Questions to Ask a Potential Realtor

[rodi]

I wrote up a list of questions for DH to ask when he was phone interviewing. That was one of the questions.

(As was marketing strategy, how comps /suggested listing prices were generated, and how often they send reports/updates.)

 

[pb4uski]

One experience of an agent to avoid.... we once had an agent pitch us to list with him. While we recognized him from his ads locally, he was very aggressive and to hear him talk about himself was the greatest thing to our local real estate market since sliced bread. He allegedly had all these great relationships with buyers, buyers waiting in the wings who would be very interested in our house, etc. While he made a very compelling pitch, my BS meter was pegged at full stop so we passed.

We were later under contract on our house but the buyer needed to sell their house. They listed it with the guy we had passed on. At the end of the day it seems that his main strategy was to list as many properties as he could, do very little himself to sell them and let someone else do the selling and then collect his listing agent commission and go onto the next mark.

Be wary for these types.

 

[travelover]

OP here. Got a strange email tonight from agent #1. I had asked for references (previous client names and phone #s). His email tonight said that is personal information that would be unfair to hand out, but "you can read customer feedback comments on my website". The other two agents provided the same information without resistance.

Can't imagine hiring someone to sell a 1/2 million dollar house without unfiltered feedback.

 

[Daniel J]

OP here. Got a strange email tonight from agent #1. I had asked for references (previous client names and phone #s). His email tonight said that is personal information that would be unfair to hand out, but "you can read customer feedback comments on my website". The other two agents provided the same information without resistance.

Can't imagine hiring someone to sell a 1/2 million dollar house without unfiltered feedback.

Not that strange really, I would just check Yelp/Google.


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[travelover]

Not that strange really, I would just check Yelp/Google.

I did. Not listed.

 

[pb4uski]

OP here. Got a strange email tonight from agent #1. I had asked for references (previous client names and phone #s). His email tonight said that is personal information that would be unfair to hand out, but "you can read customer feedback comments on my website". The other two agents provided the same information without resistance.

Can't imagine hiring someone to sell a 1/2 million dollar house without unfiltered feedback.

Usually one would check with a reference before providing someone's name as a reference.... which would give that person an opportunity to object to agent #1 disclosing their name and contact info. If the reference concedes to having agent #1 provide the information to you then it is not unfair for him to give you the information.

 

[photoguy]

OP here. Got a strange email tonight from agent #1. I had asked for references (previous client names and phone #s). His email tonight said that is personal information that would be unfair to hand out, but "you can read customer feedback comments on my website". The other two agents provided the same information without resistance.

Can't imagine hiring someone to sell a 1/2 million dollar house without unfiltered feedback.

Seems like a red flag to me.


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[athena53]

OP here. Got a strange email tonight from agent #1. I had asked for references (previous client names and phone #s). His email tonight said that is personal information that would be unfair to hand out, but "you can read customer feedback comments on my website". The other two agents provided the same information without resistance.

I wouldn't be concerned; any agent who provides references is going to provide the names of the ones whose house sold quickly at a good price, not the one they overpriced that sat on the market and sold half a year later after 4 markdowns. How much information can that provide for your decision?

You could ask him about average days on market for the properties he's sold in the last year compared to overall figures for the area. The realtor we used sends out a newsletter every quarter or so that provides comparisons for the total area of average days on market, ratio of sold price to listed price and other figures, so the market figures should be publicly available somewhere. Whether he keeps stats on his own business is another question, but he should have a good feel for how he's doing compared to the average.

 

[MichaelB]

OP here. Got a strange email tonight from agent #1. I had asked for references (previous client names and phone #s). His email tonight said that is personal information that would be unfair to hand out, but "you can read customer feedback comments on my website". The other two agents provided the same information without resistance.

Can't imagine hiring someone to sell a 1/2 million dollar house without unfiltered feedback.

Not something to worry about. Realtor is a field with a low barrier to entry, so there are many agents to choose from and you need a way to quickly filter unqualified candidates.

 

[Fishingmn]

I wouldn't be concerned; any agent who provides references is going to provide the names of the ones whose house sold quickly at a good price

I totally agree with this.

Normally I will point to reviews on Zillow about me or actual reference quotes on my website. If a customer wants to talk to a customer in person (which is extremely rare) I would certainly call a couple clients first for their permission and make sure that they are cherry picked clients who are going to be extremely happy with me. In addition, the easiest clients of mine to call would be my sister in law and my best friend who I both did transactions with. Are those really going to be objective?

 

[travelover]

I wouldn't be concerned; any agent who provides references is going to provide the names of the ones whose house sold quickly at a good price, not the one they overpriced that sat on the market and sold half a year later after 4 markdowns. How much information can that provide for your decision?

I totally agree with this.

............ If a customer wants to talk to a customer in person (which is extremely rare) I would certainly call a couple clients first for their permission and make sure that they are cherry picked clients who are going to be extremely happy with me..........

I had actually asked for all clients, buy and sell, in the last 12 months to avoid this. The other agents provided this information. Cherry picking and using relatives as a reference would be, to me, unscrupulous.

 

[Fishingmn]

To me it would be unethical to provide names and contact information for every client in the past 12 months unless I personally call them all and ask if they would serve as a reference. Not surprised that an agent would balk at that. Actually, I'd question any agent who just gave that information out - would you want to get contacts in the future without any warning when your contact information was distributed?

Edit - the more I even think of this the more I could tell you why it's wrong. Part of our fiduciary duty is to protect client confidentiality. Any Realtor giving out a list of contacts without prior authorization would be violating the code of ethics. Plus, they will still cherry pick the list.

 

[travelover]

To me it would be unethical to provide names and contact information for every client in the past 12 months unless I personally call them all and ask if they would serve as a reference. Not surprised that an agent would balk at that. Actually, I'd question any agent who just gave that information out - would you want to get contacts in the future without any warning when your contact information was distributed?

If I was in a business where I was frequently cycling customers, as part of my feedback questionnaire, I'd ask, "May I use you as a reference?".

For something like real estate agents or financial advisors where the dollars are large and the frequency is low, I would be delighted to give feedback to future prospective customers. If it was for a television set, then, no, I would not like a hundred calls.

I guess the perspective changes when it is my 1/2 million on the line.

 

[athena53]

I had actually asked for all clients, buy and sell, in the last 12 months to avoid this. The other agents provided this information. Cherry picking and using relatives as a reference would be, to me, unscrupulous.

I can't imagine all of those clients consented; I'm not sure I would, even though I liked our realtor and have recommended her to others. If the other 2 realtors actually gave you the full list, I'd be very surprised.

 

[travelover]

I can't imagine all of those clients consented; I'm not sure I would, even though I liked our realtor and have recommended her to others. If the other 2 realtors actually gave you the full list, I'd be very surprised.

You may be right, but hiring someone based on their sales pitch, presentation and anonymous quotes on their website seems inadequate for a transaction of this size.

I learned this when I used to hire and fire. What prospective hires said and what their former supervisors said could be radically different. And it was probably unfair of me to ask for former supervisor's names.

 

[rodi]

We found out the hard way that references can be rigged. We hired a contractor to build our granny flat and asked for previous clients. We got very cherry picked results.
He'd also sold us on his relevant (and used pictures) of two similar projects. He said they'd sold since the work was done so it wasn't the same owner... turns out he didn't want us talking to them (which we ended up doing, after our project went south and we were looking at suing.)

I learned my lesson. Sure - get references, check online reviews, etc... but also check the state licensing to see if there are any dings on their license, check court records to see if they've been sued (or filed suit), etc.

 

[travelover]

We found out the hard way that references can be rigged. We hired a contractor to build our granny flat and asked for previous clients. We got very cherry picked results..............

I had something similar happen to me about 25 years ago. References loved the guy and proudly showed me his work. The contractor must have had a major blowout in his life because he became extremely unreliable and took forever to complete even a portion of the job. I fired him once it hit a transition point and finished it myself.

I worry about something similar happening with a real estate agent.

 

[travelover]

Calling references

I called a half dozen of the references that I received from Realtor #3. Interestingly, every one was more than glad to talk with me and a couple even called back when I was only able to leave a message.

The good news is that they were all enthusiastically positive. I was provided three full sheets of names and I randomly picked names, so if he cherry picked all of these names, I'd be surprised.

Unfortunately, Realtor #1, my initial first choice, seems to have decided to withdraw, leaving me with, "read the anonymous comments on my website, I will not share real customer contact information".

I appreciate the comments, feedback and hand holding thus far.

 

[ivinsfan]

I think you are putting too much weight on the feedback from Realtor 1.

He's 70 years old with a long career and might be thinking you are going to be high maintenance. I'm guessing he can pick and choose what he wants to do..number 3 is all about being number one and number 1 might just be about getting the best results with his own way of doing things. I wouldn't rule him out or say that he "withdrew" because he doesn't give contact numbers for clients.

 

[Sarah in SC]

I'd definitely go with number 3. He's younger, which is a plus, and he's already the top seller. The older guy is not as motivated. Would you be, at 70 versus 50?

 

[travelover]

I think you are putting too much weight on the feedback from Realtor 1.

He's 70 years old with a long career and might be thinking you are going to be high maintenance. I'm guessing he can pick and choose what he wants to do..number 3 is all about being number one and number 1 might just be about getting the best results with his own way of doing things. I wouldn't rule him out or say that he "withdrew" because he doesn't give contact numbers for clients.

I think that you are right. Agent #3 confided that Agent #1 had asked him if he was interested in buying his business, so I suspect Agent #1 is picking and choosing in his later years.

I think that references are necessary for me to make a good decision and Agent #1 considers it to be an excessive demand. That's OK.

 

[travelover]

Update

So, I signed the listing papers with Agent #3 today. Sort of felt steamrolled on commission negotiations. Ended up at 6% or 5% if he represents buyer as well. I'm confident that he is a top notch agent, so we shall see if he delivers the sale at the selling price that he expresses confidence that I can get.