6 Reasons to Use a Realtor to Sell Your Home

  • You want to sell your home for the highest price. But you don't want to wait forever to sell.
  • You know you have to fix up the home but you don't want to invest a bunch of money into the home that you are going to sell.
  • You want as many buyers to come into your house to look. But you are concerned about strangers. (Which you are rightly to be concerned about if you have seen recent headlines about attacks on Realtors).
  • You want to find an honest buyer who can actually afford your property and will deal fairly with you (Instead of trying to pull a fast one on you). You don't want to be told one thing by the buyer then find out the contract says something totally different!
  • And once you get a contract you want the financing, appraisal, inspections, title and everything else to go smoothly. You don't want to find out at after you are all packed up and ready to move into your new home that you can't because your home won't close.


Well that is why you hire a Realtor.

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You Realtor will guide and advise you through the home selling process. The process can be outlined as follows:

1. Pricing Your Home
2. Staging Your Home
3. Marketing Your Home
4. Showing Your Home
5. Negotiating Your Home
6. Getting to Closing

 

#1 Pricing Your Home

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The price you set for your home is the most significant decision you will make when selling your home. Your Realtor will show you:

-What your current competition is priced at
-What the current under contract home are priced at
-What the recent sales sold at

You will be shown time on the market and pictures of updates and views from the homes. You Realtor will make a recommendation based on this data. However, it is your decision to set the actual price. Your Realtor will then decide if they can sell the home at that price or if it is better if another agent worked with you. As a compromise you both may decide on a pricing plan to try a price for 30-60 days then have an automatic adjustment.

Your Realtor's recommendation of price will be based on the current trend in the real estate market and your updates. Your Realtor knows that today's home buyer knows the price of everything for sale and will comparing your home directly to those. So as long as your home is bigger or nicer in some way then you can justify asking a higher price.

However, please be aware that you don't get dollar for dollar return for any updates or improvements you made to your home. So your new $100,000 Kitchen will not mean you home will sell for $100,000 more. And something like a new roof might only mean your home will sell quicker and for slightly more. After all, if you did put on a new roof the buyer would be asking for one after the home inspection.

#2 Staging Your Home

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By now your have heard of staging. Well guess what ... so has your buyer! They have watched the HGTV shows and expect a staged home. Also, your competition down the street has watched those shows and has already staged their home.

Your Realtor will give you staging advice. Some of it is practical and common knowledge. Clean up. Declutter. Depersonalize. But when you get to furniture layouts and if you need to do any updating ... you really need an expert. Why spend money on an update that would over improve your home and you wouldn't get your money back? Your Realtor is knowledgeable about the market and can show you what your neighbors have done so that you are staged competitively with the market.

#3 Marketing Your Home

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This is where most home seller focus. But you can see that there are many steps to the home selling process. And even if you price your home right, stage your home and then market it appropriately you still might not sell! You still have to be available to show your home, negotiate a contract that won't cost your thousands with an overlooked item, follow up on the buyer's financing, appraisal and inspections and guide everyone to closing.

You may or may not be aware that over 90% of Buyers search for homes on the internet. That means internet marketing for your home is a must. That means professional photos, videos, virtual tours and an attractive ad that sells the lifestyle of the home. Your Realtor knows what Buyers looks for and will make sure your photos and ad show off your home in the best light.

This does not mean Zillow is the answer. There are many real estate websites out there. And in fact Realtor.com (which only Realtors can advertise on) shows more time log onto it than the other websites. So you find buyers who spend more time looking at homes and not just a short visit to satisfy their curiosity on Realtor.com.

But the bottom line is that no matter which website a buyer is visiting, 92% of real estate sales are done by Realtors. Leaving just 8% of sales being For Sale by Owners. That is because internet marketing is advertising for just home buyers. But Your Realtor will be advertising to Buyers and the thousands of other Realtors in their board! And in turn, those Realtors will sell your home and ensure you make it all the way to closing.

-Your Realtor has normal networking meeting where they discuss new properties.
-Your Realtor has email blast that send out your property information to all the other Realtors at defined intervals.
-Your Realtor also uses the functions of the mls system to find out all the Realtors who have clients who match your home. Then your Realtor contacts them to get your home shown.

So if you are thinking of selling your home without a Realtor then you are hoping to be one of those lucky 8% who do sell without Realtor. Or you can join the 92% of home sellers who sold their home with a Realtor. If you were in Vegas would you put the couple hundred thousand that your home is worth on the 8% chance or the 92% chance? (Source http://www.realtor.org/reports/highlights-from-the-2015-profile-of-home-buyers-and-sellers)

#4 Showing Your Home

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Showing your home is about safety, availability and surety.

Safety

First of all your Realtor has procedures in place to ensure their own safety when showing your home. Your Realtor is going to be alone with one or more people. Unfortunately, even with safety procedures bad things do happen to good Realtors.

Your Realtor will be watching the buyers in your home to make sure nothing goes missing. We will ask that everyone stays together and be especially vigilant in your bedroom. That being said you should hide and lock up valuables and paperwork when your home is being shown.

Availability

Are you available during the work day to show your home? The evening? The weekend? Holidays? Seems like whenever you are the busiest is when the buyer would like to look at the home. Your Realtor has a specially designed schedule and network to allow them to show your buyer when they are available to look at your home. We don't want to miss out on a single showing. It only takes one showing/one buyer to buy your home.

Surety

While vetting the buyer for Your Realtor's safety they will also make sure they are pre-qualified buyers. Meaning they have the financial means to buy your home and are actual home buyers. Your Realtor has had neighbors, vacationers, curious homebodies and unscrupulous characters try to see your home before. If the person is not a person who wants to buy a home in a reasonable time frame then your Realtor is not going to risk their own or your house's safety in showing your home.

#5 Negotiating Your Home

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Just because you get an offer doesn't mean it is a good offer. Even a great price might have other terms that will make you want to "look a gift horse in the mouth". Your Realtor will review the contract and terms. They will tell you what is normal and what is extra ordinary. They will review what the different paragraphs of the contract mean to you. Your Realtor will put together a strategy that will net you the highest sales price possible.

#6 Getting to Closing

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Once you have an accepted contract it's not over. There are a dozen things that need to happen in an exact process. Your Realtor will be watching over each. Your Realtor will be following up with the Buyer's lender to find out how it is going. Your Realtor will talk to the appraiser and provide comps to help ensure the right value. Your Realtor will review the home inspection and let you know what normally is fixed and not fixed. Your Realtor will set up closing and make sure the survey and title are ordered. Your Realtor will review the closing statement and make sure it matches the contract. You will know how much you will be walking away from closing before it happens.

 

How a Realtor Can Help You

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Source: http://www.houseofbrokers.com

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