WHY USE A REALTOR®?

Why Use A REALTOR®?

·          Pricing – How do you determine the price when you decide to sell your home yourself?  Do you ask your friends?  Do you use an online resource such as Zillow?  Do you base the price on “what you need to get out of the property”?  None of these are valid ways to price your home.  Your REALTOR® will have access to the latest comparables in terms of size, age, location, and style.  This along with her intimate knowledge of current market conditions should be the basis for pricing.  Just because you put in a new pool, for example, doesn’t necessarily mean that you will be able to recoup the entire cost of that pool.  Price is not a function of value.  The market determines the value of your home. 

·          Advertising – How will you advertise your home?  In the newspaper?  With a yard sign?  Word of mouth?  On a website dedicated to FSBO’s?  Your REALTOR® will do this and much more.  Not only will she put up a yard sign, advertise in the newspaper, and tell her friends, she will enter it into the MLS which automatically puts your house in front of every other REALTOR® in the area who have customer looking for a home.  Your REALTOR’S® website (she does have one of her own doesn’t she?) is probably syndicated to Google, Yahoo, Trulia, Zillow, NY Times, etc. and her website can be found easily by the search engines.  Her experience with developing brochures, flyers, and postcards will be put to use to market your home.

·          Negotiating – How do you negotiate the best price for your home?  This is the most critical area in terms of selling your home.  It’s very difficult to negotiate from a position of strength when you are emotionally attached to something.  You have lived in the home, raised your children there,  put your personality into it, decorated it, and want the buyers to love it and value it as much as you do.  Buyers simply don’t see it that way.  Will you inadvertently say something that will result in a low-ball offer?  For example, if you happen to tell potential buyers that your really need to sell because you have already purchased your next home and two mortgage payment are making things tight the buyer will know that you will entertain almost any offer they throw your way.  This is where your REALTOR® comes in.  She can do what’s best for you without her feelings getting in the way or caving in when strength is called for.   She knows what to say and how to say it so that your position is not compromised.

·          Qualifying – Is the person who wants to buy your house actually capable of buying it?  How do you know?  Just because someone gives you a deposit and gets you to take your home off the market doesn’t mean he can actually buy it .  Your REALTOR® can keep track of the buyer’s loan by staying in communication with his lender to make sure that the loan process is proceeding as it should.  What will you so when someone comes to the door and wants to look at your house?  Will you let him in?  Maybe he wants to buy your house or maybe he is casing it to see if he would like to pay you a return visit for a five-finger discount.  Your REALTOR® will interview and prequalify a buyer before bringing him to your home, so your chances of ending up with an undesirable conclusion are lessened.

·          Staging & Showing – How do you make your home appealing to a buyer?  Of course you keep it clean and tidy, but that may not be enough.  Your REALTOR®  has experience with home staging.  She knows how to give you suggestions that will make your home appeal to the widest segment of buyers.  After your home is staged when will you show it?  Are you available during the middle of the day or are you at work?  Your work schedule will determine when your home is available to be shown.  This may not coincide with a buyer’s wants and needs.  Your REALTOR® can be available to accommodate a buyer who wants to see your home when you cannot be there.

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