By Jennifer Queen, Queen Team at Ethos Realty Inc.
When you are choosing someone to sell a luxury home, there is a great deal to consider before you ever discuss the asking price.
You want someone who understands what makes the property special. Someone who has worked with buyers who could realistically purchase it. Someone who can give you an honest opinion, explain their thinking and stay involved when a decision becomes difficult.
You also want to feel comfortable with them. Selling a home can involve months of preparation, personal conversations and a considerable amount of trust, especially when you have lived there for a long time.
In my work with luxury, riverfront and distinctive homes in Winnipeg, these are the questions I believe are most useful when choosing your Realtor.
What should you look for in a luxury Realtor in Winnipeg?
Start with recommendations from people you trust, then examine the individual agent's recent experience in your price range. Ask how they understand the likely buyers, arrive at value, prepare and market a home, and communicate throughout the sale. My own benchmark is at least five sales within your price range over the past year. Look for thoughtful answers, relevant examples, clear service commitments and someone whose judgment you trust.
10 Questions to Ask a Luxury Realtor Before Listing
How many homes have you sold in my price range over the past 12 months?
What makes those sales relevant to my property?
How will you determine an asking price when comparable sales are limited?
What do buyers in this price range actually prioritize?
What preparation or staging would you recommend—and what would you avoid?
Can you show me examples of your photography, video and marketing campaigns?
How will you introduce my home to qualified buyers and other REALTORS®?
Should we consider private marketing, international exposure or a public MLS® launch?
Who will communicate with me, how often, and what happens if activity is disappointing?
What services are included in your commission, and what could cost extra?
These questions are a starting point. The quality of the answers (and the evidence behind them) matters more than how impressive the initial presentation looks.
1. Start with people whose experiences you trust
For an important service relationship, I would almost always begin with recommendations from people I know and trust.
Someone who has had a successful experience can tell you things that are difficult to judge from a website. Did the agent stay in touch? Were they candid about price? How did they handle a disappointing offer or an unexpected issue? Did the person making the recommendations remain involved throughout the sale?
Ask what the person appreciated and whether their property or circumstances were similar to yours. A recommendation becomes more useful when you understand the experience behind it.
Then have your own conversation with the agent. You should feel comfortable asking detailed questions, including questions about the parts of the process that make you uneasy.
2. Look at the individual agent's experience in your price range
I place the individual agent's experience ahead of the brokerage brand. A good Realtor knows who to call, when to push and when to pull. They have a sense of which buyers may respond to a particular home and which concerns could prevent an otherwise promising sale from moving forward.
My recommendation is to look for someone who has sold at least five homes within your price range over the past year. That is my personal benchmark for recent, relevant activity. It gives you something concrete to ask about and helps establish whether the agent is regularly working with buyers and other Realtors in that part of the market.
At the highest price points in Winnipeg, there may be relatively few comparable sales in any given year. That's why I would also ask how closely the agent's recent transactions relate to your property. Were they the listing agent or representing the buyer? Were the homes similarly positioned in terms of location, construction, lot size and buyer appeal? Transaction count matters, but the relevance of those transactions matters just as much.
Ask them to walk you through those sales. What was their role? What made the properties comparable to yours? What did buyers respond to? What required a different approach?
Then ask about their current relationships. Recent sales can help build a network; the next question is who the agent is working with today and how those connections could be relevant to your listing.
For more general interview preparation, read our questions to ask before hiring a Winnipeg Realtor.
3. Ask how they arrive at value when the comparables are imperfect
Pricing a distinctive home involves doing the best possible work with the available evidence.
Sometimes there are useful sales close by. Sometimes we need to look farther afield because the property's strongest comparison is outside the immediate neighbourhood. The important part is understanding why that comparison is relevant and where the differences matter.
There is also a gut component to this work. That instinct develops through experience with buyers: touring homes with them, hearing what they value, seeing what they will pay for and learning which compromises they will not make.
That gut feeling isn't a replacement for comparable sales or market analysis. It's professional judgment developed through repeated conversations, showings, negotiations and observing which properties buyers ultimately choose. In a market where two distinctive homes are rarely identical, that experience can help an agent interpret the evidence more effectively.
An agent who is actively working with buyers in your market brings those conversations to the valuation. They should be able to explain that thinking in a way you can follow.
Why do agents suggest different values for the same home?
Because parts of the valuation are subjective.
Two agents may interpret the significance of a renovation, lot, view or layout differently. Their recent buyer experiences may differ, too. Ask where those opinions come from and how they relate to your home's likely competition.
You are entitled to ask for the reasoning behind the number.
Should you choose the agent who suggests the highest price?
Never let someone “buy” your listing with a number they cannot support.
Talk is cheap. Relevant results, credible comparisons and a solid explanation of value are much more useful when deciding whose advice to trust.
I would also be cautious about assuming that a low asking price and an offer date will create the result you want. A bidding strategy depends on having enough motivated buyers competing for the same property within a relatively short window. At certain luxury price points, the buyer pool is smaller and individual preferences become more specific. Even an exceptional property may not have several financially qualified buyers ready to act simultaneously. That's why I prefer to evaluate the actual demand for a home before recommending an offer-date strategy.
In the luxury market I am working in, that is a decision to examine carefully. As the price rises, the pool of potential buyers can become much smaller. The strategy needs enough relevant demand behind it to make sense for your particular home.
4. Find someone who understands what buyers will pay for
The details that matter to an owner and the details that create demand among buyers do not always carry the same weight.
Custom finishes can contribute to resale value. They can also narrow the audience when they are highly specific to one person's taste. Modern renovations can make a substantial difference to how buyers respond.
I think of two homes we sold in the same market. They had very similar specifications and oversized river lots. One had superior construction, yet getting buyers through the door was a challenge. The other had been fully renovated with a modern, mid-century-inspired aesthetic, and the showing traffic kept coming.
Buyers loved it. It was the one that sold faster.
That experience is a useful reminder of how buyers respond to what they can see, understand and imagine living in. Construction quality matters, but it is one part of their decision.
How much do the lot, location and riverfront setting matter?
In my experience, substantially. A larger lot in a desirable location can be an important part of the appeal. Privacy, views and room for outdoor living can influence whether a buyer wants to pursue the property at all. For some, the potential to add a pool is a significant consideration, subject to confirming what the property permits.
With riverfront homes, I tend to place more emphasis on the views, yard size and usable setting than on a frontage measurement considered by itself. Ask your agent how those features influence their assessment of your home.
Our Winnipeg waterfront selling guide explores the additional considerations for riverfront properties.
5. Expect a thoughtful staging and preparation plan
Does a professionally designed luxury home still need staging? Absolutely. It deserves a presentation assessment, however beautiful it already is.
All of us can struggle to imagine how a space will function, and scale can be difficult to read in a large home. Furniture placement, lighting and accessories help buyers understand how they might use it.
How will this home function for their family? Where will they gather? How does the room connect with the next space? What does the outdoor area make possible?
Those questions matter at every price point. The presentation should help people understand the lifestyle the home offers.
How much work should you do before listing?
That is specific to the home and your goals. Sometimes the preparation is as simple as paint touch-ups. In other situations, a more comprehensive plan makes sense.
I want to understand your timeline, what you are comfortable taking on and what we are trying to accomplish before recommending work.
I am particularly cautious about highly specific renovations or replacing major mechanical and structural components solely as a resale upgrade. My concern is whether you are likely to recover the expense. Functioning equipment does not automatically need to be replaced simply because you are selling.
An actual condition concern is a separate decision. We need to understand it, obtain the appropriate advice and discuss how it should be addressed and communicated.
Your preparation plan should help you prioritize. It should also make clear which work I would leave alone. Read more about the psychology of home staging.
6. Ask to see a complete marketing plan and examples of the work
With very few exceptions, I believe a home should have a strong photography, videography and virtual-tour package. Floor plans and clear written information help complete the presentation.
The purpose is to make the property enticing and easy to understand before a buyer visits. They should be able to appreciate the layout, recognize the important features and decide whether it could suit their life.
Our marketing can include professional photography, property videos, aerial imagery, a virtual tour, floor plans, custom copywriting, digital advertising, social content and direct REALTOR® outreach. The mix should make sense for the home and the seller's chosen approach.
How do we keep the marketing active after launch?
Alongside the larger overview videos, we also produce shorter videos focused on individual features of the home. These are often 30 seconds to one minute long and give us additional material to share while the property is listed.
Each gives us a specific reason to bring the home back to people's attention. Depending on the property, a video might explore an outdoor living area, a particular room or a feature that deserves more explanation than it received in the overall tour.
Ask an agent what they plan to do beyond the initial launch. You should understand how the campaign will continue and how they will assess the response.
Can photography happen before we are ready to list?
Yes. With advance notice, we may capture material over several days or even months. Summer exterior photographs can be especially valuable when the grounds are an important part of the property and the intended listing date is later in the year.
We make those plans with our clients, schedule the work and share the images with them. Earlier photographs should accurately reflect the current property, and seasonal context should be clear.
Our broader guide to selling a luxury home in Winnipeg explains more about presentation and positioning.
7. Ask about relationships and the work behind REALTOR® outreach
Many of our buyer opportunities come through existing relationships: our own clients and the clients of other Realtors. Others discover a listing through online or other marketing. In my experience, the interpersonal connections are a particularly important part of luxury sales.
Ask what the agent does with those relationships when a home is ready to be introduced.
For us, that can mean hosting a lunch and inviting REALTORS® individually. Our most recent one involved 250 personal invitations. We kept those phones going. Digital invitations and text reminders were useful follow-ups to those conversations.
The work is specific and active. We want other agents to understand the property well enough to recognize when it could be a fit for one of their clients.
What should “I have buyers” mean?
For me, that claim should refer to people under signed service agreements who are actively watching the market and have established their financial readiness, including appropriate pre-approval when financing is required.
Ask what those buyers are looking for and how closely your home fits. That gives a much clearer picture of the opportunity than a general claim about knowing wealthy people.
8. Discuss international exposure and private versus public marketing
We have worked with purchasers based overseas, so broader exposure can be relevant. We use Properstar to help distribute listings through its international property network.
Properstar describes that network as property portals, with publication depending on the program and participating portal's requirements. Its international distribution information explains the service. The useful conversation is where your particular listing will appear and how inquiries will be handled.
Should a luxury home be sold exclusively or on MLS®?
Sometimes an exclusive campaign is the approach I believe offers the strongest opportunity for a seller. In other situations, public MLS® exposure is the better choice.
It depends on the home, the circumstances, the available buyer relationships and the seller's preferences. An exclusive approach can give us more control over how the property is introduced. A public listing can put the opportunity in front of people who would otherwise never hear about it.
We should discuss those trade-offs, follow current requirements and agree on how we will assess the result. I want you to understand why a particular approach is being recommended and when we might change course.
9. Make communication and privacy part of the conversation
You should know who will be looking after you once the agreement is signed.
When I am your listing agent, you work directly with me, supported by our team. We discuss the photography, showing arrangements and any privacy preferences in advance so that the plan reflects how you live and what you are comfortable sharing.
Regular updates should give you a useful understanding of what is happening. Ours include competing properties that have come to market, how the marketing is performing, the conversations we are having and whether anything needs to be adjusted.
We also follow up for showing feedback. If an agent does not respond, we follow up again, and again: up to three attempts in total.
A quiet week still deserves a conversation. You should be able to understand the activity, what we are learning and the next step.
10. Understand what happens if the home is not getting offers
There is no single timeline that applies to every luxury home. The price point, property, competing options and market all affect the discussion.
If there are few showings, I review the marketing and the pricing. Is the campaign communicating the home effectively? Are we reaching the relevant audience? How does the asking price position it against the alternatives?
I also want to be candid about this: no amount of good marketing can overcome the wrong pricing strategy.
If people are viewing the home but not offering, the feedback becomes especially important. Are there concerns we can address? Are buyers struggling with something about the property that the presentation can explain more clearly? If the concerns cannot reasonably be changed, price often becomes part of the conversation.
The important thing is to respond thoughtfully to what the market is telling us.
11. Ask how offers, conditions and inspection issues will be handled
Offers do not always begin at the price a seller hopes to achieve. I like to frame the first offer as the opening of a discussion.
We can consider the response, explain our position and see where the conversation leads. You should have room to assess the choices without feeling pressured to accept an offer you are uncomfortable with.
Price is one part of that assessment. Possession dates, deposits and conditions can make a meaningful difference to the overall offer and how well it fits your move.
What if the buyer needs to sell their home?
We consider that carefully, including the proposed conditions and the buyer's circumstances. An appropriately negotiated time clause can allow continued marketing and provide a process if another acceptable offer arrives. We must follow the agreed notice requirements and respect the first buyer's rights under the contract.
The Manitoba Real Estate Association's time-clause schedule illustrates that structure. The wording in your actual agreement determines how it operates, and we review that with you and obtain legal guidance where needed.
What if the inspection raises a concern?
We address it as it comes. In my experience, buyers sometimes request concessions, although that happens less often than sellers may fear. Other issues may be something we can address directly. The good news though if your Buyer brings these items to you is that they are still interested in purchasing the property. They’ve just had something that has given them pause and made them question if they’ve paid too much.
The response depends on the concern and the agreement. My job is to help you understand the issue and consider the available options, involving the appropriate professionals when necessary.
12. Make room for your life and the practical details of the property
A selling plan needs to fit the move you are trying to make.
Whether you should buy first depends heavily on how specific your search criteria are and the market you are entering. If you need a very particular property, the conversation may be different from one where several suitable options are available.
If you are downsizing from a long-held family home, give yourself more time than you initially think you will need. Sorting belongings often takes longer than anticipated, and sentimental attachment is a real part of that work. Having time to find places for those possessions that you feel good about can make the transition much easier.
For clients who are away, we can discuss checks on a vacant property and how we will communicate. Much of the listing and offer paperwork can be handled remotely, including electronic signatures where appropriate. Your lawyer will confirm the requirements for closing documents.
What information should you gather?
Bring together what you have: surveys, floor plans, renovation lists, contractor invoices and warranties. Records of updates and the ages of major components can be helpful, including the furnace, hot water tank, HRV, plumbing and electrical work.
For a riverfront or otherwise distinctive property, share relevant reports and records so we can review what is useful to the sale.
I also like buyers to understand carrying costs early. We share information such as property taxes and hydro and gas bills, and buyers may ask about lawn care, snow removal or other upkeep services. Clear information helps them assess what owning the property could involve.
13. Understand the fee and what it includes
At Queen Team, our usual total listing commission is 4% plus GST, including 2% plus GST offered to the buyer's brokerage. We review the compensation and service scope with you for your particular listing.
Our service includes a staging consultation and accessory staging or virtual staging as appropriate, professional photography and video, aerial imagery, virtual tours, floor plans, custom listing copy, digital promotion, Realtor outreach, showing and open-house coordination, seller updates, administration, contract management and negotiation.
If the property needs full furnishing, moving services or another substantial addition to the plan, we discuss the scope and any additional cost in advance.
Ask every agent you interview to explain what is included, what could be extra and how the commitments will be documented. The Manitoba Real Estate Association's service-agreement guidance explains the role of written terms covering services, timing, payment and termination rights.
You should understand the agreement before signing it and feel comfortable asking questions about anything unclear.
A checklist for your luxury REALTOR® consultation
Key Takeaways
Start with trusted recommendations and examine the experience behind them.
Prioritize the individual agent's recent work in your price range. My personal benchmark is five relevant sales in the past year.
Expect pricing advice that combines comparable evidence with direct knowledge of buyers.
Ask how staging, marketing and relationships will help people understand and discover your home.
Agree on communication, privacy, service scope and how decisions will be made throughout the sale.
Choose someone whose judgment you trust, including when the conversation is difficult.
Considering the sale of a luxury or distinctive Winnipeg home?
I would be happy to walk through your property, hear what you are planning and answer your questions. We can discuss value, preparation, marketing and the approach that makes sense for your circumstances.
Whether you are ready to list or still working through the possibilities, request an evaluation of your Winnipeg home or email me at Jennifer@QueenTeam.ca.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long does a luxury home selling consultation take?
It can be as short as 30 minutes, although most people have questions they want to explore. I would allow approximately 75 minutes for a typical consultation with me. The time depends on the property and the discussion. It is an opportunity to understand the recommendations and decide whether the working relationship feels right.
What if I need to pause the listing or my plans change?
Tell me and we will discuss a pause or a revised plan. I will never pressure you to sell your home. We also review the existing listing terms and document the appropriate changes. If an offer has already been accepted, the agreement and the other party's rights must be considered with your lawyer before changing the sale arrangements.
Can I review the photographs and discuss privacy before launch?
Absolutely. We share the images and plan the presentation with you. Tell us about anything you want considered, including what appears in photographs and how showings will fit your household. Those conversations are most useful before the material is published and appointments begin.
What if my luxury home was already listed and did not sell?
A fresh perspective can help identify what needs to change. I review the presentation, price, feedback and previous campaign before developing the next plan. Sometimes giving the listing a breather is helpful, too. The timing and the changes should have a purpose that we can explain.
Does an agent's large social media following mean they have buyers for my home?
Ask about the audience, the inquiries the marketing generates and the agent's current buyer relationships. I want a claim about having buyers to be grounded in active clients under signed agreements who are financially prepared and searching for a relevant property. Understanding those details helps you assess how the marketing and relationships could support your sale.
How do I compare two offers with different terms?
We review the price alongside possession, deposit and conditions, then consider how each offer fits your priorities and the path to completing the sale. One seller may place considerable value on timing; another may prefer a different balance of terms. I will explain the differences so you can make an informed decision.
Do I need a Realtor who specializes in luxury homes to sell my property?
I would prioritize an agent with recent, relevant experience selling properties in your price range and an understanding of the buyers likely to consider your home.
That experience matters more to me than whether someone uses the word “luxury” in their branding.
Ask for examples of comparable transactions, how the agent determined value, what marketing they used and what challenges arose during the sale.
Is a large real estate brokerage better for selling a luxury home?
I believe the individual Realtor's experience, judgment, relationships and execution matter more than the size or name of the brokerage.
A brokerage can provide useful resources, but I would want to know who is personally responsible for pricing, marketing, communication and negotiations.
Ask to see actual work and relevant results rather than relying on a brand name alone.
Want an evaluation of your luxury home? I would love to help.
Email me anytime: Jennifer@QueenTeam.ca
Your Friend in Real EstaTe,
Jennifer Queen
Phone: (204) 797-7945
Email: Jennifer@QueenTeam.ca
About the Author
Jennifer Queen is a Winnipeg REALTOR® and leader of Queen Team at Ethos Realty Inc., with extensive experience representing buyers and sellers throughout Winnipeg and surrounding communities.
Her work includes luxury residences, custom-built properties, riverfront homes and other distinctive real estate where pricing and positioning require careful consideration.
Jennifer's approach combines comparable sales analysis with firsthand knowledge of buyer expectations, professional property presentation, targeted marketing and relationships within the REALTOR® community. As leader of Queen Team, she works alongside professionals supporting staging, photography, video production, marketing and transaction coordination.
Through her writing, Jennifer shares practical insights drawn from real estate transactions, negotiations and the challenges of matching unique properties with the right buyers. Her goal is to help homeowners understand their options and make informed decisions about the sale of their property.