Thinking about selling your home? Statistics show that selling your home with the assistance of a professional real estate agent will bring you a higher profit, enough to cover the commission as well as put more money in your pocket. According to the National Association of Realtor’s 2013 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers.
So where do you start?
In the past, homeowners would choose a family friend real estate agent or drive through their community and look for the most prominent real estate signs. Sometimes they’d look for an agent with a big-name agency figuring they’ll have more “friends” to help spread the news about the new listing.
While this made since when Realtors carried around a “Book of Homes” to showcase their listings to their friends and office-mates, this method of marketing is highly outdated today and really unnecessary.
The invention of the Multiple Listing System “MLS” completely changed the way agents found new homes for their buyers. Most Realtors enter their listings into this database that is searchable by other Realtors – but not to the public. While this helped widen the search for homes and allowed buyers to see many more options – they were only able to view those options that their Realtor shared with them.
In the past few years, the real estate search has again completely changed. With dozens if not hundreds of new websites geared directly towards buyers, the availability of selection can be somewhat overwhelming. Buyers are now more savvy shoppers as 90% are looking on-line before ever stepping foot into a home. They can now tour 100s of homes at midnight in their pajamas if they want to – and they do! So by the time they set an appointment to see your home – it’s really like their second (or third) look.
This creates the need for elimination rather than gathering of possibilities. Buyers make a mental or written checklist and start searching through lists of homes, trying to narrow down the list to the ones that deserve an actual visit.
For this reason, it’s imperative that as a home seller, you put your very best foot forward – the first time. It’s a beauty pageant out there and your home will easily get lost in the shuffle if you don’t play the game well.
Re-enter the Realtor. Choosing a Selling Realtor is for that reason extremely important. When interviewing agents look for these 5 important attributes:
- Are they tech savvy? Does the agent do the bare minimum by entering your home into the MLS system or will they also syndicate to multiple publicly searchable sites such as Realtor.com, Zillow.com and Trulia.com?
- Does your agent have local market knowledge? Do they know what features about your home will most likely attract the largest audience? Can they give advice on how to prepare your home to shine in the beauty pageant?
- Does the agent have a team of resources available to help while the home is in escrow? Many sellers think that once a buyer is found and contract is signed, that the hard work is over. Not so. A good selling agent will have handymen, movers, title companies and even professional cleaners to help in the process of inspections, packing and closing.
- Does your agent incorporate social media? Tech savvy buyers will more highly value a home that was recommended to them by a friend or family member. Good selling agents are “friends” with other good selling agents on Facebook, Twitter, etc. By posting your home, friends of their friends can share or tag listings that look promising. This method also boosts the search ability and findability of your home on-line overall.
- Do they use a professional photographer? When buyers are looking to eliminate your home from a mass of lists of homes, they’re doing so on-line from the photos. Therefore it’s extremely important to put your best foot forward here. Personally, I love photography. I take pretty good pictures but I always hire a professional photographer (I hire a specific one through Obeo.com that I’ve trained to know my picky requirements) to do a photo shoot for each of my listings. As a matter of fact, one time Craig and I were called to a listing interview by a couple we’d never met before. When we got to their home and chatted a bit we asked how they heard about us. Rather than a referral or our website, they said that when they moved to Oklahoma City 2 years ago they saw several of our listings on-line and noticed how fantastic the photography was. Unfortunately at the time we didn’t have a listing that met their needs. But fortunately for them, the home they ended up buying was listed with non-professional, dark photos obviously taken from a phone. Because those photos of the home they bought were so bad, the home had been on the market for a long time and they got a bargain in the purchase. They made a mental note that when the time came to re-sell that home, they’d hire us to list the home with professional photography. So they did. And it sold within a week for much higher than they paid to a couple moving from out of state. That couple also saw the photos on-line and told their agent when their plane landed that they didn’t really need to go see many homes on the tour. They had seen the photos of this one online and knew it was right for them.
Edmond real estate market is absolutely booming right now. Don’t hesitate to put your home on the market. Hire the right professional and enjoy the move!