When it comes to selling your home, a great real estate agent is crucial. With the influx of industry professionals across the nation, each boasting “top producer” or “#1 agent”, it’s critical to understand what truly makes an agent successful. When looking for their perfect agent, many homeowners will simply look at an agent’s sales per year. Although this can be a helpful datapoint to consider, you won’t get the full picture solely using this metric. Below are a few noteworthy performance indicators that you should be paying attention to when selecting your potential agent.
Reviews and ratings
When you search for an agent online, you will find client reviews under their recent transactions. This is where you can get genuine firsthand reports of what it’s like to work with the agent, what their strengths are, how the client would rate the process, etc. Understanding the traits, skills, and overall type of agent you will be working with is crucial to successfully listing or buying a property as you want to work with someone who is a good fit for your needs and is able to foster a positive working relationship.
Years of experience
It is important to consider how long an agent has been in the real estate industry as this points to their overall knowledge, experience, and capability to thrive throughout fluctuating market conditions. With today’s ambiguous economy causing everchanging ups and downs in the market, having been in the real estate business for a long time is a crucial trait to possess when helping homeowners.
Homes sold in your area
An agent who regularly sells homes in or around your neighborhood will give valuable insight into your specific market. Specifically for buyers, this a great skill to exemplify as these agents will be expert local advocates who highlight perks like coffee shops, walking trails, and grocery stores, which are important factors to consider as a potential homeowner.
Average days on market
Days on market (DOM) is a metric that tracks the time from when a house is listed to when it goes under contact with a buyer. An agent who has previous transactions with lower-than-average days on market is like a good agent to work with as this suggests their ability to price and market homes correctly. With this skill, these agents can attract quick, strong offers and present a solid, reliable marketing plan for their listings. According to the National Association of Realtors (NAR), the national average days on market for a property is around 3 weeks, but this number varies from county to county.
Types of properties sold and Areas of Expertise
Being aware of the types of properties your prospective agent commonly sells is fundamental to understanding their listing history. You can use this information to see if an agent’s expertise is aligned with the type of home you need to sell. For example, a listing agent who usually sells single-family homes is probably not the best fit to stage, market, and navigate the process of selling a townhome or condo.
Average sale-to-list price ratio
The sale-to-list price ratio is a metric that states what percent of the asking price a home sells for.
For example, if a house is listed at $250,000, and sells at $230,000, the sale-to-list ratio would be 92%. If a house sells over asking, the sale-to-list ratio will be over 100%. Therefore, an agent with a higher average sale-to-list price ratio is probably a better fit to work with as this metric reveals their accuracy at pricing homes, and how well they can prospectively deliver on a seller’s list price.
How HomeOptions’ Agent Network Can Help You
At HomeOptions, our agent-matching process ensures you are paired with the best possible agent match for your property on all levels. The HomeOptions agent network is comprised of top 25% qualified agents with vast industry knowledge of your metropolitan area who are ready to help you with the exciting process of selling your home. Give us a call at 800-357-9992 from 9AM-5PM PST or email us at support@homeoptions.ai to get connected with the best agent for your individual needs and get a free cash offer for doing so.
At HomeOptions, we want to show you why home ownership should pay dividends. Visit us at https://www.homeoptions.com/ for more information.