Choosing a Listing Agent? Check 4 Things.
Verified real estate agent reviews, verified sales record, marketing services to sell your home, and total cost — these are the four most important things to consider when choosing a listing agent for your home.
1. Verified Real Estate Agent Reviews
You wouldn’t trust a review on a hotel from someone who hasn’t stayed there, so why would you trust a review about a real estate agent from someone who hasn’t worked with them? It is incredible the number of reviews out there on real estate agents from friends and family or even negatively from the competition leaving false reviews. You’ll find these in abundance on Yelp.com.
This is why we leave the majority of our reviews on Zillow.com. This is because Zillow matches the name with the address and independantly monitors real estate agent reviews to ensure they are real. We care so much about verified customer reviews, we even hired a review firm, review.io to monitor the reviews we put on our own website.
2. Verified Agent Sales Record
Again, a real estate agent can theoretically say whatever they want about themselves, but they need to be able to back it up with a verified sales record. For simplicity, we use Zillow for this (scroll down on our profile page) as well, but if asked we are happy to provide the actual MLS sales records. We put all of our sales on Zillow for the same reason we put the majority of our reviews on there, Zillow verifies the sale. When we send our sales record to a potential client, they can trust the data.
3. Marketing Plan to Sell Your Home
A strong marketing plan is just about the most important thing any real estate agent can offer. Especially in this cooling Portland sellers’ market, making sure your home is priced right, then ensuring that it will get the maximum number of views — both online and in-person — is key to selling it for maximum value.
What defines a strong marketing plan? Your real estate agent should be obsessed with getting online views for the home. 95% of buyers will use the internet to find their next home. What about the other 5%? Those are family sales or some situation where the buyer and the seller already knew each other, or they are sales due to open houses or yard signs. Simply put, the majority of sales in real estate occur because of your listing’s agent’s ability to harness the internet to sell your home. We have an online edge – and a serious one at that. Read all about it here. We generate more online views per listing from real buyers than anyone else we know.
Of course, the home also has to look good online. For that we use professional photography, complimentary interior design consultation, and more depending on the house. For some homes, drone videos, additional online brochures, 3D modeling, and more becomes important. We have every effective tool at hand, ready to sell your home.
4. Total Cost to Sell your Home
Our listing agents charge a 4.5% commission max. to sell your home, with no fees or extras charges. We also offer a cancel anytime policy for no charge, with 24 hours notice. If you’re considering a real estate agent who charges more than that, be sure you understand why. Our team is in the top 1% of Portland metro area real estate agents in terms of reviews and sales. The marketing package we offer is top-tier, but our commissions aren’t.
