Start Here Two or Three, and Not All From the Same Office

Most people hire the first agent they meet, usually someone a friend recommended, and then have no basis for judging whether the advice they are getting is good. Meeting two or three gives you something to compare: not just price opinions, but how each one reasons.

You are not being difficult by interviewing. It is a significant transaction and any competent agent expects it. An agent who seems put out that you are speaking to others has told you something useful in the first five minutes.

A referral from someone you trust is a good starting point and a poor finishing point. Your friend's experience was with their house, their neighbourhood and their market conditions, which may be nothing like yours.

Take This List With You Ask All of Them, Including Us

1. What have you sold in this neighbourhood in the last twelve months?

2. Which comparable sales are you basing your price opinion on, and why those?

3. What would you change about the house before listing, and what would you not bother with?

4. What is the commission, what does it include, and what do I pay for separately?

5. What is the term of the listing agreement, and what happens if I want out?

6. Who will I actually be dealing with: you, or someone else on the team?

7. How many clients are you working with right now?

8. Who pays for photography, staging and marketing, and what exactly is included?

9. How will you keep me informed, how often, and by what method?

10. What happens if we are three weeks in with no offers?

11. Can you give me a written net sheet showing what I would take away at a few different prices?

12. Can I speak to two recent clients, including one whose sale did not go smoothly?

If three agents walk through your home and one suggests a number well above the other two, the most likely explanation is not that they see something the others missed. It is that they want the listing, and a high number is the easiest way to win it. The industry even has a phrase for it: buying the listing.

What happens next is predictable. The home sits, because the market does not care what anyone promised at the kitchen table. Then come the price reductions, and a home that has been on the market for two months with two reductions attracts a worse offer than one priced correctly from the start, because buyers read time on market as a signal that something is wrong.

So do not ask who gives you the highest number. Ask each agent to show you the sales their number comes from, and judge the reasoning rather than the figure. The right answer sounds like evidence, not enthusiasm.

Read Before You Sign Three Things in the Agreement

The term. How long you are committed for. A long term with an agent who turns out to be wrong for you is a genuinely unpleasant few months. Shorter terms are negotiable and an agent confident in their service should not object.

How it ends. Ask specifically what happens if you want to terminate early and whether the brokerage will release you. Get the answer before you sign, because the time to find out is not when you already want out.

The holdover clause. This provides that if a buyer introduced during the listing period purchases the property within a defined period afterwards, commission may still be payable. It is standard and reasonable in principle, but read how long it runs and how broadly it is drafted.

You are also entitled to a clear explanation of the representation relationship and of how the brokerage handles a situation where it represents both sides of a transaction. If that explanation is rushed or vague, slow it down and ask again.

A price opinion with no comparable sales behind it. If they cannot show you the sales, the number is a guess or a pitch.

Pressure to sign today. There is no legitimate reason a listing agreement must be signed at the first meeting.

Vagueness about what is included. Photography, staging and marketing should be specified, not implied.

Agreeing with everything you say. If you suggest a price and they simply agree, you have hired an echo. You are paying for judgement, which sometimes means being told something you did not want to hear.

Criticizing other agents rather than explaining their own approach. It is a weak substitute for substance.

Evasiveness about commission. It is negotiable, it is in the agreement, and it should be discussed plainly. Our guide to what it costs to sell covers that side in full.

Buyers in Ontario are generally asked to sign a representation agreement before working with an agent, and the same reading applies: check the term, the area it covers and how it ends.

The questions worth asking a buyer's agent are different. How quickly can you view something that comes up. How do you decide what a property is actually worth rather than what it is listed at. What will you tell me when you think I am overpaying. How do you handle competing offers. And, if you are relocating, will you view on my behalf and tell me honestly when something is not worth my trip.

The single most valuable thing a buyer's agent does is tell you not to buy something. If the conversation never goes that way, you are working with a door opener rather than an advisor.

Most of the time the problem is communication rather than competence, and most of the time it is fixable. Say plainly what is not working and what you need instead. A good agent will adjust and will be glad you said something.

If that conversation does not change anything, your agreement is with the brokerage rather than the individual, so the next step is to speak to the broker of record. They can reassign the file or discuss releasing you from the agreement.

Releases are granted at the brokerage's discretion rather than automatically, and there may be conditions. That is precisely why the questions about term and termination belong at the start, before anything is signed.