How do you choose a real estate listing agent? We'll demystify this topic in the
following video. My name is Chris at Hauseit. Hauseit is the largest for
sale by owner and buyer commission rebate company in New York City.
To start with, sellers must choose what kind of commission structure they wish to
work with. There are three main options to choose from when it comes to cost.
There is a traditional full-service listing for full commission typically
five or six percent as you've heard of in many parts of New York City. Number
two is a discounted full service listing option. The commission rates are
typically lower for example 1% to the listing agent and a market rate
commission say 2.5% or 3% to buyers agents but for
full service. 3 is a flat fee MLS or an assisted FSBO listing option where you
pay a flat fee for a brokerage to list your property on the local MLS plus
associated public third-party websites for a small flat fee versus 5 or 6%
in total commission. Keep in mind in the flat fee option you still want to
offer a market rate commission to buyer's agents such as 2.5% or
3% so if you sell to a represented buyer you may still owe a
buyer agent commission. However if you find a direct buyer you will end up
owing 0% in broker commission at closing.
Besides costs there are a few important traits to keep a lookout for when
interviewing potential real estate listing agents. The first of them is
competence. Is your real estate listing agent professional, well-spoken and
well-mannered when speaking with you and potentially other people? Does your real
estate listing agent communicate with you promptly and in a professional
manner over email? Another important trait is responsiveness. How quickly does
your potential listing agent respond to your emails during the scheduling of
your interview? Does he or she check out at 5 p.m. every day? If so, this may be an
issue because for a listing many buyers will be coming from
out of town or maybe international buyers who are only available for a specific time
slot or even will only be in town for one day. If your agent checks out
regularly at 4 or 5 p.m. on any given day or simply takes days to
respond, well you may end up missing on a lot more than simply just a buyer. You may
end up missing on potential offers altogether. Another important trait to
watch out for is experience. Does your potential listing agent have experience
with condos coops? Has he or she done deals before in New York City or ideally
in your neighborhood or your section of your borough? For example if you live in Fidi has your listing agent done deals in Fidi or at least in lower
Manhattan? The last thing you'll want is a real estate listing agent working on
your listing who is unfamiliar with how the process works for selling a condo or
a co-op apartment. Perhaps he or she is from out of town. Again this is a real irksome
wrench to throw into the process and you certainly don't want that for
yourself. Another important criteria to consider is exposure well your potential
listing agent give you full exposure to all potential represented on
unrepresented buyers. Well the most important criteria to remember is to
check whether he or she is a member of the dominant local MLS system for
example if you have a property in Manhattan or in most New York City check
to see if your listing agent is a member of the Real Estate Board of New York or
REBNY. REBNY is the predominant MLS defacto organization here in New York
City even though it is not technically affiliated with the National Association
of Realtors it operates as the primary broker database here and is based in
Manhattan and you certainly need exposure in the REBNY RLS broker
database to gain access to over 17,000 Real Estate Board of New York agents.
Once you've confirmed that the listing agent is a member of the main MLS system
in your area well then you can rest assured that their syndication to
various third party websites such as Zillow, Realtor.com,
the New York Times and such will be rather standard. That's because once the
listing is uploaded into a MLS system usually the MLS system will have a means
of syndicating listing automatically to an industry standard set of places or
market places. As a result as long as your agent is a member of the MLS well
any agent will have the same exposure on that MLS. Another important criteria to
keep in mind is reputation. Please google or search for your potential listing
agents name on the internet. See if there's any pending litigation. See what
reviews are alike. See if they get in potential conflicts or frequently get
into conflicts with other agents and other buyers so there you have it. Those
are some of the main considerations to keep in mind when selecting a real
estate listing agent for your property. If you have any questions about buying
and selling real estate in New York City and how you can save money on closing
costs and broker commission, please check us out www.hauseit.com the spelling is below
and of course if you have any questions feel free to also leave us a comment
below!