I am thinking of selling my house; what are some good questions to ask of listing agents (real estate agents)?

How many escrows have you closed in the last year
Will you be offering a selling agent a full 50% of the commission? (Didn’t ask this one once when we sold my moms house and we got fewer shows because they were offering a measly 2.5%)
Have you ever been disciplined by the Board of Realtors or the state licensing agency?
Can you give me a net sheet showing what I should expect to Net if I get the asking price?
How exactly do you intend to market the house? How many magazines will you commit to put it in? How many open houses will you commit to? Can we get those scheduled before I sign the listing agreement?
Does your office do a Brokers Caravan? When will my house be on the list for that? How about anBrokers Open house? Will you be doing one?
How many listings do you currently have? Do you have assistants that will be handling this transaction or will you be doing it all yourself?
How often will you follow up and give me a report on when it’s been shown and any feedback other realtors have given? Do you call all the Realtors who show and ask them for feedback?
What should I do right now to make my home more marketable? How much will that cost?

Just thought of another,
How much notice will I get before my house is shown? Will the appointments be made through you or will other realtors be calling me directly?

Here is a short video based upon the study published in Freakonomics, (Levitt, Dubner) . Does your real estate agent have your best interest

It is good background info for you.

Ask what the average days on market it is for houses in your area and then ask yourself how prepared are you to move if the house sells right away and are you willing to take the Realtors advice on what they feel will best represent your house prior to putting it on the market.

1. They should all have a CMA, comparative market analysis, for you which will show what has sold in the last 6 months where you live, what is currently on the market, and what they estimate your house is worth.

2. Ask what they will do to market your property. Some of the spiel is bullshit. Every listing that goes into the MLs goes onto realtor.come. However, the realtor needs to pay for added pics, so you can ask how many photos will be available on realtor.com. I think the standard is 4. But if you search realtor.com yourself, you will quickly see as a buyer you want to see more photos.

3. See if they do open houses. I personally do not like open houses. Primarily they are for the realtor to find new clients on the buyer side. Open houses rarely sell houses, but they do once in a while.

4. Find out their commission rate (which sometimes is negotiable) and make sure the contract will speficy how much the buyer’s realtor will receive. You want the buyer’s realtor to get what is typical in your area, usually 3%.

5. Find out if they habdle the entire transaction. Some companies hand off the sale to another person once it comes under contract. You want the person you have a rapport with to take you through the whole process.

When you meet the realtor they will cover a lot of this and more without you even having to ask questions. They will have a presentation they do, and you will get to see how your chemistry is with them.

What is the commission breakdown
What type of marketing do you do
How actively will you seek buyers for my property
What will you be doing to make my property stand out when compared to others

@Judi Wow! Great questions! Thank you!!!!!
@JLeslie Thank you for the advice, especially about checking realtor.com. I had forgotten about that site.
@creative1 and @Cruiser Will add your points to my list.

@LuckyGuy I read Freakonomics a few years back. Loved the book. Thanks for the reminder.