Aside from selling their houses in the shortest time and for the most money, many first-time sellers really aren’t sure what to expect, from their listing agent! The truth is, what you can expect are the very things that a good agent is uniquely qualified to deliver. Focus on these four areas, to get the best from your agent.
Need For Speed One of the most important attributes when selling your home is closing the deal within a specific time frame. This is as true today as it was back in 2011 or 2012, based on a survey of real estate consumers conducted by The National Association of Realtors®. The need for speed is apparent in most transactions and usually presents a delicate situation for sellers, as timing is largely dependent on price. Experienced agents will communicate your sales proposition to potential buyers, without compromising the opportunity: “Do you want to sell quickly? Or do you want to sell for the best price possible?” With solid market knowledge, sales experience and networking, a good agent will know how to balance the two and work the deal to your advantage.
Beefier Marketing As a seller, marketing your property to the maximum number of qualified sellers is an important requirement, as it opens up the opportunity exponentially. Even though an improving housing market is speeding up home sales over past years, it is still no easy task to sell your single-family home, multi-family home or apartment without the right marketing plan. And as a first-time seller, the perfect plan may not be in your reach.
Good agents are experts at varying the depth and breadth of the marketing efforts required to get the result expected by the seller. If you feel the proposed plan looks skinny, task your agent with a beefier marketing plan to ensure your property gets the widest and most targeted exposure possible. Ask your agent to share the listing presentation with you and ensure go it goes beyond the basics of listing on the MLS, with specific marketing tactics targeting specific demographics of potential buyers.
Pricing To Win The most challenging part of the listing presentation is establishing what your house is worth on the market as the list price (or even a price range) can make or break your chance at getting the best deal. As a seller you will have conducted your own research on homes for sale in the neighborhood but should still expect this magical number from your agent! Experienced agents know the home buying-selling landscape well and are more in touch with buyers’ expectations. They can greatly simplify the process of coming to agreement with the buyer about the best. price. Ask your agent to benchmark a sale price for a neighboring property and spend some time researching and validating the price to get more comfortable with your agent’s way of working.
Finding The Buyer As a first- time homeowner, you may have big expectations but not enough knowledge of the home- selling process. For example, you may think it makes little sense to widen the marketing efforts to other agents when it just be focused to the public at large. Despite what you may have read up on or been advised, it is the agent who usually finds the buyer, and sometimes that can be another agent, who will bring in the buyer…. hence the need to go beyond the search for individual buyers! Despite a killer presentation, full-on property marketing and individual sales effort, finding the buyer is what your agent can do best for you.
Pricing your property, knowing buyers’ expectations, meeting those expectations and following through successfully is what you can expect from a good listing agent. Use these tips to get the best out of yours.
