6 Questions to Ask when Interviewing a Real Estate Agent

On this episode of Real Estate Revolution, I'm going to drop six questions that are imperative that you should be asking your real estate agent before you hire them. And agents, you should be able to answer these questions as well. Let's get into it. Top five questions consumers are not asking Real estate Agents. See, I think it's really interesting with this lawsuit going on and some debates about commissions, some different things that are changing in industry, that I believe that the consumer is probably just as much responsible for a shitty transaction as real estate agent is. And here's why. The top five questions that people are not asking, whether that person was referred to you or not, you should still be having some sort of interview process or some sort of standards for the person you're about to give a house key to, or for the person you're about to pay a gazillion dollars to to represent you and the largest purchase or sale of an asset in your lifetime. You know, I just think that there's certain standards and things that, you know, we might want to ask and kind of see. So number one is your experience. Now, I'm not talking about how many years have you had a real estate license. I'm talking about how many transactions have you done, how many buyers versus sellers, how many in this particular area, Depending on if your area is a specialty area, that might make a difference. It doesn't mean that that person can't refer you to somewhere else. But I'm just saying is like, hey, let's start with somebody's experience. And here's why experience is such a big thing. You're not going to a plastic surgeon that has done one plastic surgery operation. You are not getting a Groupon for that because it's something that's going to last a lifetime. And when you think about the sale of your property, it's the same thing. That person's experience based on their contract negotiations, based on how they read things, how they word things, it all makes a difference to your final outcome and your goals in this transaction. And the second thing that's really important, and it's not necessarily a question to ask, but something not to do, is not using your friends or family. If there's not a way to. Speaking of friends and family, if there's not a way to draw the line in how this is going to happen. You see a lot of times consumer that I talk to on a regular basis be like, oh, you know, my sister, she just got her real estate license, she's helping us out. Does anybody actually hear what's happening there? Because what I heard is, oh, my sister just got her license, she needs to make money and she's going to represent me in the most expensive transaction of my life and she's never done this before and she doesn't even own her own home and she just graduated high school. You're going to leave all that to the hands of a capable 19 year old to represent you in that transaction? I don't get it. I do not understand why somebody would allow themselves to be experimented and become a guinea pig and then wonder what the hell happened. So I think that that is a really fine line to draw there in how you're doing business with friends and family. Number three big question to ask is just do they do professional photos and video? It's amazing. When you look through MLS and we've all looked through mls, we've looked through Zillow, you can tell when somebody spent the money and the time on professional photos and videos versus the ones that took iPhone photos and posted themselves. There's no edits on them, there's no effort in it. It's just like this still works. And why I say that is because I'm amazed that people do not understand how important the pictures are versus actually looking at the home. So here's the importance of pictures. Your iPhone photos and the order that they are shared in is so important. So the iPhone photos, they're going to be thumbed through on Zillow go, that's ugly, that's a terrible shot. And they skimp over it and they go to the next one versus something that's professional photos, it captures the eye, it draws them in. Think about social media. What draws the biggest attention to you? It's the great photos that have been edited, have been filtered, all the things, those are the ones that draw you in over the typical original normal photos. So on houses, the other important part is photos are part of your resume. So if somebody goes, if a seller goes to Zillow to see the past homes you've sold and it's full of iPhone photos and they don't like the way you photo homes, that could be a deterrent from somebody reaching out to you versus looking at all your homes and it's all professional photos that could make a first impression on somebody. Photos are inexpensive, they're awesome. And most things are going towards video. So if your agent is not investing in video or doing some sort of video release, those types of things, it's probably pretty important in this day and age. The fourth thing really important and not as important as you think it is is stop asking what somebody charges to sell your house or represent. Okay, it is an investment. You're going to invest based on their experience and the things that they're answering above. And so when you look at somebody and somebody's like, yes, I do all these things. I have 300 transactions under my belt. I'm very experienced in this area. I do all these pieces, are you willing to invest more in that service than somebody that does not meet those standards of the questions you just asked? So it's really important that you really look at the commission, the investment, in the representation of who is going to represent you through that transaction. And the fifth is, let's be transparent. Do your personalities align? Are you really thinking like, personality? Yes, they fit all this. But personality wise, do I want this person selling my home? Am I just giving them a shot? It's really interesting to watch the consumer and the agents where it's like, oh, well, I listed this house for six months, it didn't sell. And guess what? Now the seller is like, oh, well, I need a new agent because this one says they can do it better. So now they flopped agents. And maybe this agent decides, like, we need to do a price reduction. And this agent said they needed to. And it's interesting how they move around. And then what really comes down to it, it's either price or time in the sale of any property. So I think it's one of those things when you choose an agent or you want to be somebody's agent, it's like, hey, I want to be there through all of it, all the way to the end. And it's not the only thing that makes a difference in this is price or time. When it comes down to selling a property, you know, timing is if you price it, if you overprice it, it's going to sit longer. It might take longer to find the right buyer for it. If you're going to hold out pricing, the better you price the house, the faster it's going to sell in this current market. So it's always price or time, depending on what the current market is doing. And that's just the best piece of advice. You know, we all want the maximum money out of our properties, but it's also the maximum amount of money for what amount of time are you willing to trade? And if you do trade those, are you missing market timing? Are you putting it on during the holidays? Are you? There's all these different variables that unfortunately real estate agents can't control. But the experienced agent and the more experienced person you have that is ridden through different markets, different experiences, they're going to be able to help navigate in the best way possible over somebody that's inexperienced. Now, for those of you that might be inexperienced, that's nothing wrong, right? You got to start somewhere. And if you are being mentored by a great team or a great mentor in the business and you've got help, you, you need to lean all that stuff. It's all important. You know, I remember being in that position as a new agent and going, oh, well, yes, I'm a new agent and I don't have any experience. But my parents who've been doing the business for 40 years are my team leads and my mentors. And that's how I overcame that portion of oh well, you're inexperienced. Like, yes, I am, but my team is not. This is how much experience comes with hiring me as I'm part of these people. So I've been on the inexperienced route and I think it's important that you are just upfront and honest and you approach those things. Don't try to fake through whatever that looks like in your head of trying to sell somebody on the lack of experience. You have the sixth thing, which is kind of a bonus, which, you know, I thought a lot about. I would honestly ask a real estate agent, have you ever bought or sold a home? Why does that matter? Because I think it's interesting that real estate agents can buy or sell you something they have never experienced in their lives. They haven't experienced the emotions, the trauma from showing and getting dogs and kids ready and keeping the house cleaned and canceled showings and renovation projects, fixing things up. You haven't experienced any of that. You also haven't experienced the cough during. No. You know, you have an experience being a buyer and having your loan declined and canceling on a house you really wanted and then having to go back. I experienced that on my own house that I live in now. In 2012, when Wendy and I were getting back on our feet, we found the ultimate house that we wanted to buy. We bought it, we had a pre qual, the lender declined it seven days in because of some IRS tax liens. And then it was gone. And like my emotions and just being sick to my stomach and all those things and sick to my family stomach, all the things that happen. But then we found another lender that could do it based on payment plan to irs, which we had all that stuff done and we got it dialed in and we were able to do it. But I've been through that pain. So if I'm going to hire somebody and I'm going to invest, number one, I want them to have transactional experience. Number two, I want them to have experienced the purchase or sale of a property so they know what it's like. It's really hard to think about somebody selling me a house or a multi million dollar house that has never done any of this before. But they know how the paperwork works and they know what the process is, but they don't know what the emotion is. They don't know how to empathize, sympathize, anything that's going on. It's probably what makes me a little too personal in my business because I do understand what everybody's experiencing and how it goes and I want to fix it all the time. So I think those are the important things that you should answer or ask when you are interviewing a real estate agent. It is so critical to your success in selling your home or having representation on your investment or your purchase. Thanks for joining me and if you are looking for any other information, if I can help you with a real estate strategy, buying, selling or getting rid of a house that is unwanted or needs some work, commercial property, or if you need a referral in another state, I can do any one of these things. If you're a real estate agent looking for more advice, more coaching, those types of things, you can text me at 602-845-8475 anytime. Be more than happy to connect with you and see what we can do next. And don't forget to follow me on Instagram @stevedvalentine and of course like subscribe this podcast or YouTube video. I would appreciate it and I will see you next time.