What To Look For In A Realtor When Selling Your Home
The most common mistake by home sellers when picking a listing agent is to choose one based solely on two criteria: the highest list price for their home and the lowest commission.
How to Choose a Listing Agent
A seller can think, “What? Are you nuts?” at first glance because sellers want to get the best price and pay the smallest commission. These two factors, on the other hand, have very little to do with hiring a professional agent and are, in many cases, utterly useless. Let’s look at why.
Important Points to Remember
Don’t choose your listing agent only on the basis of obtaining the highest list price and the lowest commission.
Ask directly about what your listing agent will do to help you market your home.
When choosing a listing agent, consider their experience, education, honesty, and other things.
Before you choose a competent agent to deal with, there are a few things you should clarify. Here are some of the most significant criteria to consider.
1. Professional Proof
It’s always a good idea to double-check that the person you’re speaking with is a licensed real estate agent. Request a copy of their real estate license. It will not be an issue for any experienced agency to produce it as soon as possible.
2. Referrals and Credentials
The importance of knowing how much experience your prospective realtor has is critical. While newcomers aren’t necessarily a terrible thing, make sure they bring in enough good referrals to compensate for their lack of expertise. However, you should avoid working with part-time agents. Also, choose a listing agent rather than one that claims and can manage both sales and purchases.
Inquire of each agent you meet about the average length of time their listings are on the market. Pick the one that sells the fastest.
3. List-to-price Ratio
Fast sales don’t always imply that you’ll obtain the best price for your home. Examine their price-to-list ratio. This is a comparison of the listed price that the agents set for the home against the final sales price.
A sale price that is less than 90% of the advertised price should raise red flags for you. You’ll also want to make sure the realtor isn’t undervaluing the home to get a better conversion rate.
4. Familiarity with the Area
Make sure the agent you’ll be working with is familiar with the area. There are numerous benefits to this.
For starters, top realtors in your community with a proven track record will be able to showcase your neighborhood’s attributes rather than just your home. They will also have dealt with property sales in the same price range as yours.
5. Exclusiveness
The majority of listing agents work on multiple sales at the same time. If the agent has his or her fingers in too many pies, he or she will not be able to devote enough attention to your home. Choose an agent who prefers not to have too much on his plate at once.
Find out if you’ll be dealing with the same agent throughout the sale process or if you’ll be working with a group. A small team isn’t necessarily a negative thing, but having a single point of contact makes creating rapport much easier
6. Marketing Strategy
Every listing agent who makes a pitch to you should have a good marketing strategy in place to advertise your home. That strategy should involve both offline and online listings, ideally through the Multiple Listing Service, as well as social media marketing, open houses, digital walkthroughs, and other strategies.
7. Network Benefits
An experienced realtor will be able to refer you to a real estate attorney, a professional photographer, a professional stager, house cleaners, movers, and packers, as well as a reliable handyman.
8. Fee Flexibility
Inquire about your agent’s fees and whether or not they are adjustable. Some will charge a flat fee, while others will demand a 6% commission shared with the buyer’s agent. When it comes to fees, though, an agent that is eager to deal with you will agree to some wiggle room.
Questions to Ask After Choosing a Realtor
Once you’ve chosen a listing agent here are some of the questions you ought to be asking.
1. Contact Information
Obtain the contact information for your agent. You’ll have a lot of questions, and you should be able to contact your agent at any moment.
2. The Process for Selling a House
Request that your listing agent walk you through the full process of selling your home. Request that they explain how to prepare your property for listing, how to conduct showings, what home inspections are, how to choose the best offer, escrow accounts, how to close a deal, closing expenses, and other topics.
3. Setting the Price
Your agent should provide a detailed Comparative Market Analysis report for you, complete with photos and prices of properties similar to yours that have recently sold in your community.
Use the CMA report to help you determine an appropriate price for your home. Even if it feels like you’re getting the short end of the stick, make sure you use your agent’s advice. Remember that if you overprice your house, you’ll scare away potential buyers and your home will sit on the market indefinitely. You should try to avoid signing another listing agreement if at all possible.
4. Plan of Action
Take your agent’s advice on how to optimize the sale price of your home. Repairs, remodeling, a pre-sale house inspection, staging, hiring a professional photographer, deep cleaning, organizing your property, and much more are all possibilities.
Some of the things your agent asks you to do, especially when it comes to your home’s design or eliminating personal touches, may go against your beliefs. But keep in mind that for the best outcomes, you must work with your agency.
If the agent suggests that you paint your property or replace any of your furniture and fixtures, even if you don’t think it’s necessary, go ahead and do it. Curb appeal and interior decor play a big role in initial impressions, and your agent will know more about what property buyers want to see than you do.
Also, pay attention to your agent’s recommendations on how to handle showings. Because many homeowners are sensitive to negative feedback, it can be best to keep out of the way and let your agent manage the showings with the buyer’s agent.
Thanks to the internet, finding skilled realtors in your neighborhood shouldn’t be too difficult. Be prepared, though, to meet a lot of people before you locate the ideal one. Before you sign on the dotted line, be sure the listing agreement your agent sends you has a cancellation option in your favor. Also, expect the selling of your property to take longer than you expected.
If you are wanting to sell your home quickly for cash and would like more information, please contact JZ Home Buyers at 817-382-3579. We will be pleased to discuss how this could be the best option for you. We ensure that you will receive all of the information you require at no cost and with no obligation.
