DH and I will be going to an appointment on Monday to meet with what might be the first of several meetings with potential realtors. We are using this meeting to both interview the realtor and see if we like/want to work with him, and to get some perspective on the local market.
My questions are as follows. What am I missing? This will be the very first time we will be selling a home, and the market in this area isn't great, so we want to do all we can to be well prepared for selling in a timely manner.
-- How long has he been a realtor and what kind of experience does he have in the area? What kind of work load does he carry regularly, and how many homes has he sold so far this year?
-- Would we communicate directly with him, or would the work be spread out over a team of realtors? How would he communicate with us (email, phone, text)?
-- How will the home be marketed? What sites, social media, marketing methods will be used?
-- What fees are involved and what types of contracts do they have? What additional expenses should we be prepared for during the course of a sale process?
-- Just based on general specs, what price range would he expect for our home? Is there any particular features we should look to improve?
-- Do they provide/include with contract professional photos?
-- What is the best season to list in our area? (we want to list sometime in the next 6-8 months...we just haven't nailed down when we want to yet)
-- Finally, who is our market? (This is a military town...I'm pretty sure we will be marketing more to locals than the military families, based on size and age of the home, but DH wants some other perspectives)
Most importantly, we want someone who will shoot straight, have a good understanding of the market and what (if anything) we need to do to the home ahead of time to appeal to that market, and someone who will help us make the house look really good. Part of the reason we are meeting with this Realtor first is because the photos for all of this company's listings are professionally done...which isn't the norm in our rural area. Its also a national company, which means a broader audience and potential to appeal to a military family if our home is the price range they are looking for.
So, am I asking the right questions? Are there any I should add or re-phrase?