Questions to Ask Any Agent About Online Marketing Before You List

Before you hire anyone to sell your home, ask where the listing will show up online, who answers buyers, what media it gets and what numbers the agent can show you with a date on them. I'm Dennis Mark Interdonato, I lead The Dennis Mark Group at Keller Williams Realty Ocean Living, and I've been a Homes.com member agent since August 2026. These are the questions I'd want answered if I were the seller, and here's how I answer each one.

Where will my home show up online?

Every listing goes into the MLS. That part is the same for everyone. The better question is what happens on top of it.

Ask the agent to name the sites and the placement. "It'll be everywhere" isn't an answer. A plan names the places.

Here's mine. As a Homes.com member agent, my listings sort to the top of Homes.com search results, with a larger display and photo. I'm featured on the Homes.com neighborhood pages in the areas I work. Some of my listings also get Zillow Showcase, which is a separate upgrade on Zillow. I explained how the two fit together in Homes.com and Zillow Showcase: How Both Fit in One Marketing Plan.

What media will my listing get?

Buyers decide from their phone whether your home is worth a showing. The photos, the tour and the floor plan do that work before anyone walks in the door.

Ask what's included and who pays for it. Ask whether the shoot is professional. Ask whether there's a 3D tour and a floor plan, and who shoots them.

Every listing I take gets professional photography, and the shoot can include drone shots and video. My Homes.com membership includes a Matterport 3D tour for every eligible listing. Homes.com puts its value at about $450 per property. A buyer can walk the whole house from a phone, and where the tour was shot, the floor plans show up on the listing too.

Who answers when a buyer asks about my home?

This question gets skipped, and it matters. A buyer who sends a question about your home wants an answer from someone who knows your home.

Ask the agent where those questions go. Ask how fast they get answered, and by whom.

On Homes.com, my listing agent card sits on each of my listings. It shows my photo, "LISTING AGENT," the Keller Williams logo, a Send Message button and my phone number. Homes.com's line under the card reads "Only Homes.com always connects you with the Listing Agent." Homes.com calls its approach "your listing, your lead." I wrote more about that in Your Listing, Your Lead.

What happens after the listing goes live?

Going live is day one, not the finish line. Ask what the marketing does in week one, week two and week three.

On Homes.com, a new member listing goes out in listing alerts and emails to buyers. Display ads then retarget the listing across thousands of other websites. Homes.com also lets me upload my own contacts as an advertising audience, so past clients and people I know keep seeing my brand in digital ads.

I also bring the plan to the first meeting. My listing presentation includes Homes.com brochures, so you see the marketing before you sign anything. That's covered in See the Plan Before You List.

Can you show me your own numbers, with a date on them?

Any agent can say their marketing works. Ask to see it. Real numbers come from a dashboard, and they come with a date, because they change every day.

Here are mine. As of October 27, 2026, on my Homes.com dashboard, my listings and profile had 575,401 total views. When I joined in August, my listings had 257,069 views from the past few years, so the total more than doubled in about two months. Top of search results reached 16,876, up from 2,078. Alerts featuring me reached 7,008, and emails featuring me reached 2,565. My listings and I were featured on 138 sites, and the first page of that list shows Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, ESPN, CNN, Fox News and MSN.

Ask the same thing of every agent you interview. A good answer has a number, a source and a date.

What should no agent promise you?

No website guarantees a sale, a price or a timeline, and no agent should promise you one. I won't.

Price, condition and the first two weeks on the market decide how a home sells. I tell people what they need to hear, not what they want to hear, and that starts with the price. Marketing puts your home in front of more buyers. That's the part I can control, and it's the part these questions test.

I'm a former New Jersey home builder, and I've been building and renovating homes here since 2003. On a job site, you ask the contractor to walk you through the plan before the first nail goes in. Hiring a listing agent should work the same way.

Where should you go next?

My Homes.com partner page lays out every tool in the membership. My Zillow Showcase page covers the Zillow side. If you want a starting number for your own home, my home value page gives you one.

I sell homes throughout New Jersey, with Monmouth and Ocean County as home base. If your home is in Brick, my Brick Township page covers the town, from Barnegat Bay to its ocean beaches.

Take these questions to every interview. Write down the answers. Then compare the plans side by side.