties as well, so they are able to devote their full attention to showing your home properly. Plus, a full- time staff responds to incoming calls and sets appointments, so when ad and sign calls come in, the Buyers' Partners are always ready to show your home and get it sold quickly. As you can see, it is our goal to show our own listings first. But we don't stop there-we also call the real estate community to see if they have any buyers looking for your type of home. Using telephone technology, we can pro-actively market your home to any and every buyer who inquires about the features of your home. This guarantees a professional salesperson can effectively follow through with any inquiry about your home. Benefit to you: Your listing receives aggressive sales attention from an entire staff of professionals with one goal in mind-the sale of your home. |
Aggressive Marketing Plan
If you are lucky, the agent may attempt a marketing program, but it is usually short-lived and from the hip. Most agents have no real experience in marketing. |
Aggressive Marketing Plan
The entire Dunn Team follows a detailed, aggressive marketing plan. Sales do not happen because of an "idea of the week." They require detailed planning that is aggressively executed by a professional staff with one goal in mind-the sale of your home. The team adheres to a strict business plan just for the sale of your home. And at all times, each member of the team knows exactly what is happening with each aspect of your transaction. You can be assured that we have an organized, aggressive plan to sell your home. Benefit to you: We don't wait for things to happen-we make them happen. This type of detailed planning ensures the most money for your home in the least amount of time. No hassles. . .no kidding! |
Negotiation Skills
Most agents need to make a sale so they can get paid. Therefore, they do not negotiate in your best interests-they negotiate in their best interests . . . the sale. |
Negotiation Skills
The Dunn sells over 70 homes each year! Closing a transaction that is not in your best interest is not in their best interests. Why? Because The Dunn Team wants their clients to come back. And they do! The Dunn team has been negotiating real estate contracts for over 23 years. You can count on their experience and expertise to structure a contract that is in your best interests. Believe us, there isn't anything in a real estate contract The Dunn Team hasn't seen or negotiated. They have the ability to solve problems and put together a contract for you that will hold up through closing. Benefit to you: You receive the highest price in the shortest time and a contract signed by all parties that goes through in closing. |
Continuing Education
Many agents try to attend a few classes here and there, but they don't usually network or attend any seminars. |
Continuing Education
The Dunn Team has attended numerous educational classes that other agents never bother to attend. Not only do they gain the benefit of on-going education, but they also network through these classes nationwide. Thus, through their extensive networking activities, The Dunn Team knows and shares ideas with hundreds of realtors on a regular basis. This means that relocation buyers are sent to The Dunn Team continually. Benefit to you: The Dunn Team is always up on new developments in the real estate world, and relocation buyers from across the nation are exposed to your home. One might be your buyer. |
Before you decide, there is one more thing you should know! |
Most Agents' Closing Percentage
Most agents close 30% of the houses they have listed. In fact, that's the national average. Of the contracts they write, only 80% continue through to closing. Will your home be the one they actually sell? Will your contract be one that goes through to closing? |
The Dunn Team's Closing Percentage
The Dunn team closes 98% of the houses they list. Why? Because of all the strategies listed above and because we have full-time Client Care Managers dedicated to watching every due date and each aspect of your transaction all the way to closing. We call the mortgage company weekly for updates, communicate with the appraiser and inspector, and negotiate on your behalf. We even work with contractors to mediate all inspection items. The end result is the quick sale of your home for the most money with the least amount of hassle. Benefit to you: Sit back, relax, and enjoy yourself. We've got you covered! |
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Our commitment to you
Today, you make a choice. When we meet to discuss the sale of your home, you'll have to choose whether to trust us with the sale of the single most important asset you own. In the attached information and in our marketing presentation, we will provide you with enough information about the market, our qualifications, and our marketing program for you to make an informed decision about who will best represent you in this important business transaction.
Results-that's what we promise you. Our objective is to provide you with accurate and timely information about the real estate market in our area so that you can make intelligent decisions regarding the sale of your property. We will tell you what you must hear and not what we think you may want to hear about the market and the value of your property. We acknowledge that we may periodically lose business because we are truthful with clients in this regard, while some of our colleagues will tell you what you want to hear to temporarily get your business. But we will absolutely substantiate all of our recommendations and conclusions with the factual data that we have extracted from the Multiple Listing Service.
Ultimately, it may be that you will also want to get an opinion from another agent, and that's fine. However, you should know that all agents have access to the same information. Therefore, the determination of your home's value should be nearly the same. Remember, no agent can affect market conditions. If an agent suggests that you can sell your property for other than what the market indicates, it is a disservice to you, only prolonging the sales process and, according to National Association of REALTOR's statistics, resulting in a lower net proceeds amount.
Select your REALTOR based on experience and results. While past performance is not necessarily an indication of future success, what else can you go by? If you truly want to sell your home, you must be willing to sell it for what the market will bear. If you are not willing, that's perfectly okay; and perhaps we can help you in the future when, and if, the market changes in your favor. But if you want to sell now, no one will provide you with more candid feedback and factual information. In addition, we will thoroughly explain our marketing program to you and provide factual data on how it has worked for others in the past. We will also gladly provide you with names of several individuals with whom we have recently worked so that you can discuss our credentials with someone who has first-hand knowledge of the way we work.
This is our commitment to you. As professionals in every sense of the word, we will provide the best possible service available so that your goals are met in the shortest time frame. Our goal is to meet your expectations and hopefully exceed them to accommodate your real estate needs.
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What You Can Expect From The Dunn Team
SUPERIOR SERVICE FROM OUR UNIQUE TEAM - Two full-time assistants and Two full- time buyer specialists are dedicated to servicing your needs. They help handle every detail from listing to closing. This allows The Dunn Team to focus their efforts on effectively marketing and selling your home.
IMMEDIATE MAXIMUM MARKET EXPOSURE - We will provide your home with immediate exposure through:
- Placement in a state-of-art real estate listing database, making your home available to every REALTOR in the area as well as neighboring cities.
- Clean, attractive signage with an internet address.
- A property profile and a professional color flyer of your home with interior photos.
- A brochure box flyer with interior photos and information for sign.
- The appearance of your home's details and pictures in the widely distributed publications.
- A target-market mailing piece with a color photo of your home.
- The placement of details about your home, along with photos, on the internet at www.REALTOR.com, our personal websites www.lakeannahomes.com and www.spotsylvania- homes.com and numerous related websites.
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MARKET UPDATES - Updates sent to you monthly that will inform you about the present status of market activity-in particular, what is selling and for how much, as well as any new listings which may be competition for you.
Feedback reports sent to you weekly regarding your home's showings, letting you know exactly what the agents and buyers are saying. This allows us to make educated decisions on any changes necessary to make your home more sellable.
Weekly contact made by a team member to inform you of anything pertinent to selling your home, to check your supply of marketing materials, and to ask if you need any additional service.
STATUS REPORTS WHEN YOUR HOME GOES UNDER CONTRACT - Regular progress reports sent from a team member as to status of purchaser's loan, contingency removals (home inspection, radon inspection, etc.), bank appraisal coordination with settlement attorney, termite inspector, well and/or septic certifications, etc. |
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