@Aaron Caddel Sure, I was actually going to turn that into a blog post myself seeing as I managed to type in 5 minutes what normally I would have sweated over for an hour or two. :) But honestly I think it's fine if I do something with it and you use it as a quote for your blog, just obviously please use it as a quote and link back to me as you mentioned. I'll PM you the site seeing as we're not supposed to post our business links on the thread, and I'm happy to link to your page as well when I post as well - I know Google doesn't like duplicate content but I'm sure the articles will have other things different about them. Thanks for appreciating the post!
As far as your question about finding a good listing agent:
The first place I start when helping clients who are looking for a listing agent in a different area is by searching listings online and noting who has great home presentation - staging and photos. Agents whose photos are poor quality, have listings with rooms that definitely should have been de-cluttered or at the very least straightened up, or who obviously used a professional photographer who wasn't very good, get ditched. Also, homes that are over-staged - the agent is the one who knows what SELLS homes, and needs to be able to make sure that even a professional stager doesn't head towards the 'very staged, but less sellable' side.
One thing (a small thing, but helpful) I like to see that even good listing agents don't always do is to have grey sky replaced with blue - not fake blue, just the kind of sky that would have been there on a nice day. Some photographers will do this as part of their service, if not there are people on Fiverr who do a really good job with this. I know photographers will say that medium light or a non-sunny day is best for photos, but they are not agents who sell homes, that is mostly true of portrait photography. In real life, with real buyers, sunny days sell better, as long as the house isn't affected by crazy shadows in the wrong places. But the blue sky is something you can do yourself once you get the photos if you need to (on Fiverr).
Then of the people with good photos I'll check reviews on their site and on Zillow. I think Zillow still vets reviews, unlike Yelp (which hides all kinds of legitimate reviews). Also Google reviews can now be a pretty reliable source too - but I think Zillow is still pretty good.
Then as far as interviewing agents, I really want to feel like a) they know what they're talking about in terms of market valuation, and b) they care about having the house present at its maximum value and can help provide recommendations about that.
So they should be able to explain to you, with comps, why they're coming up with the price opinion they came up with.
And as far as what they do, my husband and I include the staging and photography as part of our service, so don't charge extra. And we end up doing a lot of other work (hours of consultation, my husband will throw in some labor, etc.) However, we are usually working with highly referred clients or previous clients, it's a much bigger risk for an agent to shell out a lot of time and money for a listing that's less of a sure thing.
So, the bottom line is your home should be prepped, and definitely should have professional grade photos, regardless of who takes them. And one option is for seller to pay for them initially and be reimbursed at closing, which takes some risk out of it for the agent.
Just a note though, if you know you'll be selling to investors, that's less of an emotional decision and I think the staging plays a less significant part in affecting decisions. In our area most homes target both markets, and primarily owner occupants.
Another important thing to note is if the agent has a history of pricing correctly. I think you can check this on Zillow by looking at 'sold' listings and checking market time, and price history. Someone who consistently prices high and with above average market times could be problematic. And if you have access to the MLS this is easy. But it's something that's legitimate to ask the agent about - their track record of listings over the past few years, showing days on market and sold price relative to list price.
There are a few ways to tweak that as well, i.e. we get postcards from a company talking about their agents' sold price to list price ratio, but if I look up their listings it's the 'most recent list price', after a price reduction. Meaning, they overpriced, dropped the price, and then got a sale and sent out a postcard talking about how great they are. :)
I know this is long, hopefully some of it is helpful. But if you have specific other questions about this I'd be curious to hear.
