Many historic home owners contemplating selling their homes, do not know what questions to ask to determine the ability of an agent to be successful. There are certainly important questions that every prospective seller wants answered - “how much is my house worth and what do you charge for your fee”? I am a believer that those questions are best addressed after a seller is confident that he has a Realtor who knows his market and how to best express the virtues and benefits of his historic home to the largest pool of buyers. I recently had the experience of interviewing for the position of listing agent for a beautiful historic home, where one of the other agents being interviewed, advocated bulldozing the house and building a “nice house” in its place. Clearly this was not the agent for this family, but not all interviewing experiences will be so obvious. A seller may interview a selection of equally successful agents who all run the comparables on his historic property and come up with similar evaluations of value for the size, location and lot size. They will all put the property information in the MLS, put up a sign and run a few ads. I have put together a list of 10 questions that a home seller may want to ask a listing agent to further ascertain the agent’s qualifications to successful sell that historic home.

1. How long have you been in the real estate business?
2. How long have you been affiliated with your company?
3. Do you have a specific marketing plan for historic homes?
4. Do you have a profile of who may be likely to purchase my historic home?
5. How many historic homes have you personally sold & closed in the last 12 months?
6. How many active listings do you currently have?
7. What percentge of your listings expire unsold?
8. What is the average days on the market for your personal listings?
9. How many historic homes in this area have you personally shown in the past 30 days?
10. What samples can you show me of your personal marketing? (Brochures, Flyers, Ads, Internet, your website…)

Since up to 85% of buyers go to the internet first, a seller should expect a comprehensive internet based marketing plan from the agent that he is interviewing and since, only perhaps 6 out of 1,000 qualified buyers are going to be interested in a historic home, a seller needs assurance that the agent has a B-I-I-I-I-G net to cast in order to reach the largest pool of prospects.

If his marketing plan does not hold water, it does not matter what the agent’s opinion is on pricing or what his fee is, the house will not sell and the seller will have lost the cherished advantage that a new offering has in the marketplace. If the marketing plan is strong and the seller is satisfied with the answers to his interview questions, the house will have the best chance of selling in a reasonable period of time, at the highest price the market will allow & with least amount of hassles.  In any market, that would be considered a successful sale.