Betsy,

There is some great information in all of the answers below. Everyone looks for different things in the agent whom they hire. Some would say that the most important thing is the end result of a sale. Other sellers might consider the agent's ethical standards and how they accomplished the sale as the most important. And still others will focus on personality and communication styles.

In my opinion, it's best to interview 3 agents. Why three? If you interview 2, some of the information will be the same from both agents. But, with the information that differs, you're left with the task of deciding who is right. Interviewing the third can help to clarify and contradictions. I have been told by sellers who have interviewed more than 3 agents that they become confused or forget which agent said what. On average, sellers have told me that 3 is best. There are plenty of sources to learn what to ask when choosing the agent. One particular focus of mine when I interviewed agents to sell a property I owned in another state was the agent's ability to communicate verbally and in writing. Pictures are truly the best way to attract attention in an instant; however, written commentary that is riddled with spelling and grammatical errors can be very distracting and shows lack of professionalism.

While I would like to tell you that I'm the best, you might not agree for one reason or another. I may be the agent who can get you the highest price (although no one can guarantee that), perhaps our personalities would clash or I wouldn't communicate the way you'd want. Just as when interviewing any applicant for a job, you have to balance competence, experience, credentials, and personality. Remember, you're the boss. You should feel comfortable and be able to develop a level of trust with your agent so that you can rely on his/her professional advice. All of the major firms in the city have specific advantages and disadvantages. From the company level, you would be well served by most of the larger firms. In my opinion, the choice of agent is the most important.

While I could support or dispute any of the individual points made below, that's not what this forum was designed to provide or accomplish. As any other agent will offer, I'd like to throw my hat in the ring of consideration if you would like to discuss interviewing an agent, marketing ideas, market conditions, strengths and weaknesses of the NYC firms, etc.

Wishing you the best of luck,

John R. Wuertz
The Corcoran Group
212-605-9377
jwuertz@corcoran.com

Your Real Estate Resource

It all depends who you feel comfortable with and it's hard to really tell if they're working in your best interest. I was at Prudential for two years and you'll hear over and over, "our website test thousands of hits a day" etc..which is great but that has nothing to do with your listing. The last thing you need is a so called "team" to come in get the listing and hand it over to one of their assistants and you never see the listing broker unitl the closing or when they call with an offer. You need one broker that will respresent you and your interest not one that worries about getting a direct deal because they don't want to co-broke. You'll be surprise how hard it is to get an appointment with certain brokers because some of them are not as accomidating as you'd think they should be. You also have to ask where is the listing going to be advertised and then go look for it!! If you don't like the way it's presented tell the broker to change it. Always remember the broker works for you, you don't work for the broker and insist on a floor plan if there's none available insist that they pay for it out of pocket and not your $$. Good luck, if I can assist you in any form feel free to contact me.

Hi, Betsy.
The two main things that sell an apt. are price and exposure. You need to list with a major company that will give you extensive exposure and you need to be priced competitively. Beyond that it is the effort of the individual agent and their level of knowledge, skill and dedication that gets your property sold in the least amount of time for the most money.
This is a terrific time to sell, as many buyers are re-entering the market after an extended period of fence-sitting. I have seen a significant uptick in traffic on my listings of late and buyers that I am working with are more serious now and making realistic offers.
I would be happy to answer any specific questions you may have. I would also be very happy to work with you.

Jenet Levy
Halstead Property
212 381-4268 office
718 744-7158 cell
jlevy@halstead.com

Hello Betsy,

When it comes to advertising a property on the WEB, and that's where 80-90% of buyers start their search, my business partner and I can offer you something that nobody else can even come close to.
Let me tell you what most brokers will do for you and then what differentiates my partner and I.
Most brokers will advertise for you on NYtimes, Trulia, Zillow, Street Easy, Property Shark, some will do Facebook and other even more creative ones will also do a video tour for YouTube or WellcomeMat to feature your property. Majority will end at the first 3 sites, while some will include a list of a few more.
I work with Prudential Douglas Elliman, and we are the only firm which offers a marketing package that advertises on all major websites and places your apartment into a featured listing. That means that your apartment will circulate as a highlighted apartment in a search, while others get easily overlooked. That's a bulk marketing package which our firm offers to sellers and as far as I know, no other firm in NY does the same thing.
Elliman website get's approximately 3 Million Hits a month, it spends huge sums of money to advertise online and makes sure that it's always in the top search when someone is looking for Real Estate. Not every firm has the marketing power to afford that luxury and this drives more potential buyers to our website.
Open Houses are great, but most apartments aren't sold during an open house, it's still good to host them "just in case" someone can only look on a Sunday.
Now, allow me to tell you how my business partner and myself stand out from the crowed and can offer a seller something that no other broker comes close to. We own and operate thousands of websites and domain names. I’m not exadurating when I say thousands. What does this mean for you? Let’s take LES for example, I’ll have to double check, but I’m almost certain we have a related website in your area, LESCoops, or Lower East Side Coops, or East Village, Lower East side, etc…Next time someone is doing a search on the web and types in one of the addresses in the search bar, that link gets redirected to an apartment in that area, and it might as well be yours. Just imagine the potential and an unfair advantage this gives you over other apartments for sale in your area. Your apartment would be listed on all the sites mentioned above, plus everything we can place you on. If I was a seller I would want to be ON EVERYTHING possible. And no one else can offer this, because nobody else has the rights to these domain names.
We’ll be happy to discuss this in further detail with you and better explain exactly what I mean, and we urge you to ask other brokers if they can offer the same thing, if they say yes we'll be happy to sit across from them and you and have them show us proof. They won't be able to.

You can reach me at any time and we can drop off our presentation for you to review. I think you will do the right thing.

Best,
Alen

Hi Betsy,
You should contact Joe Peraino of the Peraino Group he is with Prudential Douglas Elliman
(646) 648- 2986 tell him Nunzio sent you he will take professional care of you. His group will not rest until you are satisfied, which means reaching the goal of selling your Coop.