A good real estate agent for sellers is the jack of all deals. They will help you prepare your home for sale, set prices, decide on sales strategies and negotiate with buyers. This Redfin article provides an overview of the responsibilities and qualities to look for by the seller’s agent. Whether you’re selling a home in Boise, ID, Santa Fe, New Mexico or not, you know how to choose a real estate agent to sell your home.
What is a seller’s agent?
The seller’s agent is a real estate agent or Realtor® and represents someone who wants to sell the property. “Seller’s agent” and “listing agent” are often used interchangeably. This contrasts with buyer agents who represent those interested in purchasing real estate.
What is a listing consultation?
When you are selling your home, your first meeting with a real estate agent is often referred to as a listing consultation. During consultations, your agent will look at your property and learn more about your sales goals. They will discuss with you about the sales feature of your home and suggest improvements that could increase your price. It also does a Comparative Market Analysis (CMA) that considers comparative homes for sale nearby and determines the recommended prices. A good seller agent should come up with a marketing strategy to help you get that price.
What is the role of a listing agent?
Listing agents have several responsibilities, including preparing homes, staging real estate, taking professional photos of the home, determining prices, marketing the home, and closing transactions.
Preparing to sell your home
Our experienced listing agents know how to maximize your property value so that you can receive the best dollars for your home. They will be able to identify what improvements you should make to your home (if any) to increase the amount of money sold. We also recommend service providers that offer great value, such as inspectors, handymen, painters, landscape gardeners, stagers and more.
It is your greatest benefit to hire an inspector after this initial consultation to complete your home and pest inspection. Depending on the facility, you can also inspect the roof, sewer, drainage, fireplace, pool or other important features. Depending on the amount of work, the agent will advise you to complete the repair or leave it in place for the buyer.
Agents can help you assess your return on investment (ROI). For every dollar you spend, you want to receive $2 in return. In the seller’s market, there is a shortage of homes in the market and there is a buyer’s surplus, so it may be sold in the market in the first week or two without completing repairs. However, in most cases, it is best to do the repair first whenever you want to receive a “top dollar.” The majority of buyers do not want a construction zone. They will pay a premium to do the job. They write a check and want peace of mind.
Stage to sell your home
Preparing your property is art and you need to be careful if you want to maximize your selling price. Agents often say, “Good preparation prevents performance degradation.” Your agent will help you “stage” your home, making sure that it is among potential buyers, that they will make a positive first impression until they see a picture on the list, until they walk the door, until they walk the door.
The first step in staging your home is to remove excess furniture and clutter, make the room feel bigger and help buyers visualize the space. It is best to leave furniture in the room so that buyers can imagine where their furniture goes, but not to the extent that the room feels small.
You can also hire a professional staging company that brings the perfect furniture and decorations for your space. Depending on who you ask, professional staging covers you with a 1% increase in the selling price. When agents meet sellers on a $600,000 property, they can’t advise staging because they could cost $5,000. However, staging is recommended as meeting a seller on a $1.5 million property could cost $7,000.
Hire professional listing photos
Once the house is ready and the stage is set, you are ready for photography. When you work with a real estate agent to sell your home, they will also do 3D scans of your home. This allows buyers to view online from any angle, just like street views shown on Google Maps. Many buyers who live outside of their states and countries want to complete a 3D walkthrough of their property.
Decide the price
The next step is to determine the price before it hits the market. Agents create a Comparative Market Analysis (CMA) to review nearby comparable homes currently on the market, pending, or for sale recently. This gives you more information about what people are willing to pay for a home similar to yours, allowing you to set a competitive price. Hopefully your agent will sell some comps or at least tour them face to face. Some agents want to email information about the seller’s home to 3-5 top agents in the area to get a price opinion. The seller and his agents know the comp and believe that other top agents will pay by the buyer.
Sell your home to potential buyers
Once you’ve decided on the price, your home is ready to go to the market. Agents install “for sale” signs in their yard, deliver flyers, and set up a lockbox that other agents use to tour at home with their clients. They place your home on multiple listing services and other real estate search sites. When working with a Redfin agent, your home will receive special arrangements on Redfin.com and the Redfin app, which will appear first in search results, triple your exposure to buyers. Redfin will email information about your home to people looking for similar homes in your area. In addition to online marketing, agents may recommend schedule open houses and set deadlines for offers.
Finish the transaction
Agents will help you to review each offer and negotiate terms to get the best deal. We will also guide you through all the documents and steps that need to be completed in the termination process to officially hand over the key to the new owner.
