Why Hire a Real Estate Agent to Sell Your Home?

Hiring a real estate agent makes the process of selling a home much easier. In an agent-assisted sale, you’re more likely to achieve the price you desire and sell quickly. What other additional advantages are there to utilizing an agent to sell your house?

If you’re thinking about selling your property consider the following before you go it alone.

Selling Your Home with a Real Estate Agent

Sure, doing all the work yourself may save you money on the commission you would have paid a real estate agent. It may be helpful to understand real estate agents do a lot more than simply showing prospective buyers through your home.

If you choose a skilled real estate agent, they’ll take care of everything from the paperwork, negotiations, phone calls, manage deadlines and ultimately, the sale of the house on your terms.

Benefits of Hiring a Real Estate Agent to Sell Your Home

Knowledge of Home Selling

Selling your home isn’t something most homeowners do frequently. In fact, some homeowners will only go through the process of selling a few times in a lifetime. On the flip side, real estate agents do this for a living, which means they have far more experience in selling real estate. If you select an experienced Realtor, they will have hundreds or thousands of real estate transactions they’ve handled and therefore have more knowledge about the process that goes into it all than you do.

One of the major benefits to hiring a real estate agent to sell your home is that a good real estate agent will guide you through the process and make sure you’re comfortable each step of the way. Getting your home ready to sell and coordinating showings is just the tip of the iceberg in the selling process.

By employing an agent, you can ensure that you keep on top of things without always worrying about where you are in the process.

Experts of the Local Market

What is happening nationally may or may not be similar to your local real estate market. Even further, what’s happening in your neighborhood may be very different than the one next door or down the road.

There is a big difference between knowing the area where you live and having current in-depth knowledge of your area’s real estate market. Working with a top local real estate agent gives you access to a wealth of knowledge about your local housing market.

They have the resources and tools to provide you with data about current market conditions and explain what that means for the sale of your house. By having relevant, accurate and timely market information, you will be armed with the knowledge which may assist you in making choices that optimize your profit margin throughout the transaction.

Strategy for Pricing

Another advantage to hiring a real estate agent when selling your home is that they can help you correctly price your property. I can’t stress how important pricing a home right from the get go is if you want a successful sale. If you over price the home from the start, you will reduce the pool of potential buyers.

Overpriced homes are typically on the market much longer than competitively priced homes. As days on market build, buyers begin to question what is “wrong” with a home if it didn’t sell quickly.

Therefore, to expose your home to the maximum number of potential buyers you must arrive at a price that is both reasonable for the kind of home you’re selling and attractive to local purchasers.

You might be surprised what goes into pricing your home correctly. Many factors play a role including location, size of the home, how it compares to other similar properties and current market conditions. One of the reasons to hire a real estate agent to assist with pricing strategy is their knowledge  and experience about how your property compares to others combined wit local market conditions.

If you price it right you will maximize the value of your home and your return on one of the biggest investments you own.

Real Estate Marketing Knowhow

In addition to all the expertise and knowledge that a good agent brings to the table, the best real estate listing agents are outstanding marketing professionals.

They utilize professional photographers and videographers to showcase your property to ensure it stands-out online. They have their own website and social media channels which allow them to pro-actively market the best features of your home.

Also, top real estate agents leverage the latest digital marketing techniques and online real estate platforms to maximize visibility and exposure. Not only do they display your home’s best attributes but they also feature the lifestyle of the neighborhood both visually and through the showing description.

Since more than 90 percent of buyers view the property on-line as their first experience with your home, having a professional who knows how to market your home to appeal to as many qualified buyers as possible via multiple channels on-line and social media channels will lead to more offers and therefor a higher sales price.

Using an Already Existing Network

Another top reason to hire a real estate agent to sell your home is that you get to tap into their network of buyers as well as other real estate agents who could bring their buyers.

Why spend hundreds of hours and thousands of your dollars on extras such as videos, marketing and more when you could just hire a quality real estate agent with a large pool of buyer prospects who are looking for a home like yours. This can greatly speed up the process of selling your house and help you sell for more money.

Handling Paperwork

In today’s electronic world it may not seem like it, but there is a lot of paperwork when selling your home. The paperwork includes contracts, changes to contracts, homeowners disclosures, HOA disclosures, condominium documents, floor plans, applications and more!

A mistake on the paperwork could be costly. Then there are several key deadlines you need to meet in order to maintain a valid contract. Using a listing real estate agent to sell your house means having an experienced professional handling all the paperwork for you, they’ll keep track of deadlines and you informed throughout the process.

Negotiations and Closing

Negotiations start as soon as you receive the first offer. An advantage to having a real estate agent sell your home is that you get an experienced negotiator fighting for your best interest in the deal.

Most buyers will be using a buyer’s agent to represent their best interests. This means that you’ll be facing a trained real estate negotiator and you will want your own representation who will look out for your best interests.

The initial offer is just the beginning. There are conditions, contingencies and closing costs to consider. If you have a real estate agent negotiating on your behalf, they will make the process seem simple and stress-free.

Hiring a Real Estate Agent to Sell Your Home

There are numerous benefits of hiring a real estate agent to sell your home. If you are considering selling your home in Southwest Florida, contact us today learn about your home’s value and current market conditions.

We collaborate with our sellers to design and implement a customized marketing campaign to present your property to the world. We are dedicated to making the sales process easier for you and your family.