The Home Team - choosing an agent to sell one's home

Kiplinger's Personal Finance Magazine, June, 2001 by Elizabeth Razzi

The new rules of the game

IF YOU'RE GOING to work with an agent anyway (and roughly 80% of buyers and sellers do), there's no need for you to dash to the Internet to perform research that they're being paid--and paid well--to do. You could research sales prices for your neighborhood, but an agent can do it more easily. You could look up names of home inspectors and exterminators, but an agent who deals with them every day should be able to give you good referrals.

However, it is wise to take some time at the beginning of your search to figure out your finances and at least browse a few neighborhoods online. Sites such as Bankrate.com--along with many lenders' sites (and our own Kiplinger.com)--have calculators that will help you figure out how much you can afford to spend on a home, and how much a certain home would cost in monthly payments, given current mortgage rates.

You can even get online preapproval for a mortgage before you start shopping. It's still enough of a sellers market in most places that buyers won't pay much attention to an offer unless you have already been okayed for a loan.

One thing the Internet hasn't changed is the time-tested way to find the best real estate agent: Ask for referrals from people whose judgment you trust. Scott and Cherie Emigh asked friends and family members for referrals to the agents they interviewed. But if your circle of friends tends not to move much, or if you're relocating to an area where you have no contacts, you might have to search more impersonally.

An online referral service, HomeGain.com, worked well when we recently took it for a test drive. Sellers type in a description of their home, including the zip code and their estimate of the likely selling price, and ask for marketing proposals from agents. The agents can't contact you directly unless you give permission. Our weeklong test yielded five proposals from well-credentialed, experienced agents familiar with the neighborhood, though it did not catch the attention of the two or three agents who sell most of the houses there.

Talk with prospective agents about what they'll do to help you sell or buy a home. Expect the agent to have a digital camera, so he or she can post photos of your home on the Web without delay. And ask for a 360-degree "virtual tour." Agents have to pay about $50 for that feature, and they may not offer it unless you ask.

John Deely, managing broker at Coldwell Banker Bain, a brokerage in Mercer Island, Wash., says some buyers and sellers living there--in Microsoft's backyard--refuse to deal with agents who are not tech savvy. "Some will not communicate over the phone. They use e-mail almost exclusively. And most people demand a response in a maximum of 24 hours." You can be demanding, too, even if there are cornfields in your backyard.

Too much exposure?

SELLERS TODAY have new questions to ask themselves before signing a listing agreement. Do you really want your address and home price broadcast on the Internet? Do you want photos of your bedroom posted for all the world to see? These are your decisions to make, not the agent's.