1. "HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN AN ACTIVE REAL ESTATE AGENT?" Selling a home is serious business, especially in today's market. If the answer to this question is anything less than 20 years, this agent has not experienced a serious market contraction such as we are currently experiencing. Remember, there's no substitute for experience.

2. "ARE YOU A BROKER OR A SALES PERSON?" A person who holds an Arizona real estate broker's license has proven their advanced real estate education, knowledge and experience to the satisfaction of the Arizona Department of Real Estate. A person holding a broker's license, has the legal authority to operate a real estate brokerage business and supervise other agents, while a person holding a Salesman's license does not.

3. "HOW LONG HAS YOUR COMPANY BEEN IN BUSINESS?" Because numerous real estate brokerage firms have gone completely out of business, while others have closed many of their branch offices over the last few years, you want to be reasonably confident that the company the agent works with is going to be around to provide you all of the services you contracted for. So, like an agent who has the experience with previous market downturns, also be sure the company the agent is with has been around long enough to have experienced such a downturn.

4. "DO YOU HAVE ANY OTHER PROFESSIONAL REAL ESTATE EXPERIENCE?" In addition to having extensive experience as a real estate agent, some people also have extensive professional real estate experience in other areas of the industry, such as appraising, property management, mortgage financing, and professional education. This type of additional professional experience demonstrates extensive knowledge of, and dedication to the real estate industry, and can be of great additional value to a home seller, especially in difficult market conditions.

5. "PLEASE PROVIDE ME WITH YOUR RESUME." Every professional has a written resume, more specifically a "curriculum vitae." This document should outline a person's professional education and experience as it specifically pertains to the position they are applying for. In the case of a real estate agent, the information should be real estate specific. While an advanced degree in education, accounting or science may seem impressive, it says absolutely nothing about a person's experience or ability as a real estate professional.

6. BE CAUTIOUS OF SALES AWARDS. Sales awards recognize a sales person's performance and certainly should be given your consideration. However, be aware, that sales awards are only as meaningful as the organization that issues them, combined with the level of market activity for the time they were awarded. It would be far more impressive for a person to have won a major sales award from a major trade association (e.g. National Association of REALTORS® vs. a company award), especially in the difficult market year of 2008, than any award issued in the many preceding boom market years.

7. "WHERE AND HOW FREQUENTLY DO YOU ADVERTISE?" When considering the answer to this question, you must accept the fact, that print media ads (e.g. newspapers, homes magazines, etc.) do not produce sufficient buyer inquiries to justify their expense. The "new" media is the Internet. Virtually every prospective home buyer searches various websites for listings of homes, as well as for information about mortgages, lenders, real estate agents, home inspectors, etc. The most popular website is REALTOR.com, where only real estate agents are able to advertise. This website is visited by over 40 MILLION prospective buyers MONTHLY. Other major real estate websites include Zillo.com, Trulia.com, ActiveRain.com, among many others. So, the answer you should be looking for is a list of websites where the agent advertises on the Internet. Then, go online and check them out.

8. "DO YOU HAVE YOUR OWN WEBSITE? WHAT'S THE URL?" In today's world, an agent without their own website cannot effectively compete for prospective buyers. It's just that simple. So, find out the agents website address (called the URL), get on the web, and check it out. A good design has appealing and complimentary colors, is simple to use (not too "busy" and confusing), and is fully functional with up-to-date and relevant information. Also, be sure it provides the ability to search the Arizona Regional Multiple Listing Service (ARMLS) so that buyer prospects can not only find your house, but also those of your competition. (There's nothing like 1-stop comparison shopping to help sell your home.)

9. A PLEASANT, BUT PROFESSIONAL PERSONALITY IS ESSENTIAL. Your relationship with your real estate agent should be pleasant, but professional. You are not hiring the agent to be your friend; you're hiring the agent to sell your house for the best price and terms in the shortest reasonable time. So, don't hire an agent just because you think they're "nice," or because they're a friend or a relative. If the agent is not sufficiently experienced to help you, they will cost you time and money.

10. IN THE END, DO YOU HAVE CONFIDENCE IN THE AGENT? People do business with people they like and trust. It's possible that more than one agent will satisfy the previous 9 categories, but you can only hire 1. So, be sure you're comfortable with the agent's credentials, and that you have a reasonable degree of confidence in their ability to perform in your best interest.