How to Pick the Best Local Realtor to Sell Your Home in Dayton, OH

Is Your Realtor Selling a Lot of Homes?

You want a Realtor that is active, in the game and knows how to get you to the closing table. But how do you know?  Go to Zillow.com and search for their name. Zillow will show you the number of homes they have sold in the last year.  A single Realtor (not part of a team) selling 40 plus homes per year is working hard and likely to give you a good strong effort. That’s not to say a Realtor selling a handful of  homes is not as good. However, a more active Realtor is getting more experience, solving more problems, building more relationships with contractors, lenders, title companies and other agents and this all can benefit you.  

Are They Selling Homes in Your Area?

Zillow to the rescue again! Zillow will list their prior real estate sales and current homes for sale on a map. You can easily determine if they are active in and around your neighborhood.  Beware of the agent that has sales scattered over many counties. The farther out you go, the more difficult it is to be an expert. As Realtors, we are licensed to sell in the entire state of Ohio but stretching out from your home base too far is not going to helpful to the client. Don’t forget the popular 5 Star Rating System Zillow has. If they have poor or no ratings at all, that is something to consider.  

Is Your Realtor on a Team?   

We have seen a lot more real estate teams in the last decade or so. Generally, this is where one Realtor is the ‘Lead’ and meets with you to attain your business. The Lead passes the file to the team members to prepare the listing and get it to market while the Lead’s main role is to go out and get more business to feed the team. There is nothing wrong with the approach.  It’s the only way to handle a mega amount of business. I personally believe the client feels more ‘taken care of’ when they are only talking to one person that is handling each and every step of the process through to the end.  

Interview the Realtor

Invite the Realtor to meet at your home and discuss how they would approach selling your home. Pay close attention to their process:

• They will want to tour the home. Are they in a rush?  Did they ask good questions about the home or just talk superficially?  If there are any condition issues with the home did they dig in and try to understand it, offer solutions, contractors, or gloss over it, etc?
• Did they tour the OUTSIDE of the home too? I’m surprised how often this step is skipped.  So many Realtors just assume the exterior is ok.  
• Did they dive into your future plans and how the sale and marketing of the home will dovetail with that or did they just ask, ‘When do you want it on the market?”
• Did they do their homework first?  While we don’t always provide firm pricing at the initial visit, the agent should be able to talk realistic price ranges intelligently.  
• Did they demonstrate what they are going to do, share a marketing plan, tell you what to expect of the current market or do they just want to get it listed?
• Did they offer advice on staging and preparing the home to look its best or did they say, ‘Oh, it will sell itself’ 

You Want a Partner in your Home Sale

Successfully selling a home in the Dayton area is more than sticking a sign in the yard. It requires a good working relationship between you and your chosen Realtor. They become your partner for the next few months as you work toward staging, repairing, cleaning, marketing, showing, inspections and closing. I’m always easy to reach if you want to see the advantages I can bring to our home sale.