How to Find the Right Real Estate Agent to Sell Your Home
Once you've decided that it’s time to sell your home, you need a competent and trusted advisor at your side.
Here we'll explain how to find the essential partner in completing the sale of the most valuable investment you own. Since every real estate agent is a unique individual with different local knowledge, communication styles, sales philosophies, and values, you may not work very well with one that is recommended by a friend or family member. You need to find an agent who will work well with you and has a complementary working style.
1. Ask for a referral, but take referrals with a grain of salt
There are a lot of agents out there. So, how do you choose? Go ahead and ask your friends for a recommendation, but don't feel pressured into picking an agent purely because of a friend’s introduction. First of all, your friend is likely to be recommending them based on a single transaction. Secondly, just because they work well with your friend’s communication and negotiation style, it doesn’t mean that they’ll work well with you. Plus, real estate markets are local and, by extension, real estate agents should be too.
“You want an agent who is very familiar with your neighbourhood,” says Alaina Burnett, a Realtor specializing in the Brentwood neighbourhood of Burnaby, BC. The reason is simple: If they’ve specialized in the neighbourhood, they’ll be familiar with recent sales, how to strategically price your home, and they’ll be able to provide neighbourhood context for buyers visiting an open house.
Buyers are interested in the neighbourhood as much as the land and building, so an agent who can help them visualize themselves living in your home and neighbourhood is more likely to lead a buyer to become emotionally connected to your home before the negotiations begin.
So, don’t ask your friends if they “Know any good real estate agents?" Instead, ask if they “Know a real estate agent who knows my neighbourhood really well?"
2. Try the Match Finder App by Mortgage Sandbox
Mortgage Sandbox developed the Match Finder app to match Canadians with local, pre-screened real estate agents and mortgage brokers based on common interests and complementary working styles. We believe these aligned values lead to better working relationships and a more successful home selling experience. Our algorithm finds values-aligned agents who specialize in your neighbourhood. Using our app introduces you to agents predisposed to work well with you, who are better able to understand your priorities, and who are also well-acquainted with your neighbourhood and local market conditions.
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3. Test their responsiveness
Once you have some potential agents, email them or call their office, then sit back and wait. This is your first test of a key component: how responsive will your agent be? Ideally, you should get a call back that same day.
“If it takes longer than four business hours without a decent explanation, I would be cautious,” says Alex Mackenzie, a North Vancouver agent specializing in the Lonsdale area. Imagine if you have competing offers for your home, or if there’s a problem with the buyer’s home inspection? You don't want to be left in limbo by your agent. You’ll want to be kept in the loop. Additionally, how well someone communicates is a good indicator of their ability to build relationships which will be key in having a good experience selling your home.
4. Probe their experience
Your initial conversation with a prospective listing agent should be like any job interview: Don’t be afraid to ask the tough questions right off the bat. A good agent should know market trends and any dancing around the numbers could be a red flag. According to Mackenzie, you should ask the following:
Q1. How many homes have you sold?
Aim for agents with at least four sales under their belt. That’s enough sales to learn the ropes and refine their skills. Don’t bother asking how many years they’ve been in business. Time on the job does not mean they produce results. A brand new agent with six recent sales is better than an agent with six sales over two years. The sweet spot is agents with 4 to 12 sales in a year. Enough to have a good feel for the market, but not so many that they are too busy to prioritize your home and give you their full attention.
Q2. What types of homes have you sold?
You want someone familiar with the type of property that you’re selling. Is it a condo, a townhome, or a house? They are very different types of homes, and buyers will be looking at very different features.
Q3. Which neighbourhoods have you sold homes in?
Your real estate agent must have some recent experience selling homes in your area. Local knowledge allows an agent to highlight the features of the surrounding area that best suit potential buyers and make your home even more irresistible. Whether it’s Surrey, BC or Burlington, ON, an intimate knowledge of your neighbourhood is a key consideration when choosing an agent. It’s also important that they are up to date on your local property market.
Have a look at our local real estate updates before interviewing a realtor. We cover most major cities in Canada.
Assess their marketing skills
Everyone knows that to sell a house quickly (and get the best value), you need to reach as many buyers as possible. Assess an agent's ability to do that with these questions:
Q1. How will you market my home?
An agent should be using the Multiple Listing Service, Realtor.ca, and other tools to get exposure for your home.
Q3. How will you use social media?
They should use ads on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Also, how many followers do they have on social media?
Q4. What offline marketing do you use?
While most marketing is online, your agent should still make use of tried-and-true methods such as fliers, yard signs, and brochures, especially at an open house. Ask for sample materials from another one of their listings.
Q5. How much will you spend on staging and advertising?
Get a solid estimate. Advertising costs vary widely by area, but agents should consistently spend a portion of their business expenses on advertising. Ask for a set amount, so you'll know what they plan to do.
| Question | Agent Answer | Advice |
|---|---|---|
| Are you currently licenced as a real estate agent in this province? | This sounds unnecessary but every year a few “fake-agents” are fined by the regulator. It’s a formality but always ask. | |
| Has anyone ever filed a complaint against you with the provincial regulator? | This is an awkward question, but agents will never volunteer the information if you don’t ask. | |
| How is the market in my neighbourhood? | You want them to tell you if it is a buyer’s market, balanced market, or seller’s market for your property type. The condo market can be a seller’s market (i.e., seller advantage) while the market for houses is in a buyer’s market. | |
| Who will pay the most for my home? What target demographic? | They should be describing a typical buyer. (e.g., your home would be very attractive to a middle-income couple who are planning to start a small family) | |
| Other than MLS (Multiple Listing Services), what other ways do you advertise the properties that you sell? | The tools they describe should match the demographic they said they intend to target. For example, if they’re targeting retired baby boomers who want to downsize then they shouldn’t be using LinkedIn. | |
| Do you typically use a professional stager? Why? Do you think it’s worth using one for my property? | You’re testing for critical thinking. It’s great to have a tried-and-true process but you shouldn’t follow it blindly if it’s going to cost more. You’re also checking if the rationale lines up with the target buyer demographic. | |
| Do you typically use a professional photographer? If yes, how did you come to choose your photographer? If no, why? | You’re testing for quality. For example, are they using a friend or are they using their current photographer because of their professional results? | |
| How many homes did you sell in this neighbourhood last year? | Ideally, the number is between 4 and 12. If they are a high volume seller then likely they need to sell your home quickly and are more interested in collecting the commission then finding you a buyer willing to pay an extra ten thousand. | |
| What do you do to prepare properties for open house events? | Do they bring another agent to help? Do they develop a script for walking buyers through the home? What materials do they have printed? How do they handle “looky-loos” (i.e., neighbours and others who are curious but have no intention of buying)? Do they like to play background music or put out snacks? | |
| How do you like to handle the process of responding offers? | Do they try to direct buyers to submit all their offers on one day? | |
| Please provide me with two references with whom I can speak on the phone. | You can ask them if they would use the agent again and if they felt they got fair value for their home. | |
| Please provide me with copies of two of your past MLS listings. | You are looking for good quality photography and an appealing description that makes you want to visit the listing. You also want to confirm they are in the same neighbourhood as your home. |
Don’t shoot for cheap
Usually, you get what you pay for. You would never go to a car dealership and ask for the cheapest car on the lot. You don’t want cheap, but you do want good value for your money. While there are generally accepted rates of commission, some agents may be open to negotiating a slightly lower commission. In truth, if they’re good at what they do, they will be confident enough in their abilities to stand by their commission rates, so don’t expect much of a break on the commission. When you’re talking terms, ask the agent if they’ll work on a discount.
To fully understand real estate commissions and the trade-offs, check out our full report on realtor commissions:
Focus on the big picture. When the agent helps you negotiate with a buyer, the price will shift by tens of thousands of dollars. Agents have an incentive to sell for the highest value because they are paid a per cent commission. You don’t want an agent who is less invested in your interests because you squeezed an extra 0.25% out of their commission. On top of that, if the agent can't even negotiate to protect their commission, how likely will they be able to defend your selling price?
Conclusion
When you are selling your most valuable asset, you need a great agent. You want someone who shares your interests and values and is an active agent in the neighbourhood. Taking a little extra time to find the right realtor will lead to a better working relationship, a less stressful selling experience, and ultimately a better price for your home.
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