 |
HOW TO FIND THE BEST REAL ESTATE AGENT |
How to find the best real estate agent to sell your home.
The real estate industry is recognizing that the best agents to help people sell their homes have different skills than agents who help people buy. To sell your home, you want the best real estate agent with a great marketing program. To help you buy a home, you need someone with a whole different set of skills.
Selling a home is strictly business and money is the object. Buying a house is more emotional, involving questions such as: Do you like it? Will it meet your needs? Does it match your idea about who you are and where you want to live? It's important for sellers to keep these differences in mind when selecting the best real estate agent to market their home. You'll want to select a Realtor® who specializes in representing sellers.  Click here to find the best real estate agent in your area.
All the real estate experts, even the National Association of Realtors, suggest that before you list your home for sale, you should interview three agents from different companies. To come up with the names, drive around your neighborhood to see which agents are doing the most business. That will give you an idea about who to call. Also, talk to your friends and neighbors, asking if they would recommend their real estate agent. Or, perhaps your lawyer or accountant has some names of the top real estate agents in the area to sell your home.
Once you have the names, it's time to interview them and select the best real estate agent to sell your home. How do you decide? Use Neal Hribar's 26 important questions as a guide to making the final choice. You'll want to know how long they've been in the business and how many homes they've sold in your neighborhood. Experience really counts in real estate and you want a Realtor® to market your property, negotiate the sales contract and manage today's complex real estate transactions.
People buy neighborhoods first. So, your best real estate agent has to be able to sell the entire neighborhood, not just your home. You'll want to choose someone who's really an expert in your neighborhood. This person should know about local schools and shopping as well as the local real estate market.
You'll also want to learn about the Realtor's marketing plan. Most will have a written plan that will outline the exact steps they will take to sell your home. Check out Neal Hribar's powerful 7-stage home marketing plan for comparison purposes. If a real estate agent doesn't have a written plan, you should terminate the interview and proceed to the next person. Click here to find the best real estate agent in your area
Sellers will want to find out their net proceeds from the transaction. Ask what your costs are going to be and tell the Realtor® you want to see his estimate of the bottom line. When a purchase agreement comes in, your best real estate agent should again, estimate how much you will net from the deal. Ask how good his numbers are and how close the estimates are to what actually happens at closing. The figures should agree within a few hundred dollars.
This is also the time to discuss the real estate agent's commission, which is normally paid by the seller. Real estate commissions are negotiable, but they are usually in the five to seven percent range. Commissions should be discussed in a business-like way. If you feel the commission is too high, be direct with your best real estate agent and say so. Another way to deal with commissions is to bring them up during the negotiation of an offer. If the buyers and sellers can not get together, you may ask the agent(s) to work out something with their commission to make the transaction work.
Be suspicious of an agent who is too willing to quickly reduce his commission. You usually get what you pay for and a Realtor® with the lowest fee is not necessarily the best real estate agent to help sell your home. If your agent reduces his fee, the amount paid to the buyer's agent may also be reduced and your home may not be shown at all. Think about it! If you were a busy real estate agent, which home would you show, one where you can make 2 percent or one where you can make 3 percent?
Another thing to consider is, if your agent gives up easily on his own fee, how good will he negotiate for you? You'll want to find out what services are going to be reduced with a lower fee. In today's complex real estate business, you need all the service you can get. You may find that paying a full commission will actually give you a higher sales price. In my experience, the top real estate agents have the background and skills that justify them charging a top fee for their services. And usually they are worth it! Click here to find the best real estate agent in your area
REVIEW ON HOW TO FIND THE BEST REAL ESTATE AGENT:
- Select the best real estate agent who specializes in representing sellers.
- Interview three agents to find the best one to sell your home.
- Do business with a local Realtor® who knows your neighborhood and sells a lot of homes there.
- When choosing the best real estate agent to sell your home, be sure he has a written marketing plan and follows it.
- Be sure to pay a fair commission to motivate both the listing agent and the buyer's agent.
|
Do you want to find the best real estate agent in your area?
 Click here for details on a free nationwide real estate agent referral program.
Click here to view more Seller Reports.
|
|
Carlsbad, California 92008