Realtors are easy enough to locate once you've decided to sell your home, just look across your area; at any bus bench, your daily mail, or the internet and you'll find tons of smiling real estate agents just waiting to take your listing. Trying to find one of these smiling faces that will actually "sell" your home and leave you more than satisfied is a completely different story.

It's been our experience that most consumers simply do not know what questions to ask the Realtor that they're considering hiring for the sale of their home. We've put together this consumer guide in hopes that it will increase consumer awareness and ultimately help homeowners make better decisions. Here are steps one thru five.

1. Inventory Report – An Agent's Report Card

If performance and track record mean anything to you, make sure you ask each Realtor to bring a current copy of their MLS "inventory report" for the last 2 years so you can see for yourself how many homes they have actually "sold!" This will also reveal exactly how many homes they have Active, In Escrow, Closed, Expired and so on. The inventory report is basically a report card that almost nobody ever asks for, but every agent could easily provide. The results are real, tangible, and will separate the top producers from the casual part timers and other poor performing real estate agents. Imagine if at your work everybody had to walk around with "accurate" productivity reports hung from their necks each day. Maybe the blowhard down at the corner office or the slackers over at the water cooler might actually consider getting back to work. Maybe then the highly effective people might actually get the raise that's long over due to them. In other words, this is powerful stuff!

2. References – Humans Who've Been In Your Shoes

Homeowners should not be afraid to ask for a list of references and then actually CALL THEM. Assuming the telephone numbers aren't bogus, it would then be a great idea to ask some pertinent questions. Start by asking them how they feel about the prospective agent and whether they feel the money was well spent. More specific questions should be inquiries into: the property type, speed of sale, area of sale, memorable things the agent did, areas of improvement, and most importantly whether they would use them again.

One could dig as deep as they like, while trying to avoid crossing that thin line between what you need to know and what is really only their business. You don't really need every detail because you will find a trend very quickly as to whether the experiences were positive or negative. This is all the information you're really looking to obtain about your Realtor.

Again, real estate owners should not be afraid of both asking for references from agents and then calling them. Your boss surely did the same to you and it's only fair that you treat this hiring decision with the same sense of responsibility.

3. Pricing your home - What You Want To Hear vs. What You Need To Hear

At some point, you'll need to ask the Realtor to value your home as well as provide the numbers and methodology for how they came to that price. It's a good idea to give a critical eye to the comparable properties they provide. Make sure they are actually Sold and aren't just Pending Sale, or worse still, Active. Ensure that the closing dates are recent as well. We'd recommend using comparables that are no more than 6 months old and even better would be less than 3 months. This of course all depends on how quickly the market is changing if at all. Have them give you a "move it quick" price, a "moderate speed" price, and a "hold out for top dollar" price.

Next, inquire as to how familiar the agent is with the comparable properties as well as the competitive properties that are Active on the market now. Have they seen them? How did they rate? Are they an apples-to-apples comparison? You don't necessarily need them to be the "Neighborhood Realtor" in order for them to understand your market. Just make sure that they have done their homework before you price the property.

You'll need to be very cautious of two things. One is using some online "Home Value" sources in estimating the price of your home. The bottom line is that there are way too many variables in the price of homes for a computer program to provide any more than a rough ballpark estimate. And since the difference between accurate and ballpark can be 10's of thousands of dollars or more, this is a risk we're not willing to take. The second thing to watch for is the real estate agent who tries to do what we refer to as "buying the listing." This is where they claim they can get an inflated price just to secure the listing. Usually, they will attempt to talk you down to a reasonable price later. And by later we mean AFTER they have your signature and a binding contract. More often than not, the only reason the seller listed with this Realtor is because they said they could sell it for more money than the realistic agent. Unless there is cash involved, the house will only sell for a maximum of what it appraises at. Agents can help control foot traffic to your property, but not appraised value. Don't be fooled.

By the way, if you think that an easy solution to this is just to have your agent find a cash buyer, think again. Rest assured that cash buyers do not overpay for real estate, which is why they're cash buyers in the first place.

4. Game plan - You're Planning To Fail Without One

Consumers should ask the agent for a detailed game plan for what they will do before, during, and after the sale as far as getting the home sold. The general rule once you have an attractive price is to have your agent focus on bringing the most amount of qualified traffic through the door as possible. This is where a strong marketing/advertising plan comes into play. Everything in the game plan should tie directly into getting the house sold. Our general litmus test for determining whether a marketing idea is good or not is the question "How will this directly and clearly help in finding a qualified buyer who wants to buy this house right now?"

Determining exactly what tools are good marketing versus what is just a gimmick is beyond the scope of what homeowners should look for. We just advise them to use common sense and think, "If we were looking for a home like the one I'm selling, would this really help us to find it?" Basically, if it smells like a gimmick, it's probably a gimmick. Many agents will readily admit that their marketing is done not to sell the home but to make the owner happy. Here are two examples demonstrating the difference between marketing for the homeowner and marketing to find a buyer: Purchasing a domain name such as www.123OakStreet.com is just another way of making the owner temporarily happy because there is no way this URL is going to drive any buyers to your house at 123 Oak Street. It may be cute, catchy, and all the rage (as it is currently) but unless work is done to drive web traffic there (and it's usually not), it gets chalked up to the latest fad in a long line of techno gimmicks.

Think about it, how many people are going to start their real estate search by typing in random addresses? Especially the long ones? If the fancy URL is just used for ease of later reference that's fine but probably not necessary, just don't let this be confused with buyer lead generation.

Still, many agents with just enough Internet knowledge to be dangerous will tout this as a way to mysteriously bring buyers for your home. Just because they've been sold on it, doesn't mean you need to be.

On the other hand, agents who purchase premium-listing membership on a top home search site, at a time when almost 90% of homebuyers are looking for homes online, are doing something that more closely resembles a good idea. A few of these sites are used heavily by home buyers and premium membership gives an agent not only the ability to add more pictures and better descriptions to their listings, but more importantly, it allows them to use their personal contact number as opposed to the general office number for interested parties. This enables the agent to use the next skill, which is probably the most underrated of them all.

5. Salesmanship – The Necessary Evil

Ask yourself "Is this person a salesperson" The answer should be a resounding YES! Seems simplistic, but you'd be surprised how many agents are embarrassed of their own sales profession, yet want to be hired to sell your property! We can all be annoyed with salespeople, heck we annoy ourselves sometimes, but it's one of the most important skills for an agent to possess with regards to the sale of your home. Are they going to readily admit that your home has a choppy layout or are they going to convince buyers how this type of floor plan is perfect for entertaining because there are so many wonderful areas for private discussions? See the distinction? Before moving on, we'd like to admit just one point. Salespeople are notorious for overstepping their expertise and embellishing the details, we can admit that. There are a few things though that will distinguish salespeople from con artist. Two of these have been discussed, testimonials and inventory report. The third thing is an important factor discussed in essential # 6. Be sure to look for part two of this article in order to read steps six through ten.

Check back next Tuesday for Part 2 of this series.

About the Author: Todd Foust is the chief marketing executive for the FOUST Team at C21 Discovery; one of the top-selling real estate teams in Southern California. He specializes in Orange and Los Angeles Counties and operates one of the area's most informative real estate websites. To contact him or learn more about Brea real estate , or find Brea homes for sale please visit our website.

About the Author: Jennifer McNamara works as a creative marketing contributor/manager for the FOUST Teams public relations division. She is a Southern California native and specializes in translating complicated real estate knowledge into user-friendly information for local homebuyers.

Published: January 5, 2010

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