{"id":20665,"date":"2026-04-24T04:00:56","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T11:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.homelight.com\/blog\/?p=20665"},"modified":"2026-04-27T03:29:46","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T10:29:46","slug":"things-to-do-before-hiring-a-real-estate-agent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.homelight.com\/blog\/things-to-do-before-hiring-a-real-estate-agent\/","title":{"rendered":"10 Things to Do Before Hiring a Real Estate Agent"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>If <a href=\"https:\/\/www.homelight.com\/blog\/should-i-sell-my-house\/\">selling your home<\/a> has been on your mind lately, you\u2019ve probably run through a few \u201cwhat if\u201d scenarios: what if you listed soon, what if you got a strong offer, what if it all worked out. Reaching out to a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.homelight.com\/blog\/why-hire-a-real-estate-agent\/\">real estate professional<\/a> feels like the next obvious step, especially since they can guide in pricing, marketing, and negotiations. But getting a few things in order first can help you feel more confident and clear going into that first conversation, which is why it helps to understand the things to do before hiring a real estate agent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n<div class=\"geo-cta widget-cta widget-cta--content     widget-cta--dark widget-cta--dark-blue-gradient\">\n    <div class=\"widget-element--content\">\n        <div class=\"widget-element--content-header\">\n            <img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"homelight logo\" class=\"widget-element--logo\" src=\"https:\/\/www.homelight.com\/blog\/wp-content\/themes\/ccprototypev5\/images\/logo-small-cta.png\" width=\"106\" height=\"25\" \/>\n        <\/div>\n        \n                <h3 class=\"cta-headline widget--bold\">Get a Home Value Estimate As You Prepare to Sell<\/h3>\n                        <p>HomeLight&#8217;s tool takes into account recent comparable sales records, local market trends, and your home last sale&#8217;s price to provide a preliminary estimate of home value in under two minutes.<\/p>\n        \n                <div class=\"widget-element--buttons\">\n            <a data-type=\"In Content CTA\" href=\"https:\/\/www.homelight.com\/simple-home-value\/quiz?#\/qaas=0\/\" class=\"cta-click-track widget-element--button\">Get Estimate<\/a>\n        <\/div>\n                    <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>We asked top-rated professionals what they wish sellers would do (and not do) before contacting them. Here\u2019s what they recommend you get in place before you start talking to a Realtor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Putting your home on the market? Read this guide, so you won\u2019t forget these important things to do before hiring a real estate agent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":230,"featured_media":48161,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[320,233],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-add-value","category-preparing-to-sell"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.0 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>10 Things to Do Before Hiring a Real Estate Agent<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Putting your home on the market? Read this guide, so you won\u2019t forget these important things to do before hiring a real estate agent.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.homelight.com\/blog\/things-to-do-before-hiring-a-real-estate-agent\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"10 Things to Do Before Hiring a Real Estate Agent\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Putting your home on the market? Read this guide, so you won\u2019t forget these important things to do before hiring a real estate agent.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.homelight.com\/blog\/things-to-do-before-hiring-a-real-estate-agent\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"HomeLight Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/gohomelight\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-04-24T11:00:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-04-27T10:29:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.homelight.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Untitled-design-8-min.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"564\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Evette Zalvino\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ChampionEvette\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@gohomelight\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Evette Zalvino\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"14 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"10 Things to Do Before Hiring a Real Estate Agent","description":"Putting your home on the market? 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