Interviewing Real Estate Agents To Market Your Property
Meeting With Realtors®... You have decided to sell your home and have a fairly good idea of what you think it is worth. Being a sensible home seller, you decide to schedule interviews with three local listing agents. A couple of the Realtors® have come up with prices that are lower than you had expected. Although they back up their recommendations with recent sales data of similar homes, you remain convinced your house is worth more. When you interview the third agent's figures, they are much more in line with your own anticipated value, or maybe even higher. If two of the agents are close and one is higher and more inline with your idea of value, you need to look closer.
In addition to a realistic pricing presentation backed up by current market data, the marketing of your property is also extremely important and choosing an agent solely on price may cost you in the long run. How will your home be marketed? Who will it be marketed to & how? How will you as a seller be represented? Do you understand the Agency Relationships? What is the quality of the marketing materials? Where do they market homes? Is your home heavily marketed online? Have you viewed other listings of the agents online? How do the photographs and tours look? Are their homes "showcased" on Realtor®.com? Is the marketing materials in color?
Hiring the right agent to market and sell your property is imperative to obtain the highest possible return on your investment.
Behind the Scenes... If you start out with too high a price on your home, you may have just added to your stress level, and selling a home is stressful enough getting ready for showings, and keeping everything in "showing" condition. There will be a lot of "behind the scenes" action taking place that you will not know about. Contrary to popular opinion, the listing agent does not usually attempt to sell your home to a home buyer. That is not very efficient. Listing agents market and promote your home to numerous other brokers and agents who do work with home buyers, dramatically increasing your personal sales force and to buyers who are searching for homes via the internet. During the first couple of weeks, depending on the market, your home should be a flurry of activity with buyer's agents coming to preview or show your home so they can sell it to their clients and prospective buyers driving by to check your house out from the exterior to see if they are interested enough to make an appointment... If the price is right and is being marketed properly. If you have overpriced your home, your home will help your competition sell. Realtors® know the local market conditions and home values. Buyers searching for a new home are comparing properties features, amenities, location and prices. Buyers will compare your home to others in your area. If your house is dramatically above market, you will help your competition sell and your home will remain on the market and become market worn and in turn, these sellers usually end up losing money over time.
Dropping Your Price...Too Late Later, when you drop your price, your house is "old news." You will never be able to recapture that flurry of initial activity you would have had with a realistic price. Your house could take longer to sell. Sellers often say they want to "test the market". Once the property is on the market, it is no longer a "test", it is on the market! Even if you do successfully sell at an above market price, your buyer will need a mortgage. The mortgage lender requires an appraisal. If comparable sales for the last six months and current market conditions do not support your sales price, the house will not appraise. Your deal falls apart. Of course, you can always attempt to renegotiate the price, but only if the buyer is willing to listen. Your house could go "back on the market." Once your home has fallen out of escrow or sits on the market awhile, it is harder to get a good offer. Potential buyers will think you might be getting desperate, so they will make lower offers. By over pricing your home in the beginning, you could actually end up settling for a lower price than you would have normally received and increased your market time.
When you begin your research to put your home on the market, choosing the best agent to advise you of the current market conditions, trends, preparing & staging your home for the market, knows your competition, is experienced in negotiations, and provides you with a quality, diverse marketing plan for your home to reach the highest number of "likely buyers" for your home is the agent/broker you should choose.
