WAIT! Before you list…take 10 minutes to watch this informative video! Those 10 minutes could save you thousands of dollars when selling your home!
Learn:
- The 7 factors that will help you sell your home FAST?and for 18% more!
- The questions to ask your REALTOR® before hiring them.
- The benefits of hiring an Expert Advisor REALTOR® (Hint: we’ll help you sell your home at the top of the market!)
Whether you’re ready to sell your home now, or just want to find out its value, there are many websites that offer to help. However, using these sites to value your home could send you down the wrong path, causing you to lose tens of thousands in equity – especially if you want a quick sale. As you know, the market is always changing, and other homes are constantly coming on the market, too, changing the competitive landscape.
So, what’s a homeowner to do?
Hire an expert who is trained to develop a smart home sale strategy for you. Hiring an expert is a proven, reliable way to get top dollar for your home. An expert real estate agent will be able to consider all of the factors that go into the process of selling a home, and the results are incredible. Professional real estate agents, using these factors, have been proven to sell homes faster and to get eighteen percent more, than when using traditional methods.
But finding a qualified expert can feel overwhelming. How do you know who to trust? In most states, anyone can assume the title of “real estate agent” with only 45 hours of time in the classroom and by taking a state exam. 45 hours? Licensed nail technicians are required to invest 600 hours before earning their license, and beauticians must invest 1,200 hours! Don’t trust what may be the largest financial transaction of your life to someone who’s not fully qualified. Protect your largest asset by hiring a qualified expert to help you sell your home ? one who will use the following seven unique considerations to sell your home quickly and at the top of the market.
The seven considerations are:
- Expert advice
- Differentiation
- Market exposure
- Agent cooperation
- Buyer acquisition
- Offer negotiation
- Operational execution
Consideration 1: Pricing Expertise
Real estate agents may price homes using a tool called a comparative market analysis (CMA). The CMA is used to provide insight into what the value of your home may be by comparing it to historical home sales. What some agents may not realize is that an expert wouldn’t rely on a comparative market analysis alone to determine an effective pricing strategy. Would you drive your car while looking in the rearview mirror? No way! So why would you price your house based solely on historical data? Think about all the things that could influence that historical data…if the home was a rental, if it was crammed with junk, if it had a lingering odor of cat? Or even if its sale was the result of a divorce or a death that necessitated a quick sale? These factors could negatively (and inaccurately) impact the comparative market analysis, causing you to under–value your home. So, watch out! If an agent wants to base your home valuation on a CMA, you likely won’t be getting top dollar for it.
Consideration 2: Differentiation
If your goal is to get top dollar for your home, you must position it to attract the buyers that are willing to pay that top dollar ? that realize it’s worth! Expert advertisers realize and embrace the fact that there is an ideal buyer profile that is willing to pay the most for your house. Expert advisors will know how to position your home to attract that ideal buyer. How? By anticipating that buyer’s wants and needs, and then building an action plan to meet those wants and needs. This action plan could include things like:
- Enhancing your home’s curb appeal to pull buyers off the street
- Updating outdated interiors (cost effectively!) to kindle additional interest
- Strategizing pro–active negotiations to attract better offers (especially compared to what the competition is doing!)
- Possible repairs, upgrades or even retaining the services of a professional staging company, to help limit the likelihood of low offers
Studies show that using strategies like those your expert advisor recommend will provide more equity in less time.
Consideration 3: Market Exposure
Once your expert advisor has helped you prepare your home for sale, taking into consideration the two previous considerations, you’re nearly ready to launch your home onto the market! But before you do, there’s one more important consideration: where you’re targeting that launch! Your agent should help you with a smart approach to marketing ? not recommending too much marketing, and not doing too little marketing. Studies show that the average agent only spends 89 dollars per month on marketing and then is only able to sell eight homes per year. Conversely, some agents tout the fact that they spend a lot of money on advertising: TV, newspapers, magazines, and hundreds of websites. Reading this, you probably think you’d want to go with the agent who has the big marketing budget, right? Not so! It’s better to focus on marketing tactics that will attract the right buyer ? rather than an expensive “shotgun” approach. True real estate experts will be able to make smart recommendations about how to market your home in a cost effective and meaningful way. And that’s important, because they’re investing the commission you pay them to, so you want to be sure you’re getting the best return on your investment as possible.
Consideration 4: Agent Cooperation
Shhh! Consideration number four is one of those secret factors that doesn’t get talked about very much: agent cooperation. Here’s what it means. Once you list your home, there’s a great than fifty percent chance that another real estate agent will bring you a buyer. It makes sense, because the largest pool of buyers are likely relying on professional real estate agents to help them find a home and manage the buying process. Sounds great, right? Well, it can be ? but your real estate agent can take steps to help make this happen. It’s important that they assign a share of their marketing budget to get your home in front of the top agents in the market who represent buyers ? not just buyers themselves. So, be sure you hire a professional real estate agent who understands what will motivate other agents to bring them their “buyer” clients.
On this note, be mindful of the repercussions of an agent that offers to accept lower commission. This could lead to lower compensation being offered to the agents that have the potential to bring you a great buyer ? and you don’t want to miss out on that opportunity!
Consideration 5: Buyer Acquisition
By now, you’ve learned about four important considerations for getting top dollar on the sale of your home. You’ve learned the importance of differentiating your home, choosing the right marketing strategy, and the necessity of cooperating with other agents to solicit great buyers. Now the inquiries are going to start coming in, and it’s critical your agent has a response system in place.
As the calls and emails about your home start coming in, there’s a huge risk of losing a potentially great deal if these communications aren’t responded to quickly and in the right way. Numerous studies show that fast responses help lead to successful deals. And get this: that response time is 15 minutes! Anything more lowers the chance of your agent being able to make contact and can decrease showing your home up to 105 times.
Ask the real estate agents you are considering these important questions:
- If you’re busy with a client, who answers the phone?
- What training does that person have to effectively manage those calls?
- Who responds to calls or emails that come in over the weekend, or after business hours?
- How quickly do you respond to new leads, on average?
A professional real estate agent knows they’re running a business, and for that business to run effectively, they must have the right systems and processes in place.
Consideration 6: Offer Negotiation
Now, on to consideration six: offer negotiation! At this stage in the game, the stakes are getting high. Your agent has invested a lot of work to bring the process this far, so effectively managing this consideration is crucial. As you probably realize, buyers may want to have their own inspection done, may offer you less than you’re asking for, and may even make demands you’re not comfortable agreeing to. Having an expert, professional real estate agent can help minimize these challenges, because he or she can bring their expert negotiation skills to use for you. Too many great deals are lost due to poor negotiations, so it’s vital you have an expert managing this for you. You don’t want to risk having to wait week ? or even months ? for another opportunity. So, ask the professional real estate agents you’re considering if they have a good strategy for negotiations: if they do, you can feel confident in trusting them with this vital step of the process.
Consideration 7: Operational Execution
This last consideration really ties everything together. Operational execution refers to the ability of a real estate agent to manage all the unique variables that go into the sale of a home. (Hint: there’s more than seven…more like 115!) To effectively manage these variables, your real estate agent must have the right network and processes. Ask about your agent’s connections with:
- Title companies
- Lending institutions
- Photographers
- Attorneys
- Signage companies
- Professional stagers
- Inspectors
- Cleaning crews
Think about all the other scenarios where it’s important to have an expert (with the right team) doing the job: you wouldn’t want to eat at a restaurant with a chef who had never cooked a meal before, right? You wouldn’t go to a hospital for surgery with a physician who didn’t have the proper training and experience, right? Just like a fine dining experience, or a successful surgery, selling a home and getting top dollar for it takes many people working together and following the right processes. You should only trust your important real estate transaction to a professional, reliable real estate agent who has processes and a great team in place.
By now, you likely realize that selling a home is a process, not a single task. Hopefully you’ve also learned how to hire an expert who has the knowledge and skills to effectively manage this process, earning you a top–dollar result. So, if you’re ready to sell your home ? or just want to learn a little more ? give us a call at (608) 519-2345 to get started!
