If you’re a homeowner and you’re thinking about selling your home, definitely hire a real estate agent. Although there are websites that will allow you to sell your home without the listing agent, by marketing your home as “for sale by owner” (FSBO). And although you may save some money by not having to pay a fee to the real estate listings brokerage – you may not be doing yourself a great service. It may not be your best move!
Understanding today’s real estate market and knowing how to sell your home for top dollar is not so simple. And it may not be something that many of us are prepared to do. There will be a lot of work in managing the sales process, ;legal work, papers, and in the end saving some money may not be worth it.
So why should you leave it to the pros?
Pricing your home
Real estate agents know best how to price your home. They have access to real statistics and data which allows them to perform a proper market analysis and look at the comparable homes. This is key, if you want to price your home right. This will also determine how fast you’ll sell your home and how much you’re going to get in the end. Don’t just settle for some website to tell you how much your home is valued. It’s a big sale transaction. Hire a professional. You’ll be glad you did.
Sales and marketing strategy
Selling homes takes effort. Not only does your home have to be de-cluttered, presentable and clean, but it also has to be listed, staged, shown to potential buyers etc. A real estate professional will take care of all that and more. They will take lots of good photos, make videos and put together effective home feature sheet. They will list the house on MLS, their own websites and social channels. They will hold open houses, setup for sale signs, do walk-throughs and deal with any positive or negative comments about your home. All this to get your home noticed by a potential buyer and sold for top dollar in a short time.
Negotiating and closing the sale
There is a lot of negotiating, paperwork and legal stuff that has to be done before a home is considered sold. Your agent will understand the process really well, and have experience to avoid common pitfalls. They will have access to a real estate lawyers to carefully review the purchase offers and conditions and offer advice. Your real estate agent will also screen potential buyers, to make sure that your home is going to be sold to someone who actually has the money or is pre-approved by the reputable mortgage lender — before taking the home off the market.
This isn’t an exhaustive list of all the duties and responsibilities that seller’s agent has to perform. A successful real estate agent usually has a team that coordinates the sale of your home from begging to the end. Also, your agent can also be helping you buy your new home or transition into something else.
Knowing that you’re in the right hands, when we’re talking hundreds of thousands of dollars, is a good feeling. Definitely hire a real estate agent when selling or buying your home. You can’t afford not to!
Thinking of selling your home in Burlington and surrounding area? Call Lori VanDinther, or visit loriv.com to learn more about her home selling services.