How to choose the agent who sells your home.

Most people sell a home only a handful of times in their life, and the agent they choose will shape the result more than almost anything else they decide. Yet the choice often comes down to two things: who put the biggest number on the table, and who charged the least. Neither tells you much about who will get you the best price.

Interview more than one agent. Two or three is plenty. Then put the same questions to each of them and compare the answers side by side.

1. Ask for the evidence, not just the number

Every agent will give you a price. The useful question is how they got there. A good appraisal comes with recent comparable sales: homes like yours, close to yours, sold in the last few months, with an honest explanation of why yours should sell for more or less.

Be wary of the agent whose figure sits well above everyone else’s and who can’t show you the sales behind it. An inflated appraisal is the oldest way to win a listing. The price usually has to come down later, after the home has sat on the market long enough for buyers to start asking what’s wrong with it. The agent who gives you a number you didn’t want to hear, and shows you exactly why, is often the one looking after you.

2. Look for someone who knows your streets

Suburbs aren’t uniform. Two homes a few streets apart can sell very differently depending on the school zone, the slope of the block, the view or the walk to the station. An agent who sells regularly in your pocket knows those details without having to look them up, and more importantly knows the buyers who are already looking there.

Ask which homes near you they have sold recently, what those buyers were looking for, and who missed out. An agent who can answer with names and streets rather than generalities has a head start on your campaign before it begins.

3. Find out who will actually do the work

The person who comes to your kitchen table to win the listing isn’t always the person who runs your open homes, takes the buyer calls or negotiates the final price. In some offices your campaign is passed to a junior once the agreement is signed.

Ask directly: who will show buyers through, who will be taking offers, and who will be standing out the front on auction day? The best answer is the name of the person sitting in front of you. Negotiation depends on knowing every buyer’s history in the campaign, and that knowledge is lost each time the work changes hands.

4. Understand how the auction will be run

If you are going to auction, ask who will call it. Often it is a specialist auctioneer brought in on the day, who meets the buyers for the first time that morning. That can work well, but it means the person conducting the most important twenty minutes of your campaign has had no part in the weeks before it.

An agent who is also an auctioneer carries everything they have learned about each bidder, their budget and their hesitations straight onto the footpath. Whichever way it’s run, ask how the agent will prepare you for the day, how the reserve will be set, and what happens if the property is passed in.

5. Ask how often you will hear from them

The most common complaint sellers have about agents isn’t the price. It’s the silence. Ask how and when you will be updated: after every open home, after every inspection, weekly in writing? What will those updates include?

You should hear what buyers actually said, who came back for a second look, and what that means for the price, whether the news is good or not. You should never have to chase your own agent for information about your own home.

6. Ask for the plan in writing

A good agent can tell you, before you sign anything, how your home will be presented, where it will be advertised, what the campaign will cost, how long it should run and what they expect it to achieve. Ask for that in writing.

A written plan gives you something to hold the agent to. It also shows you how they think. A generic brochure with your address added is not a plan.

7. Read the reviews, then talk to past sellers

Verified review sites are a good starting point, but read the reviews for the details rather than the stars. Look for vendors describing how the agent communicated, whether the price was what they were told to expect, and how they handled the hard moments. Patterns across many reviews tell you more than any single one.

Then ask the agent for the details of two or three recent sellers you can call. An agent who is proud of their work will be happy to put you in touch.

8. Weigh the fee against the result

Commission matters, and you should know exactly what you are paying and what it covers. But a small difference in the fee is easily outweighed by a difference in the sale price. An agent who discounts their own fee in the first meeting is showing you how quickly they give ground in a negotiation. The question to ask isn’t who is cheapest, but who is most likely to leave you with the most money in your pocket.

Trust how they make you feel

After the questions, notice how each agent made you feel. Did they listen before they talked? Did they tell you anything you didn’t want to hear? Did they seem to care how it turns out for you, or only whether you sign?

Selling a home is often tied up with a bigger change in your life. The right agent treats it that way: straight with you from the first conversation, and still answering your calls after the sold sticker goes up.