If you want to increase the chances of selling your home for a reasonable price, listing with the right agent is a must. Rather than signing with the first real estate professional that you come across, take the time to ask a few questions and listen carefully to the responses.

Doing so will increase the odds of finding an agent who aggressively seeks potential buyers and shortens the amount of time your home spends on the market.

How Long Have You Lived in the Area?

While it is true that a good salesperson can hit the ground running, it is to your benefit to work with an agent who has lived in the community for at least a few years.

Even two or three years is usually enough time to engage in networking that makes it much easier to identify and pursue potential buyers for your home. Someone who is relatively unfamiliar with the area and the local culture will find it harder to connect with buyers.

What’s Your Average Time on Market?

With this question, you are essentially asking the agent to provide you with a ballpark figure of how long it takes to sell a house. More to the point, it helps you know how long it takes the agent to find potential buyers for a home like yours. If the response is that on average, the agent is able to find buyers for similar homes in less than six months, listing with that professional is worth considering.

How Frequently Do You Sell Homes above the Asking Price?

While you do have a minimum amount you want to get for the property, locking in a higher sale price is something that benefits you and the agent. Getting more for the property means a greater return on your investment. For the agent, selling the home for a higher price also means more in commissions.

Agents know enough about staging and presentation to help draw out features of your home that is likely to attract buyers who are willing to pay more in order to get what they want. If you are working with an agent who will work to get top dollar for your home, and has a track record to prove his or her ability to do so, that professional is a good fit for your needs.

How Will You Market My Home?

Marketing a home is essential if you want to attract interest quickly. The right agent will employ a combination of strategies that involve online and offline activities. Along with creating a listing that appears in free and fee-based online classifieds, the realtor will also use traditional methods like open houses, print ads in local publications, and even posting images and details about the home on the agent’s web site.

What you hope to hear is a quick outline of at least five different ways that the agent will begin to market your home immediately.

How Often Will I Hear From You?

Communication between client and agent is essential. When you ask this question, the response you want is that the agent will be in touch at least once a week, and always by Friday. Other communications will occur when and as needed. You also want the agent to be open to communications initiated on your end.

Keep in mind that communication can occur in several different ways. These include face to face meetings, telephone calls, texts, and even email recaps of efforts made in the past week.

In the end, you must feel comfortable working with the agent. Once you are confident that he or she will work hard to find the right buyer for your home, assign the listing and cooperate fully with your representative. Doing so will make it easier to generate interest that ultimately turns into a solid sale.