4 helpful reasons you need to use a Realtor.
It’s time for you to sell your home and you’re looking to maximize your profit. You now need to decide if you will use the help of a real estate agent. I want to give you 4 reasons why you need to use a Realtor. And don’t worry, at the end I’ll explain why I think this increases your chance to maximize your profit.
1. Our Knowledge of the Market
The home market is constantly changing throughout the year. As real estate agents, we’re constantly aware of those changes. We have a working knowledge and access to the information of other comparable properties. We know how much those homes are selling for. We know what’s under contract. We know what’s been sitting on the market for awhile.
Not only that, but we know the overall inventory of what’s available throughout your area. “Inventory,” is the number of homes that are available to purchase. If there are more homes than there are buyers, we call that a buyer’s market. This is because since there is more supply (homes) than demand (buyers) the market benefits the buyer. If this is the case when you go to sell, your home may not sell for as much. We may recommend waiting if you’re able to.
If there are more buyers than there are homes, we call that a seller’s market. The market is benefiting the seller because there is more demand than supply. In this circumstance you’re able to get more and often better offers. This is an ideal time to sell.
It requires a regular focus on trends to help recommend what to price your home and when to sell it. We bring that awareness to you to make sure you’re pricing your home well.
2. Getting Your Home List Ready
While you want to make sure your home is list ready by making it more appealing to potential buyers, you want to get the most bang for your buck. It’s possible to invest a little money into improvements that lead to a big return. It’s equally possible to invest a lot of money into improvements that lead to little return.
There are a lot of options for what you can invest in to make your home ready. Should you spruce up your curb appeal? Repaint those bedrooms? Update the appliances? The truth is, there isn’t a one size fits all answer when it comes to maximizing the investment in your home.
Much of what goes into getting the best return on your investment will depend on what is happening in your neighborhood. For example, if homes in your neighborhood are known for their landscaping it’d be best to focus on that instead of repainting a bedroom.
Another way to get your home list ready with minimal investment is for it to be staged well. And yes, you can often use the furniture you already have. As a real estate agent we understand what staging sells best. We often build our home’s layout prioritizing functionality and preferences, not selling. But when it’s time to sell, you should put preferences to the side and design your space for appeal. While you’re likely not selling all your furniture and decor with your home, it helps buyers visualize themselves in the space.
It can be difficult to take an objective view of your home’s appearance (and smells) because for you it’s home. Home is very personal. But having an outside expert come in can give you much needed perspective.
3. Marketing Your Property
As agents that do this for a living, we know how to sell homes. There’s a reason why being an agent is a professional job and why the majority of homes are sold with an agent! If it was as easy as putting out a sign and listing on a few sites, there would either be no real estate agents or everyone would want to be one!
The thing is, you don’t just want to sell your home. You want to sell your home for the best offer! The best way to make sure this happens is by getting multiple offers. The more exposure your home gets, the likelier you are to get more offers.
You also want to make sure your home sells quickly once you list it. Increasing your market exposure also makes this more likely to happen.
Though you do have the ability to list your home on Zillow, Realtor.com, and other popular online listing platforms, Realtors are networked with other agents that have active buyers that have been preapproved and are ready to buy. Realtors can even host open houses while you’re gone at work or vacation so your normal rhythms aren’t interrupted.
4. We minimize the stress
Selling a home is stressful. And while I’d never say we eliminate all of it, we certainly minimize some of the most stressful aspects.
As offers start to come in, we can help you navigate through the best offers. We also handle all negotiations on your behalf. Once an offer is accepted we do the heavy lifting that begins when you get under contract.
We manage the timelines to make sure you are never in breach of contract. We make sure your inspections are scheduled and done. We help you through the appraisal process and help you understand the results of it. And we handle all the paperwork to make sure the “i’s” are dotted and “t’s” are crossed.
Our aim is to get you to the closing table as quickly and painlessly as possible.
While all of this sounds good, I know you’re still thinking about one thing. But What About The Commission?
So with all of this value we bring to the table, some of you may still be thinking that you’d rather handle all of that yourself if it means you can pocket all the cash from your sale.
While all commissions are negotiated and there’s no set commission rate to pay agents, the average commission that comes out of the sale of your home is 5%-6% of the price. Based on the high end of that average, that means if your home sells for $200,000, upwards of $12,000 goes to the agents and not you.
So why would you choose to work with a selling agent? It’s because as your agent, our goal is to get you to net more money even with using our services. That means we’re going to do everything in our power to get your home to sell for more than you could have sold it on your own. So even though we get a cut, you still walk away with more.
What if you sold your home for $200,000 and kept all of that, but with using an agent you could sell that same home for $250,000. That means even if you paid out a $15,000 commission at 6%, you’d net $35,000 more than if you sold it by yourself.
And this isn’t just wishful thinking. Based on a study done by the National Association of Realtors in 2020, the typical home sold for $217,900 while similar homes that were agent-assisted sold for $295,000. Though we can’t guarantee you a certain return, we work hard to make sure you get the best value from your sale.
Selling your home yourself can certainly have some benefits, but they are tremendously outweighed by the benefits of working with an agent. If you’re in the Greater Baton Rouge area and would like to sell your home, I’d love to be your agent. Click here to visit my website heatherhebert.craft.realty or contact me directly. My information can be found below.
I’m looking forward to helping you sell your home for the best value possible in a timely manner!