Choosing a Realtor

How To Select A Real Estate Professional To Sell Your Home

Selling a home involves making major decisions about where and how you will live for many years, and often has very important implications for your financial future. For these reasons, many Sellers enlist the services of real estate professionals to help them with complex real estate transactions. In fact, nearly 91% of all home sales are made with the assistance of a real estate professional or real estate broker.

Thus, consumers need to know how to choose a qualified real estate professional/broker, what services the real estate professional/broker should provide, and what recourse is available if a real estate professional/broker fails to perform.

If you are selling, the right real estate professional/broker can help you realize the best possible price and terms for the sale of your home, and also can help you find the best deal on your purchase of a new home.

Choosing a real estate professional is one of the most important decisions you will make whether buying or selling a home. A good real estate professional can save home buyers and home sellers thousands of dollars, can protect their best interest and can have a significant impact on whether the home sale closes in a timely and orderly manner. With so many real estate professionals, how do you pick a good one?

As in all professions there are competent and incompetent practitioners. This is true with real estate professionals. The average real estate professional sells less than 3 homes per year, works on a part time basis, and relies on referral business from family and friends. Everyone knows someone who is a real estate agent. Uncle Bob, Father-In-Law Paul, cousin Susan, your mother’s best friend Eunice, the list goes on. Be very wary of those types of referrals. The social pressure to conduct business with them can be intense, but in many cases those real estate agents will not be able to effectively assist you in the sale of your home. A home sale or purchase is a huge financial investment and a long term commitment. In the wrong hands the wrong real estate agent can costs you thousands of dollars or worse, and you may never know it until it is too late.

Real estate services are not inexpensive. Home sellers may pay a five to seven percent commission to the real estate broker, who in turn compensates the real estate professional on the sale of the home. Most of the time the real estate professional who sells the home is not the listing agent, therefore the commission is also split with the buyer’s broker and listing broker.

A good real estate professional can help you determine how much your home is worth, devise a strategy to price and market the property, negotiate a purchase offer, help judge whether prospective buyers are financially qualified to purchase your home, and coordinate many of the financial and transaction details involved in closing the deal.

While there are a number of things to look for in a real estate professional, ultimately, the decision is a personal one. Be sure that you find a licensed real estate professional and a reputable real estate broker who can provide the range of services that are important to you, and with whom you feel comfortable.

Any real estate agent can stick a for sale sign in your yard, put your home information in the multiple listing service and prepare brochures. A truly competent real estate professional has a well-thought-out marketing plan that in this day requires extensive internet exposure, including virtual tours. Also from the time an offer comes in until your home sale closes, the “truly competent” real estate professional excels in negotiations and monitoring all the details of inspections and the necessary paperwork. Here is where the Realtor earns much of the real estate commission, and can potentially save the home seller thousands of dollars.

Restrict your search to residential real estate professionals and companies that work in your area. The most effective real estate professional is one who knows about the neighborhood and can answer questions important to potential buyers of your home, about schools, places of worship, medical facilities and other services available in the community.

Remember to “interview” the real estate company, as well. While you probably will be working directly with a single real estate agent, remember the real estate agent brings with him, or her, the resources or limitations of the real estate company (broker) for which he, or she, works. This means it is important for you to ask each real estate professional about the real estate company with which he, or she, is affiliated.

You will also want to know about the marketing tools the company makes available to the real estate professional, such as specialized advertising campaigns. Also, make sure that someone will be available at all reasonable hours to show your home to prospective buyers.


What A Real Estate Professional Does For The Seller

Markets Your Property: Your real estate professional will market your home in a combination of ways. Ask about the real estate professional’s marketing plan. Be sure to ask the real estate professional about their internet marketing plan. Many of today’s home buyers preview homes on the internet to help them narrow their home selection process.

Your real estate professional will also look at your property objectively and help you to emphasize pluses and play down minuses, telling you what problems need to be corrected. He, or she, will show your home to prospective buyers and can pre-qualify prospects to determine whether they are able to afford your home.

Be honest with your real estate agent about the condition of your home, and about what you will accept for a final price on your home. Remember that your real estate professional represents you, the seller, and not the buyer of the house, and is obligated to keep confidential any information that would not deceive the buyers.

The real estate professional’s job is to get you the best possible price for your property in the shortest possible time.

Evaluates Offers, Negotiates With Buyers: When there is an offer on your property, the real estate professional immediately sets up an appointment to present a written offer and answer your questions. Your real estate agent will explain any contingencies on the offer contract, and tell you how these conditions might affect you and what is in your best interest.

Your real estate professional will offer advice on strategy and counter offers, and communicate your counter offer to the buyer. Once an offer has been signed by both the buyer and the seller, it is considered ratified and binding.

Monitors Progress Leading To Closing: You will usually have to wait a few weeks to close the deal, while the buyer secures mortgage financing. Your real estate professional will continue to monitor the loan application process for the buyer and coordinate appointments with home inspectors and appraisers, too.

Your real estate professional, also, will be present with you at closing along with the title company representative, when you sign the papers for the sales transaction.

If you would like to talk to an excellent real estate professional about selling your home, call me. I would love to sit down with you and go over my marketing strategy for your home, and discuss how I can help you sell your home in the least amount of time, for the most money, and the least amount of hassle.