What I Do For My Sellers:
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1. Price your home correctly.
The most important job of a seller’s agent is pricing the home correctly. It is hard to overstate just how important it is to get the price right at the outset. Many sellers assume that if they price it too high, they can just come back and lower the price. While that is technically true, the reality is that lowering the price of your home listing can change the perception of the property in the eyes of REALTORS and buyers.
They assume that if you couldn’t sell it at the price you set, that means something is wrong with the property. Many times, if you set the price too high and have to reduce to sell it, you will wind up having to go lower and lower to get a buyer – lower than you would have if you had set the price correctly at the beginning.
A knowledgeable real estate agent will carefully set your sale price to be competitive in the market based on similar home sales in your area. Just having the assistance of a great agent to price your home is often worth more than the commission you will pay on the property.
2. Market your property like crazy.
Marketing homes are the next most important skill a real estate agent offers sellers. Exceptional real estate marketing requires a lot more than listing the house and putting up a sign in the yard. You need to prepare the property, take excellent photos, write a compelling listing, spread the word through multiple channels – MLS, real estate sites, the Realtor’s website, social media, word of mouth – and showing the home.
The best REALTORS have a tried and true system to market properties, one that cannot be replicated by anyone but another real estate professional.
3. Avoid shady gimmicks designed for their interests, not yours
Unfortunately, real estate agents are a dime a dozen. If you pick the wrong agent, they could entice you into one of these common practices where the benefits are solely with them and not you. These include:
- A pocket listing – pocket listings are when the agent keeps your home in-house or even to themselves and does not let anyone else know about it. If you want to sell your home for the most money, this is a huge mistake. The more people that know about your home, the better!
- Dual agency – lots of real estate agents practice dual agency. The benefits lie squarely with the agent and NOT the seller. Never accept dual agency whereby your agent becomes a neutral party, no longer representing your best interests.
- Guaranteed house sale – The “I will sell your house in X days” is another shady gimmick used by agents to get you to list your home with them. If you don’t mind selling your home for 50 cents on the dollar, go right ahead and fall for this stupid marketing tactic.
- Open houses – is an open house appropriate? Sure go right ahead but know that anyone serious about buying a home is going to schedule a showing. Open houses are entirely unnecessary in the digital age and are used by agents to prospect for business. They will use your home as their sales office for the day. Don’t be fooled.
4. Communicate with you about what is going on.
If you are like most sellers, you have a life, a job, and other obligations that occupy a large portion of your time. But just because you are busy does not mean you don’t want to know what is happening with your home sale.
A top-shelf agent will keep you up to date about what is happening concerning your sale. Feedback will be a regular part of the process of selling your home. Equally important, they will not bother you with unimportant information that you don’t need to be aware of.
One of the best things about having a good agent is that you can trust them to update as needed so that you are in the loop and able to make informed decisions but not overwhelmed with an endless stream of unnecessary details.
5. Make sure the buyer is qualified.
Pretty much anybody can say they want to buy a house. But not everyone is capable of buying your property. To sift through the interested buyers, you need to look for those that are pre-approved for a mortgage.
Pre-approval is challenging to get because you have to go through almost the full process of getting a mortgage. But once a buyer is pre-approved, it means that they should be able to purchase your home if nothing changes with their finances.
Your real estate agent will make sure that pre-approved buyers are the ones that you interact with so you don’t waste your time with people that cannot buy the home.
6. Negotiate the best terms.
Your agent wants to get you the best terms for your sale. It’s what they are paid to do. They are skilled at negotiation – after all, it’s something they do regularly for multiple clients. When you have to go to the negotiating table, you want a skilled negotiator there on your behalf. They will ensure that you get the best possible terms for your sale.
In most cases, you want as much money as possible for your sale. But you may have other terms that are equally important, like closing the sale quickly if you have to move for work. Your agent will be intimately familiar with your needs and will push to ensure that those needs are met through the sale.
7. Be present for the home inspection.
The home inspection is going to provide the hard facts about the state of the home – facts that are going to be the basis for negotiations moving forward. You want to have your agent there at the inspection that represents your interests.
Your agent can follow along throughout the inspection so that they know the state of your home and are ready for the potential issues that the buyer might bring up in negotiations. They will also be able to push back if the buyer’s agent overstates the importance of the problems in the negotiations.
Lots of real estate agents like to make excuses on why they won’t attend the inspection. Some of them are “it’s for the buyer I don’t have a right to be there” or “an attorney advised against it.” Hogwash – these are lame excuses. If you aren’t in attendance, it is impossible to determine what is a real issue and what isn’t. Quite often, a home inspector’s report overstates simple problems causing home buyers to ask for the moon.
8. Attend the home appraisal.
The appraisal is another major event that severely impacts your home sale. The appraiser may have questions about the home that need to be answered to facilitate the evaluation – your agent will be there to answer those questions and make the job of the appraiser as easy as possible.
For example, if the appraiser needs to know about significant updates that you have made to the home, your real estate agent can provide that information. This kind of information can have a big impact on the final appraised price of your home, so you want to make sure that it is delivered in full to the appraiser.
Before the appraisal even happens, your agent should be offering guidance on how to be ready for it.
9. Tie up and solve any remaining issues for the closing.
There are so many small details that must be taken care of to close the sale of a home. Your REALTOR will take care of all those fine points and loose ends so that you don’t have to worry about them – or worry about being surprised in a way that disrupts the closing.
Things like taking care of the smoke and carbon monoxide detector certificate, final water/sewer readings, and similar issues – these are tasks that your agent will handle.
10. Get the best price for your home.
A real estate agent that knows the value of your home is the best-qualified individual to negotiate on your behalf. There are no guarantees about how things will turn out, but you can stack the odds in your favor by using a professional to fight for the best possible price.