“Should I hire my friend to sell my house?”

 

Yes! You should absolutely hire your friend to be your listing agent, assuming the following are true:

1. They are an expert in your neighbourhood and have a good sales track record there.

2. They are a great agent who many people in the city trust with their real estate transactions.

3. They have an impressive listing presentation that thoroughly outlines their marketing strategy for your home.

4. They have a solid social media presence that draws many viewers to their listings online.

5. They have a proven track record for negotiating sales.

6. They can give you an accurate market evaluation of your home.

7. If you met them and didn’t already know them, you’d hire them anyways.

Want to discover our in-depth approach to selling homes in West Toronto? Click here to explore our approach.

We’ve worked with many personal friends, and it’s the best. Working with friends makes work feel like play. And our friends like it because they know we have their best interests at heart.

However, we only work with our friends when our expertise matches their needs. We don’t work with friends just because we’re friends. I’ve turned down personal friends as clients when they want to buy in a small Ontario town with which I’m unfamiliar. For example, we won’t be any good at buying or selling houses in a city that we can’t even find on a map, even if we’re besties, especially if we’re besties. Our relationship is too important to mess up this significant financial decision for you.

Selling Your Home is Emotional Enough

Typically people want to hire their friends for one of two reasons. First, to support their agent friend financially. The second reason is if the friend is offering to cut commission. Both of these are bad reasons to hire a friend. You should only hire your friend if you would hire them even if they weren’t your friend. Do you see their marketing? Are they well-known? Do they post great videos on social media that make you trust them? Would you want to hire them if you didn’t already know them? Their credentials come before your friendship. Your friend might be a great person and a lousy agent. You don’t want to find that out the hard way.

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Selling your home requires making important decisions, such as choosing an agent to work with. Check out these blog posts to learn how the right real estate agent can make your home sale successful.

• The Importance of Hiring a Local Real Estate Agent
• A Two-Part Home Selling Strategy
• Selling With a Top Bosley Agent

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Why Experience Matters in Today’s Market

To sell your house efficiently, especially in a recession, you need an expert in marketing, neighbourhoods and negotiations. You need an agent who focuses only on selling your home quickly and for the most money possible. Houses don’t sell because the listing agent loves the owner. They sell because the listing agent knows what they’re doing.

Are you worried about hurting your friend’s feelings? If your friend is upset with you for not using them, they have fundamentally misunderstood how important this transaction is to you. Real estate is a big deal with lasting financial consequences for your family. If your friend is a good agent, they will understand that. If your friend is a good friend, they will also understand that.

Like many busy adults, It is easier for me to find new clients than new friends. If your agent-friend is anything like me, they’ll want to do everything they can to preserve the friendship, even if that means giving you space to make these decisions with a neutral third party.

Do you want to know what the absolute best-case scenario is? You hire a seasoned agent, they do a great job, and THEN you become friends. We are lucky enough to have many clients turned friends as a team. This is our favourite thing in the world.

You should hire your friend to represent you if you’d hire them anyways. Don’t hire a friend just because they’re your friend. There’s too much at stake, both financially and emotionally.