Look — if you're reading this, you're not "thinking about maybe selling someday." You're close. You've got an agent or two in mind, maybe a listing presentation on the calendar, and you're about to hand someone the keys to the biggest financial decision you'll make this year.
So let's make sure you hand them to the right person.
Here's the truth most sellers learn too late: every agent will tell you they'll get you top dollar. The good ones can actually prove it. The five questions below separate the closers from the talkers. Bring them to your next listing appointment.
1. "Show me your last ten sales in my neighborhood — list price, sale price, and days on market."
Not citywide averages. Not "Greater Boston." Your submarket. Selling in the South End is a completely different game than selling in Newton or Charlestown, and an agent who can't show you recent, comparable, local results is guessing with your equity.
A strong agent answers this without flinching, because the numbers are their proof.
2. "What's your pricing strategy for my home specifically — and why?"
The fastest way to leave money on the table is to overprice, sit, and chase the market down with reductions. The second fastest is to underprice and hope a bidding war saves you.
You want an agent who walks you through verified comps, explains the spread, and gives you a number with a reason behind it — not a flattering guess designed to win your listing.
3. "Walk me through exactly how my home gets marketed in the first seven days."
The first week is everything. That's when your listing is freshest in the algorithm, in agents' inboxes, and in buyers' saved searches. If the answer is "we'll put it on the MLS and Zillow," keep interviewing.
You're looking for a real plan: professional photography, a launch timeline, broker outreach, social distribution, and a strategy for converting that first wave of attention into showings and offers.
4. "How do you handle offers and negotiation?"
Getting an offer is the beginning, not the finish line. Inspection issues, financing contingencies, appraisal gaps, closing timelines — this is where deals quietly lose you thousands or fall apart entirely.
Ask how they vet buyers, how they manage multiple offers, and how they protect your number once you're under agreement. Experience here pays for itself.
5. "What happens if my home doesn't sell?"
A confident agent has an answer ready, because they've thought about it. You want to hear about communication cadence, a plan for repositioning, and a clear sense of accountability — not defensiveness.
The bottom line
The agent who tells you the highest price isn't automatically the best agent. The best agent is the one who can defend their number, prove their track record, and show you a plan for the days that matter most.
If you're interviewing agents to sell your Boston-area home, that's exactly the conversation we want to have with you. Reach out to the team at Remmes & Co. — bring these five questions, and let us earn it.