Choosing the right real estate agent may prove to be the difference between successfully selling your home or not. When you decide to sell your home, carefully interview a couple of agents and ask for some past clients from them for you to call. Agent referrals from your friends is nice but NEVER hire that agent without doing a proper interview. Uncle Mike’s son Bob that just got his license may not be the best agent for you to entrust your most valuable asset with.
When you’re interviewing agents you want to make sure first and foremost you’re a good fit. Sellers and agents are contractually together for a set period of time so it’s critical to make sure you can work with each other. Consider interviewing several agents, the agents you select to interview should have a proven track record of successful business, you can refer to Zillow.com, Trulia.com, Yelp.com and even their website for testimonials that show their work and not be afraid to provide you a recent client list for you to call and check on their work. Never let commissions be a deciding factor, now don’t get me wrong I can appreciate a bargain just like the next person but this is not the time to be cheap. Some agents will gents that have decided to undercut their commissions may be offering a less than normal service, remember you get what you pay for.
Choosing The RIGHT Real Estate Agent
After interviewing some agents and finally selecting one, you may only then realize you’ve hired the wrong one. Too late right? Not necessarily but you may be stuck with them for a while unless you have an out in your listing agreement. When selecting an agent and signing a listing contract to sell your home consider signing the contract only for 30 days, obviously the agent will be nervous about this but in all reality the ball is in their court. If the agent does a good job and is delivering on what they said they would deliver on then no reason to switch agents right and at the expiration time you can just renew. If however the agent isn’t delivering on their promises then you don’t have to wait any longer and can go and find another agent. If you’re dead set on hiring a specific agent and that agent refuses to do a 30 day contract then you might want to put some verbiage in the agreement, adding a simple line like “seller may cancel this listing agreement at anytime with 30 days advanced written notice while property is in active status and no contracts are being reviewed or negotiated” can save you a lot of Headaches. This statement basically says while the property is on the market and there is no active contracts that the seller can cancel the agreement providing that the seller gives 30 days advance written notice. This is not an unreasonable request and if the agent you want to list with has a problem with it then consider yourself lucky to be rid of them this early in the game.
When you have finally chosen the right agent you’ll immediately know you’ve done right by their actions. An agent with a sit back and see how things shake out approach probably wont get your property sold in the fastest time for the most money. A good listing agent will tell you the truth and act with honesty and integrity, they’ll tell you the real facts and not what they think you want to hear, the agent will update you weekly with things they’ve done to market your home as well as what their next plan of action is. To successfully sell real estate in today’s competitive real estate market, agents must always be moving and thinking. Thinking about how to market your home next! If this is the agent you’ve hired, congratulations!
Lastly, pricing your home shouldn’t be a negotiation. It’s not you as the seller trying to get the highest price while the agent tries to list at market value, at least it shouldn’t be. You’ve hired the agent for a reason, have a detailed discussion with your agent about what homes are currently on the market for sale and what properties have sold that are similar to yours recently. You’ll also want to discuss what if any Interior Improvements or Exterior Improvements need to be made prior to listing your home for sale. Once you have this information you should be able to make an educated decision on what the best price should be. Keep in mind that the higher you list outside the fair market value the less your odds are of actually selling the home all while increasing your days on market. If you stick to pricing your property at fair market value then that in addition to some good marketing should sell your home in the average days on market time-frame for the area.
We’re passionate about you choosing the right real estate agent, take a look at our free eBook 7 Steps to Successful Selling for the simple steps needed to sell a home. This book will help you in choosing the right real estate agent by simply eliminating the other agents that aren’t familiar with these 7 simple steps.
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