In a current episode of "Buy Me!" on HGTV, the homeowners fell into a vicious trap.  They saw their dream home and bought it without selling their current home first.  The home they were living in had significant maintenance issues that should have been addressed prior to putting it on the market, but weren't, because their agent (also their friend -- their first mistake).  didn't advise them about the dangers of putting a home on the market in its run-down condition. 

I've only written one paragraph and already we see two BIG mistakes:

• Hiring a friend to represent them, and making the contract long-term
• Buying a home before selling their own, which put them in the position of having to make TWO mortgage payments

First, make sure you have a clear understanding -- not what your friend/agent tells you -- about how long it will take to sell your house in its current condition, and how much it would take to fix major repairs that most buyers will not want to pay to undertake.  Demand market data. 

First, a disclaimer.  I'm an Exclusive Buyer's Agent.  I never take listings.  But I DO know the market and how to sell a home properly.  And I DO know what buyers think, and most likely what they'll do in this kind of a situation.  They WON'T pay for repairs you should have made.  Or if they do make an offer on your house, the offer will be discounted according to what they estimate the repairs will cost them to make.

So, either make the repairs yourself.  Or advertise it as a fixer-upper, sold as is.  But if you do that, price your house close to what it will likely sell for in a reasonable amount of time.

Every home has three asking prices:  a 30-day price (current market price), a 60-day price (a little higher), and a 12 month price (even higher).  If you want to sell it fast, PRICE IT RIGHT!!  If you price it too high, then you've made the classic mistake of having a tired listing languishing on the market long after the initial excitement your home made when it was first listed.  But if you price it within a few thousand of what it should realistically sell for, then you stand a good chance of selling it when you need to.  And make your agent show you the data for what comparable homes in your area have sold for over the last 6 months.  And, don't flinch when your agent gives you his or her realistic view of what needs to be done to sell the house!

Which comes to why you should rarely use a friend to help you sell your house (or buy another one, for that matter).  You don't know whether your friend has enough or the right kind of experience to take on what will be the biggest financial transaction of most people's lives!  If your friend has a solid reputation for being a great agent, knowledgeable about YOUR neighborhood, familiar with all the latest techniques used to sell a home fast, AND if your friend is willing to give you a listing contract that will allow both of you to cancel it with reasonable notice if it doesn't work out the way you hope, then fine, use your friend.  But if your friend doesn't possess all those good qualities a good real estate agent should have, then DON'T hire him or her to sell your house.

What should you do to find a good real estate agent to help you sell your house?  First, don't just open up the Yellow Pages, point and choose.  Don't just go online and look for an agent serving your neighborhood.  Ask your friends, your co-workers, your family members who they've used and if they've been satisfied with the work their agent has done for them.  Hopefully, that'll yield you a few names.  If you can't find someone that way, then go online, but AVOID LIKE THE PLAGUE THE FOLLOWING:

• Any site that looks to be a large commercial "find your agent here" type of website.  A few are HomeGain, Just Listed, HouseValues.  Many of these lead aggregators buy ads at the top of the search engine list.  You'll see them, they say "Sponsored."  Or they may be ads down the right side of the search engine page.  Those ads are largely purchased by large companies who want to gather up your name and phone number and sell them to the highest bidder, the agent who will pay the most.  Do you have any assurance that the agent you'll find this way is any good??  No.  Even though they may say the agents used are screened, check a little further and you'll see that their only qualifications (in order to be included in the referral site) are $$$!  They farm out these leads to agents in their system who are willing to pay the lead aggregator up to about 35% of their commission!  Does that make the agent a GOOD real estate agent?  Not necessarily, just one who's willing to give up part of their commission to be given a lead.
• The ads running down the side of the page are PAID advertising for whoever wants to bid the most for the first through fifth places from the top, which are the most desirable placements for all the search engines.  Why isn't this the best way to find someone to represent you?  Because until you call them and interview them as you would anyone you want to be able to trust handling a large financial transaction, you won't know anything about them.  And they WILL sell you on their services, but may not be able to provide the kind of service you need.  A well-design web site does NOT guarantee that the brokerage or agent on the other end will work to serve YOUR best interests!

So how DO you find a good agent who you'll be able to trust to do the very best job for you??  You CAN go online, plug in your neighborhood's name and your city and state name, and then the term "realtor" or "listing agent" or "real estate agent" and take a good look at the sites that come up.  First, does it have a place where you can check out client testimonials or client references?  If not, go on to the next.  If it does have a place like that, then check out some other things.

• Is there a place where you can ask for a Comparative Market Analysis (a CMA)?
• Does the agent seem to have specific knowledge of your neighborhood, what's for sale there now, what has sold there, etc.?
• Does the agent (or brokerage) have a presence in your neighborhood?  You can find out by looking around while you're out driving around.  Are there a lot of signs there from the brokerage you're looking at?

I have a good ariticle on the subject just for the asking.  Post your request here and I'll send it to you.