Every now and then a Camano Island homeowner decides to skip the real estate professional and try to sell their home themselves. True, some transactions are successful, but more often than not, they eventually hire a pro. Selling your home is undoubtedly complicated and should be handled by an experienced, licensed broker. Take a look at why:
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Real Estate Agents Make Your Listing Legit
Real estate agents legitimize your listing and provide a certain level of security by limiting your exposure to the public. Brokers pre-qualify their clients before they show your house and buyers working with agents are more likely serious prospects. Going this route could save you from tying up your house with an unqualified buyer or put yourself at risk or in a potentially unsafe condition.
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Strategic Marketing
We KNOW marketing – it’s what we do! Brokers spend quite a bit of time and money on marketing the properties they represent and understand the best way to do it. Additionally, they’re experts in their neighborhoods and have a ton of contacts who regularly view their offerings and help them locate the best buyer. Agents also offer inside tips such as when the best time to list is, or how to properly stage your home, or how to maximize your asking price.
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Help with Negotiations
There many details associated with buying and selling properties. Overlook one small detail and your buyer could walk out the door. Negotiating directly with a party and not using a broker gives you no distance, emotional detachment or leverage in a transaction. It often ends in disappointment especially if the homeowner won’t compromise with a prospective buyer. Agents are the perfect intermediary to take any emotion or anxiety out of a sale. They know how to talk tough and when to smooth things over and put the sale back in the running.
Related: Should I Help Advertise My Listing?
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Real Estate Agents have a Team
Not only do most agents and brokers have an internal team of colleagues to help sell your home, but they also know people. They have relationships and access to professionals including home inspectors, contractors, decorators, pest control companies, handymen and lawyers. So, even if you make it through selling the house all by yourself, there is still a lot more work to be done such as inspections and the drafting of contracts. Finding your own professionals can be both expensive and time-consuming if you don’t know where to go. So even though you may think that you’ve saved some money by selling yourself, you may end up spending those savings on these related costs. Agents know the best people to get the job done quickly and efficiently.
Read more: 4 Landscaping Projects to Boost Your Curb Appeal When Selling
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Social Media and the Internet
While you may have a slammin’ Facebook account and be a whiz on Twitter it probably can’t compare with what your real estate agent can do. In almost all cases they have more followers, friends, and connections than you do, AND, most importantly, people deliberately seek them out to search for dream properties. Nobody purposely looks at your Facebook hoping to find their dream house, but hundreds of people look at your agent’s Facebook daily.
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Real Estate Agents are the only ones who can List your home in MLS
The Multiple Listing Service is only open to licensed agents and brokers and has national, local and regional reach. Why waste your money on a newspaper advertisement, when your property will get far more attention and exposure using this well-established service?
Moral of the story? Save yourself time, money as well as a headache and heartache and do it right the first time by getting a real estate professional so you don’t have to replace lawn signs when your do-it-yourself strategy yields less than ideal results.