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Top 10 Questions to ask your Real Estate Listing Agent (Video) listing agent

Top 10 Questions to ask your Real Estate Listing Agent (Video)

If you’re thinking of selling your house or condo, and do not know a real estate listing agent, you’re likely going to interview a couple of REALTORS®.  Here is a list of 10 questions to ask them BEFORE you hire them.  Plus one question you should NEVER ask.

However, how do we pre-select the listing agent in the first place?   Here are a couple of tips to get you started:

1. Ask a friend or relative for a recommendation

Odds are that you know someone who has used a Listing Agent in the past year or two.  Were they happy with that agent?  Ask them for blunt and frank feedback on how the sale of their home went.

2. Check the local Better Business Bureau

Some Listing Agents in Winnipeg are accredited by the Better Business Bureau.  Check their reviews, and complaints and customer feedback.

3. Check Google Reviews of real estate Listing Agents

Here you have to be a little careful.  Some older reviews may have been submitted anonymously, and may therefore be either unrealistically bad or over-the-top great.  When you check Google Reviews, make sure they are legitimate, submitted by real people who took the time and care to identify themselves.

Using these methods, you should be able to narrow the field from the hundreds of Listing Agents down to one or two you might interview.  By the way, some articles advise to interview any number of agents.  Doing so will often lead to confusion and un-healthy ‘over-promising’ by agents.  Remember that you hire your Listing Agent by what he/she will DO, not by what they promise or predict.

Now let’s say that you have come up with a potential agent, here are the 10 questions you should ask him/her.

10 Questions Before Your Hire a Listing Agent

  1. How long have you been in the business?
  2. Where do you advertise my home?
  3. Who will photograph my home?
  4. Do you have a website?
  5. Are you active on Social Media
  6. How many homes do you sell in a year?
  7. If something goes wrong, who will I be dealing with?
  8. Is this your full-time occupation?
  9. How can I reach you?
  10. What is your commission rate?
1) How long have you been in the business?

Reason for asking: With the lure of ‘quick and easy money’ (believe me, its NOT), every one with a few spare dollars and some extra time has decided to get into real_estate”>real estate.  The joke is that in some States, liquor stores will accept, as forms of identification, your drivers license or your real estate license.  I sometimes compare a Listing Agent to a Restaurant:  Out of every 10 that start up, only 1 is still around after 2 years.

Answer to look for:  Minimum of 4 years experience.

2) Where do you advertise my home?

Reason for asking: Nearly every Real Estate Listing Agent uses the MLS®.  Its a powerful way of getting your house noticed by buyers and other agents.  But its not the ONLY way.  Recent studies show that between 80% to 87% of home buyers start their search on the internet and one study shows that only 1-in-3 use the MLS® as their primary tool.

So the answer you should be looking for includes not only the MLS®, but extensive internet presence.  

3) Who will photograph my home?

Reason for asking:  A lot of agents try and cut corners by whipping out the cell phone and taking a few shots.  Don’t think thats true?  Google the phrase “Bad photos on the MLS” and sit back with some popcorn…..you’ll be entertained.

The right answer is:  “I have a specialist who takes all my listing photos for me.”

4)  Do you have a website?

Reason for asking:  This goes hand-in-hand with the previous question.  With such a high percentage of people looking on the internet, your Real Estate Listing Agent should have an effective website.  I’m constantly amazed at how many agents don’t even have a simple site, let alone a professionally managed, search engine optimized site.

Answer to look for here is a definite YES, with some explanation of how effective the site is, Google ranking, Alexa ranking etc

5) Are you active on Social Media?

Reason for asking: thats where the buyers are.  Does your prospective agent interact with those potential buyers?

Answer to look for: ” Yes, here is my facebook page, my twitter account, my youtube channel, my pinterest account….. etc.

6) How many homes do you sell in a year?

Reason for asking:  goes to experience.  Find you how many homes the average real estate listing agent in your town or city sells and then compare.  Average is ok, but more experience is better.  On the opposite end of the scale, if your prospective listing agent always carries in excess of 15 or 20 listings, how much time will he or she have to work on your home?

In the answer, look for a nice balance.

7) If something goes wrong, who will I be dealing with?

Reason for asking:  Many a Real Estate Listing Agent runs a ‘team’, and the only time you’ll actually be dealing with him is during your initial interview.  And trust me…something WILL go wrong.  Perhaps as little as spelling mistakes or poor picture quality in your listing, or it could be more significant such as the wrong price shown in the listing.  Or perhaps you’ll just have some questions about feedback from the last showing.  In all likelyhood, you will want to talk to someone about your listing, so make sure that you know who you’re going to be dealing with.

The preferred answer here : “If any issues come up, you call ME directly anytime.  You’re NOT going to be talking with my secretary, my assistant or my butler….  here is my cell number, it goes directly to ME”.

8) Is this your full-time occupation?

Reason for asking: In many jurisdictions, it is NOT a requirement that a Real Estate Listing Agent practice his craft full-time.  There are many places (now including Winnipeg) where your Real Estate Listing Agent could work on your file during the day, and then serve your meals at the local restaurant at night.

Answer to look for: YES!  Don’t list with a real estate listing agent who might have to choose between showing your home and picking up an extra shift at the local Piggly-Wiggly for some fast cash.

9) How can I reach you?

Reason for asking:  Chances are you will need to talk with your real_estate”>real estate listing agent, to ask him questions or to get updates.

Make sure he or she has a cell phone, pager, e-mail and any number of ways for you to contact them.

10) What is your commission rate?

Like anything else in life, you get what you pay for.  Make sure that the cut-rate commission doesn’t also cut the most important parts of the service, such as advertising and ongoing support.

Question to Avoid asking your prospective Listing Agent: What Do YOU Think My Home Is Worth?

Reason to avoid this during the selection process:  The most desperate (and sometimes least competent) agent will often quote the highest price, just to get the listing.  The discussion of “What should we list our home for?” should be left between you and the listing agent AFTER you have made your selection.

Please don’t worry:  as the home owner, you’re the boss and its up to you to set the asking price.  But asking this question of several prospective agents will divert focus from what really matters: What an agent DOES for you, NOT what he/she predicts will happen!

See also 15 Reasons to hire a listing agent.



Top 10 Questions to ask your Real Estate Listing Agent (Video) listing agentAbout the Publisher

Bo Kauffmann is a residential real estate agent with over 18 yrs experience in helping buyers and sellers achieve their goals.  Inducted into the REMAX Hall of Fame in 2010 and receiving the REMAX Lifetime Achievement Award in 2019, Bo has sold over 500 houses and condos in the Greater Winnipeg market.  He is an accredited buyer representative (A.B.R.) and a Luxury Home Marketing Specialist.   Bo provides exceptional service to First-Time Home-Buyers, Seniors looking to downsize and Home Sellers of all ages.   He can be reached easily   By E-Mail or call/text him   Call/Text Here

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Slideshow of 3 Things that could kill your dream

3 Things That Could Derail Your Home Buying Journey

Mortgage lenders have conditions attached to their mortgages.  So for example, in order for the lender to provide the funds at possession time, the buyer must have maintained his/her employment, not crashed their credit and also be able to insure the home they just bought.

This article is a caution on several things that could prevent insurance companies from insuring your home, which will stop the bank from lending the money…..

Here is the video version

 

Transcript

Let’s take a look at the first of these three items, which is knob and tube wiring. What is it? It was a standard wiring method used around the turn of last century. I’m not talking 2000, I’m talking about 19 hundreds. Essentially and systemically, there’s nothing wrong with it. It’s a it was perfectly fine and safe way to wire houses.

However, it’s very old. If you encounter live knob and tube wiring, it’s likely 70 or 80, sometimes over a hundred years old, I’m thinking back on the way houses were built and insulated back in the 19 hundreds, 1920s, quite often, exterior walls were insulated with newspaper clippings, wood, shavings, and sawdust.

So that insulated wire was exposed to all the elements heat in the summer and extreme colds in the winter. And over seven, eight plus decades, that insulation is going to crack and peel and expose the wire underneath, which of course creates a fire hazard. So for that reason, insurance companies really don’t like this type of wiring.

What is the remedy for this type of wiring? There’s only, there’s really only one solution and that is complete replacement. And depending on how large the home is and how much knob and tube wiring remains, it could be anywhere from as little as 5,000, $6,000 all the way up to I’ve seen it over $30,000 for three story homes.

Now, when you’re dealing with insurance companies they fall into three different categories that I’ve seen so far. Some still agree to insure the home, but at a premium, a home that might’ve cost you $1,200 to insure can now cost you more than double that other companies shy away from insuring this home at all.

So you won’t be able to get it at all and yet others. And it’s, this is a more common one now agree to insure the home for the first 30 days while you’re living there. That 30 days we’ll give the new owner the time to replace all the wiring, which again, costs anywhere from five, $6,000 to many tens of thousands of dollars.

If you’re lucky, you’ll get an insurance company that will cover you with an increase in premium costing you several thousand dollars more each year. If you’re unlucky, you won’t get coverage at all. If you don’t get coverage, you don’t get the mortgage. And if you don’t get the mortgage, you lose the house and your deposit.

Now let’s take a look at the issue of aluminum wiring. If you’re homeless built between round 1916 to 1976, there is a chance that it contains aluminum wiring. What happened in the early 1960s was that copper prices went through the roof and builders in an effort to save money, switched from copper wiring to aluminum.

Again, there’s nothing inherently wrong with aluminum. It’s still being used today in warehouses, large industrial projects. Manitoba hydro uses it. It’s a totally safe if left alone. The problem arises when home owners tinker with it. So imagine this house was built in 1970 and a subsequent owner in the mid nineties decides that the light switches are outdated.

Maybe he wants to update some of the light fixtures and he goes to the local hardware store and he discovers that a light switch, which costs 99 cents in a copper configuration costs, $10 in the aluminum configuration. The reason for that is that the mass production of copper light switches and receptacles is able to keep the prices down.

Whereas aluminum is much more rare receptacle or rare switch prices go up. So now the homeowner trying to update their home are faced with, do we spend $10 per switch to spend 99 cents per switch? You can clearly understand what happens. The aluminum wiring that’s in the walls is now hooked up to copper rated devices.

Aluminum and copper are very dissimilar. They heat and cool at different rates. And what happens over the years is they work themselves loose and creating loose connections and lose contacts. Lose contacts, produces sparks, which creates potential for fire. How do you fix that? There are two ways.

The cheaper one is called mitigation. That’s where an electrician goes through the house and checks every receptacle and every switch and make sure that the wiring that leads from that switch is in copper and then pink tailed to the aluminum wiring, which in which is in the walls, that’s just a properly connected with proper Marets to make sure that they don’t work themselves loose.

I’ll say that’s the cheaper method and your average bungalow can probably be done around $1,500 to $2,000. The more expensive method is complete rewiring of the house, which again, much like knob and tube wiring will run you in the tens of thousands. So what kind of reaction will you get from insurance companies while some.

Fewer all the time still agreed to insure the property as is, but your options will be fewer likely your costs will be higher. Now other insurance companies will demand a mitigation of some form, whether it’s going to be the cheaper mitigation or the complete rewire of the house. And much like knob and tube.

Many of them will give you 30 days to get it done. So they’ll give you an insurance for the first month while you’re living there, but then you’re going to have to get an electrician to rewire the house and give you a certificate or mitigate and give you a certificate.




3 Things That Could Derail Your Home Buying Journey listing agentAbout the Publisher

Bo Kauffmann is a residential real estate agent with over 18 yrs experience in helping buyers and sellers achieve their goals.  Inducted into the REMAX Hall of Fame in 2010 and receiving the REMAX Lifetime Achievement Award in 2019, Bo has sold over 500 houses and condos in the Greater Winnipeg market.  He is an accredited buyer representative (A.B.R.) and a Luxury Home Marketing Specialist.
 
Bo provides exceptional service to First-Time Home-Buyers, Seniors looking to downsize and Home Sellers of all ages.
 
He can be reached easily   By E-Mail or call/text him   Call/Text Here



 

 

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Top 10 Winnipeg Tourist Attractions in Winnipeg (Slideshow) listing agent

Top 10 Winnipeg Tourist Attractions in Winnipeg (Slideshow)

Top Winnipeg Tourist Attractions

Here is a short slideshow of some of the top Winnipeg tourist attractions that help make our city the ‘centre of Canada‘.


Top 10 Attractions in Winnipeg

If you’re planing a move to this great city, and want to purchase a house or condo in our great city, please call me anytime.  Bo Kauffmann, REMAX performance realty,  (204) 333-2202

We’d love to hear from you.  What are YOUR favorite tourist attractions in Winnipeg?  Let us know in the comments below.

 

Website hopes to aid Winnipeg Tourist Attractions

https://mytoba.ca/life/travel-lifestyle/website-hoped-to-attract-more-tourists-to-winnipegTourism Winnipeg has launched a brand new website with the hopes of attracting more tourists to the city. The website now boasts new technology and multi-market content, with features that allow users to search by type of experience and interest, build custom itineraries, and explore curated content on all of our tourism assets, such as restaurants, hotels, and attractions. Weve made significant improvements to the design, content, and technology. More info via Winnipeg’s Real Estate Blog

Tourism Winnipeg achieves industry accreditation

https://mytoba.ca/news/tourism-winnipeg-achieves-industry-accreditationTourism Winnipeg does excellent work promoting and marketing our city to Canada and the world as the go-to, all-season tourist destination with something for everyone, said Mayor Brian Bowman. They first achieved the designation for the period of 2011-2015. More info via Winnipeg’s Real Estate Blog



Top 10 Winnipeg Tourist Attractions in Winnipeg (Slideshow) listing agentAbout the Publisher

Bo Kauffmann is a residential real estate agent with over 18 yrs experience in helping buyers and sellers achieve their goals.  Inducted into the REMAX Hall of Fame in 2010 and receiving the REMAX Lifetime Achievement Award in 2019, Bo has sold over 500 houses and condos in the Greater Winnipeg market.  He is an accredited buyer representative (A.B.R.) and a Luxury Home Marketing Specialist.
 
Bo provides exceptional service to First-Time Home-Buyers, Seniors looking to downsize and Home Sellers of all ages.
 
He can be reached easily   By E-Mail or call/text him   Call/Text Here



 

 

Our Latest Web-Stories

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Install our FREE Podcast App available on iOS and Android.
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Content Viralization: How to Maximize Exposure Of Your Original Content listing agent

Content Viralization: How to Maximize Exposure Of Your Original Content

How to get the most exposure for your original content

If you’re a busy professional, and want to share some of your expertise on the web, here are a few easy steps on how to get maximum exposure for your original content.

You spend time creating original content on your blog or website.  Here are some tips on how to make sure your content is seen in a larger number of places.



Content Viralization: How to Maximize Exposure Of Your Original Content listing agentAbout the Publisher

Bo Kauffmann is a residential real estate agent with over 18 yrs experience in helping buyers and sellers achieve their goals.  Inducted into the REMAX Hall of Fame in 2010 and receiving the REMAX Lifetime Achievement Award in 2019, Bo has sold over 500 houses and condos in the Greater Winnipeg market.  He is an accredited buyer representative (A.B.R.) and a Luxury Home Marketing Specialist.
 
Bo provides exceptional service to First-Time Home-Buyers, Seniors looking to downsize and Home Sellers of all ages.
 
He can be reached easily   By E-Mail or call/text him   Call/Text Here



 

 

Our Latest Web-Stories

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Never miss an episode of our real estate podcast.

Install our FREE Podcast App available on iOS and Android.
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Reasons why some houses or condos fail to sell listing agent

Reasons why some houses or condos fail to sell

Why do some listings fail to sell and expire?

.Sold1

No matter what kind of real estate market you’re in, some listings just won’t sell.  Winnipeg can boast an average success rate of 75%, meaning that roughly 3 out of 4 listings sell……  which means 1 in four will expire.

These statistics vary according to the price of your house or condo…..  Homes in the lower price ranges will sell over 90% of the time, while multi-million dollar homes average less than 30% success rate.

Here are some of the most common reasons why listings expire.

[slideshare id=22019046&doc=whyfail2sell-130527143314-phpapp02]

 

If your home failed to sell, call me for another opinion..   Bo Kauffmann, Remax Performance Realty,  (204) 333-2202

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Reasons why some houses or condos fail to sell listing agentAbout the Publisher

Bo Kauffmann is a residential real estate agent with over 18 yrs experience in helping buyers and sellers achieve their goals.  Inducted into the REMAX Hall of Fame in 2010 and receiving the REMAX Lifetime Achievement Award in 2019, Bo has sold over 500 houses and condos in the Greater Winnipeg market.  He is an accredited buyer representative (A.B.R.) and a Luxury Home Marketing Specialist.
 
Bo provides exceptional service to First-Time Home-Buyers, Seniors looking to downsize and Home Sellers of all ages.
 
He can be reached easily   By E-Mail or call/text him   Call/Text Here



 

 

Our Latest Web-Stories

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Never miss an episode of our real estate podcast.

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