3 Reasons Your Real Estate Agent Matters When Selling Your Home
If you’re considering selling your home you might wonder why you need an agent. If you’re like most people you’ll just go with the first person that you think of, your ALTA tennis partner or perhaps that sweet old lady at church. Here are 3 reasons why your real estate agent matters when selling your home and why you should interview!
REASON 1: Why Your Real Estate Agent Matters – Marketing
Take the 4 most expensive homes in all of Lawrenceville Real Estate and you’ll quickly get an idea of who the best marketer is. If you had the money to buy one of these 4 homes which one would you pick just off the photos? I can bet you won’t be picking number 4. Although, the lowest priced home on this list there’s simply nothing to go off of. It’s no wonder many home sellers get upset as this real estate agent would stand to make $20,000 or more off the sell of the home. The truth is that agent number 4 didn’t do what most sellers want, they didn’t work for free. Most sellers want their agent to work for free and then assuming everything went right and everyone is satisfied, then and only then can the real estate agent collect their fee. While a few real estate agents understand this (clearly agent number 1 did), most (more than 80%) do not want to work for free with the hopes of getting paid. That’s why you get a photo like number 4.
As a professional marketer a good real estate agent understands that they can get the highest income when they get the highest dollar amount for their clients.
REASON 2: Why Your Real Estate Agent Matters – Negotiations
You’ve likely heard this one before, and frankly I’m inclined to agree with you. Yes, you can negotiate your own sell of your home better than 80% of the real estate agents out there. That’s exactly WHY it matters WHO you hire. This is a 6 Figure decision! Trusting it to your co-worker because they have a real estate license is actually worse than trying it on your own. Most agents sell roughly 6 to 10 homes a year. While top agents sell roughly a home a week or more. If a real estate agent is selling that many homes do you think they are good at getting deals done?
Go back and look at that photo above. What else can you gather from home 4? That’s right you think, “very few will waste time on it, so maybe I can go and see it and make a low offer.” EVERYONE is thinking this. Furthermore (and we’ll get there in a the last reason), negotiation is more than just price. In fact, the price is the easiest thing to negotiate. You have “terms” such as earnest money, closing date, inspection period, financial, appraisal and other contingencies and their length. Which attorney will you use and what things must you be notified of and why are they important. Is your time protected?
REASON 3: Why Your Real Estate Agent Matters – Convenience
I’ve heard the radio ads, save the commission do it yourself. Let me give you a set of simple questions an agent must answer on every home for sale.
- Is our listing price going to allow the home to be sold to a buyer?
- Is our listing price going to appraise should we get an offer?
- Is our new listing showing up on all the different portals correctly?
- Is our new listing at least appearing as best as possible on fake information sites like Zillow?
- Is our listing accessible to all agents, not just those who do this for a living?
- What did the buyer think that just saw this listing… (Catching the agent for feedback is not easy)
- What did the Agent think?
- Review the Offer: Is Price In line with what seller wants?
- Review the Offer: Is the closing date in line with what the seller wants?
- Review the Offer: Earnest Money Check – is it enough, why is it the amount that it is?
- Review the Offer: Inspection Period – is it normal?
- Review the Offer: Closing Attorney – Why did they pick that one? Is it convenient, customer oriented?
- Review the Offer: Financial Contingencies – Are they in-line?
- Review the Offer: Did the agent provide a good financial proof document?
- Review the Offer: Why did the financial proof document mention X, Y, or Z? Why hasn’t the buyer gone through more of the process? Are they qualified?
Assuming you come to an agreement… - Signed Offer: When will the buyer inspect the home?
- Signed Offer: What did they find (the home buyer)?
- Signed Offer: When will they order the appraisal?
All the time you’re asking yourself, why haven’t they done these things if they don’t do them. - Signed Offer: Did the appraisal come in line with our offer?
- Signed Offer: Did the lender order title work?
- Signed Offer: Did the attorney schedule a convenient closing and are they charging unnecessary fees to my client?
- Is the buyer doing anything that could jeopardize the closing for my client?
So basically, when you hire a top agent, you’re hiring someone to worry about the transaction more than you. Sure your home is a big 6 figure investment like mentioned but top agents do this for a living. That check that you think might be too much money for someone to make (which is an insult) is the check they live off of. So you have to ask yourself who REALLY has more riding on the line. This is only true of “top” agents, not hobby or part time agents. To a part timer, your home is extra vacation money. To a full time business person, it’s their life.
So back to the convenience. You might think I’m talking about time and energy and leading you to calculate the value of the time. Nope. The convenience comes in from a top agent’s years of expertise to be able to look at a contract and know where to ask questions, what questions to ask and to understand the overall risk associated with taking an offer. This is why experience is so key. You can be the greatest negotiator on the planet but if you don’t know that a “pre-qualification” from Quicken Loans means that that buyer only filled out an online form and that no verification has been done then you’re in for a long tedious transaction.
There’s actually a good many reasons why your agent matters but I doubt most seller’s will read it. Instead of opting for a professional, most (80%) will choose the first person they talk to that has a license and end up paying the same price they would for a top agent. Of course, they’ll really pay more in lost time and money in negotiations but that’s another post for another day.
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