When you pack up your fine china to move, you don't just throw it in a plastic bag and hope for the best. Choosing a real estate agent to represent you should be a careful choice too. After all, you don't want to be picking up the pieces afterwards.

Asking a few questions allows you to know what to expect from your agent and in turn it allows the agent to know what you expect from them.

1. What kind of experience do they have?

   How many years have you been in the real estate business? How long have you been with this particular company? Do you have any referrals or testimonials from previous homeowners? It is important to know if this person even knows what they are doing. If you didn't need someone with some kind of experience you would just sell your house yourself!

2. Have they worked in your area before?

   What areas do you specialize in? What kind of homes do they usually list? Have they sold many homes in your area? Are they familiar with the market prices in your area? If your agent only deals with foreclosed homes or mansions and your home is just an average home, they may not know how to price your home to sell.

3. What would they list your home for?

   Why would this be their price? Are there some things you could do inexpensively to raise the price? This is important to ask because only you know what you have to make on your house. If the price is too low and you don't feel this is even close to what you had in mind, you need to ask why and what you can do about it.

4. What do they get out of this?

   What is their commission rate? What does this include? Nothing is worse than paying someone whatever rate they decide and finding out later that you paid way too much or that you thought certain things were included but were never discussed.

5. How are they going to sell your home?

Of course, there are more questions you can ask. Any reputable real estate agent will welcome your questions. They want to have a healthy working relationship with you. After they don't get paid if you don't sell your home. And, real estate agents work off referrals. Happy customers mean more referrals. So, don't be afraid to ask questions.

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