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Questions to Ask An Agent Before Hiring Them

Paul Tosello

Looking for a Residential Real Estate Expert? Meet Paul, a Realtor with 37 years of experience and a background in residential construction...

Looking for a Residential Real Estate Expert? Meet Paul, a Realtor with 37 years of experience and a background in residential construction...

Feb 8 5 minutes read

When you're getting ready to sell your home, be sure to do your research before hiring an agent. Many people believe that most agents are the same and yet the results and the National Association of Realtors soundly say no.

Asking the questions below will bring light as to whether or not a real estate agent is right for you. Did you know that 80% of agents leave the business between their 11th month and 5th year and the average agent sells just 6-9 houses a year based off of stats from NAR? The questions below may help you eliminate a potential challenge.

1. How many houses have you sold in my town in the last 10 years? 

Why 10 years? Because it proves longevity and takes into account the challenging market of 2009-2011 instead of just talking about the strong market of the last 5 years

2. What is the percentage of the last listing price you obtained for your listings sold in the last 10 years?

Why is this important? Because just selling the house isn't the goal, selling it for TOP DOLLAR is what our clients care about

3. What are the average days on the market from the last listing date over the last 10 years?

4. Describe the difference between active and passive marketing

Many agents' marketing fall into a passive approach such as relying on MLS, open house, or just putting the house on internet sites with thousands of other homes. They also don't identify the potential purchaser or have a system in place for immediate response to the potential purchaser. 

 5. Do you have an ISA department? (Inside Sales Department)

Why?  Because studies show that up to 50% of potential purchasers responding to your homes advertising get ZERO RESPONSE. Today’s potential purchaser for your home demands instant response and the role of the I.S.A. is just that to get back to the purchaser’s questions about your home while they are still looking at your home on line emotionally “charged up”.

Because we don't know who the real buyer is, we treat all incoming inquiries as if they are the REAL BUYER because one or two are!

6. What are your thoughts about utilizing social media to market my house?

99% of agents will tell you they will market your house on social media, but they won't know how to identify your buyer through ads and strategy. There are up to a BILLION people on social media daily! So much more that I will go over with you on this it’s the biggest marketing home run I have seen in my 32 years of marketing houses!

7. Describe the members of your personal team and their roles

Too big of a team and it can be like dealing with a huge health insurance or mortgage company, the ownership has lost connection with the process and the layers of people can cause big challenges!  The right size team with ownership still involved in your day to day transaction is critical. The Tosello Team has had sellers come back to us to sell as many as 10 houses! 

8. How many houses does your company sell in my town and how many buyers have you attracted for my town in the last year and a half?

9. How does your team handle inquiries? 

Most teams' speed to call back an inquiry is hours, if not days, but our team is within seconds. We call, text, and email the inquiry right away. Our team also has advanced calling technologies to ring all of our agents' phone numbers at the same time for incoming calls this way a call is much more likely to be answered. 

10. How do you generate leads online & ID them?

Most agents don't require buyers to provide verified contact information before seeing the home when it is advertised online. Our team requires this plus it is verified contact information from their Facebook account.

11. Do you have a network of agents available? 

The benefit of a network is to be able to locate relocating buyers who may be interested in your listings. Our team is a part of several networks with 1000s of agents posting several times a day about relocating buyers all around the world. We also have a network with Keller Williams Realty in our office with 500 agents with access to buyers who need to find a home now & off-market properties.


If you'll take the time to ask these questions, you will dramatically improve your chances for a successful move!

You Deserve the Best

Your Selling Experience

Your Buying Experience

Colleen, Paul and Elena, Thank you for all of your help in selling my brother’s house at 1008 Becker.  Penny Farrall told me she had located a good realtor for me and she was so on target. It is hard... Read full review

Paul and Colleen Tosello have exceeded our expectations of realtors in every way - in fact, over the course of our experience with them they served as so much more! We relocated to Keller on a job transfer and... Read full review

Paul and Colleen were absolutely wonderful. We started our home buying process while living across the country. They both met with us numerous times when we would fly in, over zoom meetings, as well as with our... Read full review

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