The easiest way to find a real estate agent to sell your home

Finding a real estate agent you trust to sell your home can be a stressful and time consuming process. 

Ideally, you want to achieve the highest sale price for your property in the shortest possible time while paying the best commission rate to the right agent. So where should you start when choosing an agent?

Why you need to compare agents

Don’t just choose the agent whose photo you recognise from their last letterbox drop. 

We always shop around for the best deal when buying an appliance or a car. But most people don’t interview a variety of agents before selecting one. And this approach could end up costing you thousands.

Real estate agents all operate differently and each agent will have a different approach to selling your property. From sales and negotiation skills to varying commission structures, different ideas about presenting your property for sale, or marketing and advertising plans, whether to sell your home by auction or private treaty, and how high to set reserve or sale prices, it’s important to do your homework properly and choose the agent who is right for you.

What do you need to compare?

The main things you should be looking to compare when choosing a real estate agent to sell your property include:

• The realistic market value of your property you’re quoted, which should be based on both a best and worst case scenario and the comparable recent sales in your local area.
• Does the agent recommend sale, tender or auction and why?
• The agent’s detailed marketing and advertising budget and plans.
• The agent’s commission fee and structure, usually quoted as a fixed or variable percentage or a flat fee.
• The fine print in any agency agreement you will be signing.
• And, last but not least, you need to meet the agent, to be confident in the individual real estate agent’s ability to sell your property. It’s important to feel you can trust them, can build rapport and understanding, and to know they have the skills, training and runs on the board to execute the sales campaign professionally and negotiate the best price for you with the least stress.

What’s the easiest way to compare agents?

You can try the time consuming job of finding and interviewing multiple real estate agents yourself, but the process of making like-for-like comparisons can be frustrating.

However, there are other tools at your disposal.

Agent Select is an free and independent online service that aims to take make it easy to compare and select a real estate agent to sell your home. 

David Ginnane, CEO of Agent Select CEO says, "Agent Select helps you appoint the best performing local agent to maximise your financial position, save you time, and give you total control of the sales process."

“Agent Select helps not only helps you find the best agent for your property type but it uses an online process, where you set the time lines,” David says. “Agents must submit their best deal upfront to win the business. It also takes away the awkward part of letting the unsuccessful agent know you’ve chosen someone else.” 

With information on 40,000 agents and over 400,000 property transactions Agent Select is not affiliated with any agents and is 100% free and independent service for consumers.

Happy users of Agent Select have reported that the online process either helped them find an agent they wouldn’t have originally thought of, or that by using it they received a better deal from the agent they wanted.

A simple 3-step comparison process

1. Enter your address at AgentSelect.com.au and follow the instructions to receive a free property report. 
2. A request is sent by Agent Select to the top 3 real estate agents in your area (you can include a preferred agent if you like). The agents will then compete for your business based on various criteria which includes commission rate, marketing strategy and comparable sales, compiled in a free 3 page Comparison Report by Agent Select. 
3. You should then have all the information and research needed in order to confidently select the best agent to sell your property. And the choice is up to you. 

Selling a property is one of the biggest financial decisions you’re likely to make, so it’s important to know you’ve done your research and that the sale is in the best hands possible. 

For more tips on selling a house, visit RACV here.