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Featured Blog: Three Things To Look For When Hiring a Realtor
Your home may be your biggest asset and you want to hire the best Realtor to handle the transaction.
You should interview two or three Realtors. Ask your family and friends for a referral.
1. Need to hire a Realtor that sells in your community
- Look at their past sales and current listings to see if they have listings in your area or have sold homes near by.
- Do they live in your community or nearby?
2. Ask about their experience
- How long have they been licensed?
- Do they have past sales in your price range?
- Can they negotiate offers?
- Ask for references or testimonials.
3. Services they provide
- Ask about their marketing plan and be sure it includes online marketing.
- Who is part of their team: Home Stager, Closer, Mortgage lender?
- What services do they provide that other Realtors don’t
You need to find a Realtor who can not only market the house but negotiate the offer and help you have a successful closing.
esagor
8:59 am on Friday, February 10, 2012
The bigger question is why hire a realtor at all? These days there are many alternatives that would save the seller thousands of dollars in commission costs. While there may be good reasons (FSBO isn't the best choice for every seller), many sellers see the realtor model as obsolete and question whether the realtors' and sellers' incentives are well aligned. This article would be better if it backed up a step to convince us of the value of investing thousands of dollars in the services a realtor can provide.
Julie Overbye Ledy
7:26 pm on Monday, March 19, 2012
Hi Esagor,
Thank you for responding to my blog. If you haven't bought or sold a home recently I can understand your question. As the seller, your goal is to get the most amount of money in the shortest amount of time and that is also the Realtors goal.
Have you had a bad experience working with a Realtor? I would love to hear back from you to discuss this further.
There are a lot of different pieces that must come together when selling a home.
A Realtor helps the seller set a realistic price. They have the information and knowledge to help the seller ask the highest amount for the house. Many realtors today will provide a free consultation of home staging for a seller to prepare the home for sale. I help sellers stage their home to appeal to as many buyers as possible.
Most buyers have a home inspection. A Realtor will help negotiate the home inspection because a buyer is often asking the seller to fix items or reduce the price. A Realtor then monitors the buyers loan, has the title work done, and chooses a qualified closer. These are all things that need to be done to have a successful closing where the seller will receive their money.
I just sold a house in Roseville and there was over 40 pages to the purchase agreement. Most buyers are being represented by a professional Realtor who will be working solely for the buyer to get the buyer the best price and terms. If a seller chooses not to work with a realtor, who will be representing them?
Scott Carlson
12:28 pm on Friday, February 10, 2012
So, I am not a realtor. But if I am a buyer and the seller doesn't have a realtor, don't I just expect the seller to drop the price of their home by what ever the commission wold have been? I am not sure the seller is saving thousands in commission costs? Or am I off base?