The Key to Selecting the Best Listing Agent
The difference between the market’s list-to-sale price ratio and your prospective agent’s list-to-sale price ratio will let you know if that agent will net you the most money from your home sale.
How do you pick the right agent to help you sell your home for the highest possible price?
No one ever teaches you how to interview a listing agent. What attributes actually make a difference and what’s just smoke and mirrors? Every agent claims they’re No. 1, but how can you know who to trust?
There is one number that influences everything else sellers care about in their home sale: how much money they’ll net from that sale. There are a lot of questions sellers typically ask, but they all boil down to that factor.
When picking a listing agent, then, there are two numbers you have to know: the list-to-sale price ratio for the market and the list-to-sale price ratio for your prospective agent.
"Don’t pick an agent just because they offer a discount."
Right now in San Diego County, the average list-to-sale price ratio is 97%. This means if a home is listed for $100,000, it’s selling for $97,000. Keep in mind, though, that’s just the average—there are people selling below that percentage and above it. Year to date, our brokerage’s average list-to-sale price ratio is 99.8%, which is 2.8% above the market ratio.
So, when you interview an agent and ask them about their commission, make sure you don’t pick them because they offer a discount rate of, say, 1%. Doing this may ultimately net you less money. Why? By getting that 1% discount, you may be sacrificing that 2.8% surplus you could’ve been getting by working with another agent. If an agent who leads by discounting can’t hold onto their own money, how on earth will they protect yours when they’re in the middle of a heated negotiation?
The difference between the market’s list-to-sale price ratio and your prospective agent’s list-to-sale price ratio will allow you to compare apples to apples and determine whether they’re really the best choice for you to help you net the most money from your home sale.
If you have any more questions about how to select the best listing agent for your home sale or you’re thinking about buying or selling a home in San Diego County, don’t hesitate to reach out to me. I’d love to speak with you.
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