When you sell your home, you’re trusting someone with one of your biggest financial assets.
So it’s reasonable to wonder whether your real estate agent is doing everything they should be doing.
A listing agent should do much more than put your home on the market and wait for a buyer.
Their job starts before your home is listed and continues well after you accept an offer.
The problem is that most sellers don’t know exactly what their agent should be doing at each stage of the process.
And without knowing what to expect, it can be difficult to tell whether your agent is doing enough.
Here are the 10 most important things you should expect from your agent when selling your home.
1. A thorough comparative market analysis
A comparative market analysis (CMA) is a real estate agent’s estimate of what your home might sell for.
It’s based on how your home compares with similar properties that have recently sold, are pending, or are currently for sale.
Some agents will just pull a few nearby sales and call it a day.
But a rushed CMA could be the exact reason why you set the wrong asking price.
When preparing the CMA, your agent needs to:
- Research comparable properties, considering factors such as size, condition, location, lot size, features, and when they sold.
- Identify the most relevant comps based on factors such as similarity, proximity, and recency.
- Compare your home with the best comps and make value adjustments for differences in condition, square footage, lot size, features, and location.
- Explain how your home compares to the best comps and how they arrived at their recommended listing price.
- Revisit the analysis if new comparable sales or changes in market conditions affect your home’s value.
A good CMA won’t leave you guessing about what you should list your house for.
So you should expect your agent to leave you knowing exactly why they’re recommending that price.
2. A clear explanation of commissions and costs
Understanding how much you pay your Realtor before agreeing to work with them is non-negotiable.
Selling a house can be costly, and the last thing you want is to be surprised by costs you weren’t anticipating.
Here’s what you should expect your Realtor to explain:
- The commission you’re paying the listing brokerage.
- How buyer-agent compensation is now included in the buyer’s offer.
- How the commission is calculated based on the final sale price and deducted from your proceeds at closing.
- The services you’re getting for the commission, such as marketing, the agent’s expertise, and transaction coordination.
- That commissions are negotiable and how the fee structure works.
- An estimate of what you may walk away with after commission, buyer credits, closing costs, and other seller expenses.
3. Clear and consistent communication
One of the first things to establish is how you prefer to communicate with your agent and how often you want updates.
That doesn’t mean you need to hear from them every day.
But there shouldn’t be long stretches of silence while you’re working with them.
For example, any feedback they get after showings needs to be passed along to you.
Any concerns that repeatedly come up also need to be brought to your attention.
That includes telling you when buyer activity is weaker than expected or when something happens that could affect your asking price or selling strategy.
Sometimes that means giving you bad news instead of only telling you what you want to hear.
Communication becomes even more important once you receive an offer.
Your agent will need to walk you through the buyer’s terms, deadlines, and anything else that requires a decision.
And while you shouldn’t expect an immediate response to every text or call, you should be able to reach your agent when something important comes up.
An agent who repeatedly goes silent or becomes difficult to reach is showing one of the signs of a bad Realtor.
4. Expert advice on home preparation
It’s easy to spend money preparing a house for sale without knowing whether you’ll get that money back.
Part of your Realtor’s job is to walk through your property and help you decide what to do to your home before selling.
They should point out anything that needs attention before buyers see the home, whether that means a repair, a deep clean, decluttering, staging, or improving curb appeal.
But they should also tell you what not to do.
For example, replacing flooring or remodeling a bathroom might make the home look better.
But if buyers in your market aren’t likely to pay more because of it, your agent should tell you that before you spend the money.
Sometimes the less expensive work makes more sense.
That might mean recommending fresh paint, better lighting, or minor landscaping.
And your agent should also help you prioritize the work based on:
- How much it will cost
- What is most likely to matter to buyers
- How long it could delay getting your home on the market
And if you need help getting the work done, your agent can connect you with contractors, cleaners, stagers, landscapers, or other professionals you might need.
Here’s what’s important:
Your agent should help you spend money on the things that are worth doing — and avoid projects that are unlikely to pay off.
5. Guidance on required disclosures
There are numerous disclosure forms to complete when selling a home.
Your Realtor needs to provide those forms and explain what information they’re asking you to provide.
Part of their role is helping you understand when something is better disclosed than left open to interpretation.
For example, if you know about a past roof leak, water issue, foundation repair, or unpermitted work, your agent shouldn’t brush it aside.
They can help you understand whether that information may need to be disclosed and where it belongs in the disclosure process.
Your agent also needs to recognize when a disclosure question goes beyond their role.
If something raises a legal issue or you’re unsure whether a specific fact needs to be disclosed, they should recommend that you speak with an attorney or another qualified professional.
A disclosure problem is much harder to deal with after you’re under contract than before the buyer makes an offer.
6. An effective marketing strategy
Marketing a home for sale starts with how it’s presented to buyers.
Your agent needs a plan for how your listing will look, where it will appear, and how they’ll maximize exposure once it goes live.
That plan needs to cover how your agent will:
- Use professional photography and write a listing description that highlights the features buyers are most likely to care about.
- Distribute the listing through the MLS and the major home-search websites buyers are already using.
- Make sure the home, photos, and listing details are ready before the property goes live.
- Use additional marketing when it makes sense, such as video, a floor plan, social media, email, or direct outreach to buyer’s agents.
- Regularly review how buyers respond after the listing goes live and make changes if the home isn’t getting enough interest.
Sometimes an agent might recommend delaying when your home is listed in the MLS so they can market it as “off market” or “coming soon.”
If they do, they need to explain why and what you could be giving up by doing so.
More marketing also isn’t always the answer.
If your listing is getting plenty of online views but few showings, the asking price or the way your home is presented might be the problem.
And your agent should be figuring out what’s holding buyers back if they’re touring the home but not making offers.
Recognizing the difference and talking with you about what might need to change is part of the job.
7. Coordinate showings and open houses
Once your home is on the market, buyers need a reasonable opportunity to see it.
Your agent needs to set up a showing process that works with your schedule while still giving buyers reasonable access to the home.
Their job is to:
- Coordinate showing requests and communicate access instructions with buyer’s agents.
- Set up a lockbox or another secure way for agents to enter the property.
- Show your home to buyers if their agents are unable to attend.
- Account for things such as pets, alarms, gates, or other details that could affect access.
- Follow up with buyer’s agents after showings to gauge their clients’ interest and get any useful feedback.
They also need to explain how showing restrictions can affect buyer interest.
If your availability requires narrow showing windows, they should tell you that some buyers may simply skip your home when scheduling several properties in one day.
They should also advise you to be away during private showings.
Buyers are usually more comfortable looking around, asking questions, and talking openly with their agent when the seller isn’t there.
Open houses are part of the job too.
Your agent or someone on their team should be there to answer questions, point out important features of the property, and gauge the level of interest from the people who attend.
Your agent should make it easy for buyers to see your home without making you responsible for managing every appointment.
8. Vet the buyer
An offer only matters if the buyer can actually close.
The price tells you what they’re willing to pay.
But it doesn’t tell you how likely you are to make it to the closing table.
So before you accept an offer, part of your agent’s job is to dig into the buyer’s financing and the terms that could put the offer at risk.
That means looking at things such as the buyer’s:
- Preapproval letter
- Size of their down payment
- Proof of funds
- Contingencies
- Need to sell another home before buying yours.
That vetting also includes contacting the buyer’s lender to verify the preapproval and ask how much of the buyer’s income, assets, and credit have already been reviewed.
The offer price can create its own risk if it’s well above what the home is likely to appraise for.
A high offer doesn’t mean much if the buyer doesn’t have enough cash to cover what would be needed for an appraisal shortfall.
The same goes for contingencies.
The more ways the buyer has to back out of the deal, the more important it is for your agent to explain how those terms could affect your chances of closing.
Here’s the point…
When you get an offer, you need a clear answer from your agent on two things: whether the buyer looks capable of closing and exactly where the sale could fall apart.
9. Strong negotiating skills
Having a buyer interested in your home is one thing.
Knowing how to respond without giving up leverage is another.
Your agent needs to understand what’s important to you before they start negotiating with the buyer’s agent.
That might be the price, the closing date, how much the buyer is asking for in credits, the length of their contingencies, or something else.
They also need to know which parts of the offer are worth pushing back on and which ones may not be worth risking the deal over.
For example, a buyer might ask for a $10,000 credit.
Instead of immediately saying yes or no, your agent might recommend giving them part of it in exchange for a higher price or a shorter contingency period.
Your agent should also be taking the temperature of the buyer’s agent throughout the negotiation.
The conversations between a listing agent and a buyer’s agent can reveal how motivated the buyer is and where there may be room to push.
Just as important, your agent needs to protect the information that can put you at a disadvantage.
The buyer’s agent doesn’t need to know how badly you need to sell or what you’re willing to give up unless there’s a reason for that information to be shared.
And your agent shouldn’t make those decisions for you.
They should tell you what they recommend, explain why, and negotiate that position with the buyer’s agent.
But you decide what you’re willing to accept.
10. Manage the transaction
There’s a lot that can go wrong after a seller signs a purchase contract.
Once you accept an offer, your agent should give you a checklist of what needs to be completed, who is responsible for it, and when each item is due.
And they need to stay on top of the buyer’s agent, lender, escrow or title company, appraiser, and anyone else involved in the sale.
For example, they shouldn’t wait until shortly before the appraisal contingency deadline to find out why the appraisal hasn’t been scheduled.
They need to be on top of that shortly after you’re under contract.
And if the appraisal comes in below the purchase price, they need to explain what happens next and what options you have.
The same applies to inspections.
If the buyer has an inspection contingency, your agent shouldn’t wait until the due date to follow up with the buyer’s agent.
A day or two beforehand, they need to confirm whether the buyer is on track to meet the deadline or plans to ask for more time.
Your agent should also stay in touch with the buyer’s agent and lender to make sure the loan is still on track to close on time.
The last thing you want is to find out at the eleventh hour that the buyer needs an extension.
That can put you in a much different position than you were expecting.
And as closing gets closer, your agent needs to make sure anything you agreed to complete has been handled before the buyer’s final walkthrough.
You shouldn’t be finding out days before closing that a deadline was missed, a repair wasn’t completed, or someone failed to follow up.
Your agent’s job is to catch those problems before they become your problem.
What should your agent do for you as a seller?
Selling a home involves too much money and too many moving parts for your agent to be passive.
You’re paying them to do more than list the property and respond when something comes up.
You hired them to manage the sale — not create another job for you.
That includes everything from helping you price and prepare the home to negotiating with buyers and keeping the transaction on track after you accept an offer.
If several of the responsibilities above aren’t happening, it’s fair to question whether you’re getting the service you’re paying for.
And if the problems continue after you address them with your agent, you may need to consider ending the relationship with your Realtor.
