You might think, with all these advertisements, that all Realtors are created equal. That is just not the case. In every industry you have excellent skilled individuals. Your job is to find the best Realtor for your sale. Here are a few tips:
- Find A Tough Negotiator: By this I don’t mean find someone who will kill the deal, but you need someone who is vested enough in YOU and your sale to fight for you. I see this all the time, one agent is stronger than the other and the deal goes sideways for the weaker side. You need someone who has the ability to make the best deal for you and can also keep the other side engaged. Ask your Realtor about what trades they have available to help get your house ready for sale, or even more importantly, address any findings the buyer might come up with during their inspection. By the time you get to the inspection phase, you are stuck with the Realtor you chose so make sure they have a good network of people.
- Find A Realtor That Returns Calls: During what I call the “Honeymoon Phase” – there is excitement and lots of energy behind your sale from all parties. Then there might be a lull in activity or time in the transaction where not much is going on. Find a Realtor that will keep in touch with you throughout the entire process. Too many Agents are what I call, “Last Minute Larry’s” who run up at the 11th hour with a crisis that could easily have been adverted if everyone was keeping the lines of communication open.
- Find A Realtor That is Pre-emptive: What I mean by this is let your Realtor know that you have a problem with the sewer up front, for example. Don’t wait until the buyer discovers this issue during their inspection period. There are many options, much less expensive, for the seller to choose prior to the buyer finding the problem. The seller can hydrojet the sewer with a skilled professional and clear it out for so much less than what the cost would be for a repair. You must disclose this, but it is so much easier to address up front in a strong position than after the fact in a weak position. Another thing, if you know that there is a requirement, let’s say you are selling a property with an HOA and they are requiring you to add a storage shed for $5000.00 to your property, DO NOT hold this information back from your Realtor. It will just cost you more in the long run.
As a consumer, you have choices in selecting a Realtor but you don’t really have a choice when it comes to the buyers side of the transaction. As a seller, you get an offer, it comes from a willing buyer, but attached to them is another Realtor. I strongly advise you take a hard look at the Realtor you chose when listing your home because they may not be the best one in the deal and that will hurt you in the long run with extra costs of repair, credit toward closing or any number of potential pitfalls. Ask the Realtors you are considering for references, but ask them for a transaction that didn’t go well. I think that is the most telling. An agent who can connect you to a seller/buyer who had a difficult transaction and remained a trusted advisor says way more about how they operate than any of their online or printed materials.
Pick me and I will give you the real deal and you will end up with someone that will fight for you and answer their phone!