When you join, you get AI, which compares every local listing agents’ home-selling performance information to every other listing agents - in context of your home - and gives you an actionable, comprehensive list of every agent in order of best to worst fit for you, saving you time. You won’t need to look at a single statistic unless you want to, but if you want to look under the hood you can.
Without joining, you still get all local agents’ performance information, you can search by zip code or by agent’s name, and learn about each metric and how we use them. Whether or not you join, we keep your contact information confidential, we don’t give it out or sell it to agents, because keeping you safe from hard-selling is one of our founding values. Whether or not you join, you’ll be able to text and call ListFriendly member agents anonymously, though anonymous texting needs a mobile number to make/get anonymous texts, calls.
Why do we want you to join if we don’t sell or give your contact information to agents? When you join, your verified contact information drives our valuation; the more verifiable members we have, the more money we can get to grow and succeed.
We don’t cherry pick agents. But analyze most-every agent who listed and sold a home recently in the United States, whether they agreed to work with us, or not. With home sale performance data and metrics for almost 700,000 agents - practically every agent who recently sold a home in much of the United States - you get access to all of it whether or not you join. Joining just lets you save time by using our AI to sort local agents from best to worst fit in context of your home. There is no fee to join, unless you hire an agent that works with us and they get a commission from you; in which case they pay a fee. There is no other fee to anyone. If you don’t join, you still get all the data, metrics, and education enabling you to compare agents manually.
If I give you my information, will you give my contact information to agents? No we don’t do that. One of our non-negotiable value propositions is to keep you anonymous and your contact information strictly confidential to: prevent unwanted sales calls, emails, texts, and even door knocks from overly aggressive agents. The ListFriendly member agents you contact through ListFriendly won’t get your contact information unless and until you give it to them, eg. make a listing appointment.
What is Anonymous Texting/Calling: ListFriendly.com’s unique anonymous text/call feature lets home-sellers/ buyers contact real estate agents - who sign up with ListFriendly.com, without disclosing your name or contact information. The idea is to make it easy and stress-free for consumers to take the first step, to be able to ask agents questions and get information from an agent they might not otherwise find, while giving the agent an opportunity to make a good first impression, build trust, and get new business. Agents can block consumers at any time, but not unblock them. Consumers can block/unblock agents at any time.
ListFriendly is a unique, brand new, consumer-centric, data driven, objective, real estate agent hiring space. Any agent may join ListFriendly - and deploy anonymous texting - but most haven’t heard about us yet. Because it’s unhelpful, annoying - and often illegal - to text or call someone without their consent, we only deploy anonymous text/call buttons on member agents’ profiles. That’s why only agents who choose to work with us and want you to text and call them have an anonymous text/call button on their profile.
We display all of our metrics (statistics) to build trust; by showing you what’s under the hood, you can see for yourself exactly how we make decisions. You don’t need to look at a single statistic to use ListFriendly, we give members a comprehensive list of every agent who recently sold a listing in their area, using AI to process metrics and sort every agent in order of best to worst fit to represent your home.
Subjective decisions based on reviews can be useful where personal opinions and experiences are more important, like choosing a hotel. But when making hiring decisions that affect important financial outcomes, decisions based on objective performance data consistently yield more predictable results; our data on agents’ past performance and availability is useful to narrow the field of dozens or hundreds of possible agents in a given area down to a few candidates, those who are eager to get more work, and have recently done deals for similar homes in your area. Because practically all agents have great reviews, reviews can’t help consumers much when narrowing the field of available real estate agents. Ultimately, the best approach is often a combination of both, our AI’s objective list, followed by interviews of a handful of candidates to get a subjective feel/sense of the agents’ fit for you; you can interview ListFriendly member agents anonymously here, anonymous texting. In conclusion, a comprehensive approach that includes “our statistics” can lead to a more nuanced fit for you and your situation.
There is no direct fee to you to use ListFriendly, search agents names, get agents’ metrics stats and compare them for yourself; do your due diligence on agents you’re thinking of hiring. We charge the Member Agent you hire a referral fee once your transaction closes. Current information about the fee agents pay us may be found in this agreement.
Once you get the information you need from our AI, choose a few agents that have done deals for homes like yours in your area recently, with good results. What our data can’t tell you is whether you’ll be comfortable and work well with a particular agent, and that’s what these questions are for. Get the conversation going; some ideas to do that follow. The agent’s answers aren’t as important as the sense you get from the agent, your comfort level. Ask open-ended questions, have a conversation, see how you feel, and compare that to how you feel about other agents. Our AI has already told you a lot about the agent's competence; the finishing touch is to find someone you like on a personal level, someone you feel you can work with.
- How do you prefer to stay in touch, text, telephone, or email?
- Typically, how long does it take you to get back to clients by text, call, email?
- Will you find homes for us to see, or is it our responsibility to find homes we want to see and tell you, or some of both?
- Do you use a transaction coordinator? Tell me about them.
- The transaction coordinator handles the administrative work of the real estate transaction, the paperwork. This can include preparing and submitting purchase documentation, gathering information or documentation from you (the buyer or seller), communicating with other real estate agents, getting required disclosures in order, and more.
- Do you use software like docusign; can forms be completed and signed by us online?
- Do you work with a mortgage company, and if so which one? Check them out. You should feel comfortable getting a mortgage from them. They should be a reputable company with good reviews.
- Do you work with a team or use an assistant for your buyer client, tell me about them, and what is their role/ are their roles?
- How do you guide your client’s offer amount and terms so that your client’s offer has the best chance of being accepted, when there is more than one offer expected for a home?
- Do you show open homes to buyers yourself, or do you send your clients to view open houses alone, without you?
- Do you expect us to sign an exclusive buyer’s agent agreement, or do you use an open agreement?
- How long is your agreement’s typical exclusivity period?
- Is your exclusive buyer’s broker agreement limited to a particular area?
- Which escrow do you use? Check them out. They should be a reputable company with good reviews.
- How do you determine if the price being asked for a home is a fair market price?
- When problems have arisen with your purchase transactions, what were they?
- How did you solve these problems?
- What is your strategy for writing an offer for fair market value on an overpriced home?
- What is your strategy for writing an offer on an underpriced home, where sellers expect a bidding war?
- How often have your clients canceled their offer to buy a home after its been accepted?
- What are some of the terms you typically put into offers to protect your buyer clients, give them a way out?
These questions are just conversation starters. And - since there is no right or wrong answer - getting answers to them should not be your goal; instead judge answers in light of other agents answers - compare - and just as importantly, get a feel for whether you can work with the agent closely for the months that it will take to ready your home for sale, show it, and sell it.
Once you get the information you need from our AI, choose a few agents that have done deals for homes like yours in your area recently, with good results. What our data can’t tell you is whether you’ll be comfortable and work well with a particular agent, and that’s what these questions are for. Get the conversation going; some ideas to do that follow. The agent’s answers aren’t as important as the sense you get from the agent, your comfort level. Ask open-ended questions, have a conversation, see how you feel, and compare that to how you feel about other agents. Our AI has already told you a lot about the agent's competence; the finishing touch is to find someone you like on a personal level, someone you feel you can work with.
- How do you prefer to stay in touch, text, telephone, or email?
- Typically, how long does it take you to get back to clients by text, call, email?
- Will you be personally present at every opening of our house, or will other agents be there on your behalf?
- Do you use a transaction coordinator? Tell me about them.
- The transaction coordinator handles the administrative work of the real estate transaction, the paperwork. This can include preparing and submitting purchase documentation, gathering information or documentation from you (the buyer or seller), communicating with other real estate agents, getting required disclosures in order, and more.
- Do you use software like docusign; can forms be completed and signed by us online?
- If a buyer is unrepresented will you handle both sides of the transaction yourself “double end it”; how do you protect our interests when you “double end” a sale?
- Do you use an assistant or work with a team for your seller clients, tell me about them, and what is their role/ are their roles?
- If there is more than one offer, what terms in an offer do you look for other than price before you recommend to your clients that they accept the offer?
- Under what circumstances do you advise counter-offering a buyer or buyers?
- Given the current market, would you price a home like ours _______________(your home’s location and criteria) above, at, or below its anticipated selling price?
- How do you determine what a good listing price is for a typical home you list? Tell us about setting the price for the last home you listed and sold. What was the selling price?
- In your opinion, is the market for a home like ours_______________( your home’s location and criteria) a buyers market, a seller’s market, or a balanced market, and why?
- How many months is your exclusive listing agreement?
- Which escrow do you prefer to use and why? Check them out; they should be a reputable company with good reviews.
- When problems have arisen with your sale transactions, what were they?
- How did you solve these problems?
- How long would a home have to sit unsold for you to ask the sellers to lower the price, given this market?
- What ways - other than lowering the price - do you suggest for rejuvenating a listing for a home that has stayed on the market too long without an offer?
- Do you offer staging? Which staging company do you usually use? Who covers this cost? Check the staging company out. You should feel comfortable with their work and how their style would fit your home.
- What are some of the terms you’ve seen in offers that ring an alarm bell?
