The Number-One Question to Ask When Interviewing Real Estate Agents to Sell Your Home

When you’re thinking about selling your home, it’s a good idea to interview a few real estate agents to find out which one you want to hire to be your seller’s agent (aka listing agent). The most obvious burning question when you’re interviewing your future listing agent is how much they think they can sell your property for. But while it’s an important question to ask, it’s not the only one you should be thinking of.

At the end of the day, real estate agents should be able to give you a ballpark for what they think your property will realistically sell for, removing any emotional taxes and with the caveat that the market fluctuates. And if one agent is suggesting a list price that’s much higher than the others, apply some healthy skepticism and drill into why they think your home could sell for that price. 

But another, often overlooked, question that every seller should ask potential listing agents is the following: “What will you be paying for?” It’s a question that definitely shouldn’t be overlooked. A seller’s agent is responsible for a slew of tasks — they research the local market to help you come up with the appropriate list price, hold open houses, market your property, and represent you in the sale of your home. It’s helpful to think of this agent as the captain of your home-selling team — and therefore, you need to know what services they plan on covering.

It’s par for the course for a listing agent to pay for listing photos and to cover the marketing costs of your home. But some will go even further and pick up the tab on some costly expenses like home staging, drone videos, and a pre-inspection prior to listing. 

The list of other services an agent may choose to pay for is endless, says Geordie Romer, a managing broker based in Leavenworth, Washington. They could also include things like repairs, carpet cleaning, window cleaning, storage of personal items, or yard care, he says. While these costs cut into an agent’s commission, agents can see them as a good investment.

“I may choose to pay for these options if they help me win the listing and, more importantly, sell the home quickly,” Romer says.

One of the things that set the agent my fiancé and I chose apart was that he paid for a lot of the costs associated with our sales. He picked up the tab for our homes to be staged and he also covered the costs of pre-inspections so we knew what to fix before listing our homes. Much of my own furniture was used in staging, which totaled about $1,500. The cost for the pre-inspection was about $350. 

Our agent also even went all-out with photography, as well as drone videos and photos so he could best market our properties. He even used Zillow Showcase, a premium offering, to help my listing stand out with a high-quality 3-D tour and interactive floor plans.

Yes, these extra costs cut into his commission. But the cost of selling a home is expensive, and oftentimes sellers don’t want to put in the extra money to do what they see as “extras” like staging, he told me. So, at least in his mind, if he offers to pay for staging and pre-inspections off the bat, sellers are more likely to agree to these services and it usually helps the home sell faster and net top dollar.

Staging can be one of the most expensive costs associated with home selling, and the idea that your agent will pay for staging is by no means the standard. 

“Although real estate markets differ, generally sellers and developers finance traditional staging, while agents cover virtual staging costs,” says Ilaria Barion, owner and principal of Barion Design Inc. 

When it comes to bringing in a staging company, it’s standard for that expense to be passed along to the seller, as it can often run into the five figures and the average sale prices of homes would make that unreasonable, says Cindy Kief, licensed real estate salesperson at Corcoran Legends Realty in New York.

“In some cases, we may request the stager to agree to payment at time of closing,” she says.

The bottom line: Negotiating is the name of the game in real estate, so it doesn’t hurt to ask potential agents what costs they’ll cover when they’re listing and marketing your property. It might not be a full staging, but it could be some of the things our agent agreed to cover — like premium photography and listing services.

The topic of real estate agent commissions has been top of mind lately, as sellers have always been the ones to pick up the tab for their agent’s commission and have traditionally paid the buyer’s agent, too.

But on August 17, a new set of rules from the National Association of Realtors (NAR) settlement dropped — and under them, the way that real estate agents get paid has changed forever. But as has always been the case, you can negotiate commission rates with your listing agent, so make sure you discuss compensation before you begin working together.