8 Reason to Hire a True Professional to Sell Your Home

Why You Need a Real Estate Agent to Sell Your Home?

Should you hire an agent to sell your home or  should you first try as a For Sale by Owner (FSBO)?
I believe in today’s volatile market,  you need an experienced professional. The housing market today
is more challenging than it has ever been.  The impact  foreclosures have on prices? Changing loan products
monthly! How do you convince perspective buyers to come off the fence and make  an offer when everyone is
telling them that they should see more and more houses before they make a decision? These are some of the
challenges, and questions for a trained, experienced professional. 

Here are eight important reasons to use a real estate professional:

1. Use an expert to guide you through the transaction. You will need a professional to find a buyer who is
willing to pay fair market value for your home at this market with  mass inventories of foreclosures and short
sales.  

2. You need a skilled negotiator
Hiring a talented negotiator could save you thousands. You need someone who can keep the deal together until
it closes and monitors each step of the way from the offer, to the possible re-negotiation of that off after,
home inspection, appraisal, disclosures and many more.

3. Pricing
Pricing is difficult. Few years ago, you didn’t have to worry about overpricing your home. If it was too high,
with historic appreciation all you needed to do was wait. However it is quite different today. According to
experts there is  another drop in home values, if you overprice your property it will cost you time and money.
A professional real estate agent will help you set the right price in today’s market.

4. Negotiating Ability
Abundance in home supply has given buyers too many choices and they realize that puts them in a
great negotiating position. Most buyers are represented by an agent, sellers need to have representation by a
professional, expert and trained to negotiate real estate contracts.

5. Mortgaging Is Key to the Deal
Finding reasonable financing can also be another obstacle in today’s lending environment.The biggest impact of
the housing market collapse is that lending standards are much stricter today than they were a few short years
ago. Rules are constantly changing. You need a real estate expert who has teamed up with a knowledgeable mortgage
professional to make sure that the buyer in the deal is in fact capable of obtaining a mortgage. Losing time with
an unqualified buyer costs you money in a market where prices are falling.

6. Your Family’s Safety
You would not know who the person is viewing your home. With trained professionals they know about the person
and qualified them before showing your home. Do not risk your family safety.

7. Paper work
Selling a home happens in stages: If you are not familiar you can end up not saving money but losing in the
long run. There are necessary disclosures, coordinating the dates for inspections, appraisal,  closings,….
Dealing with  re-negotiating the offer inspection report, request for repairs are just a few of the concerns
you may face. 

8. Ability of Exposing your home to Potential Buyers
Most sellers think of getting exposure for their home is through print advertising.  However 90% of buyers
are on the internet to search for their home.   Print advertising has traditionally been the way homes used
to be sold but over the last few years it has lost its impact. The real estate agent will have the home
advertised on Multiple Listing Systems (MLS) with immediate exposure to thousands of real estate agents and
potential buyer.
   - Wide Internet exposure.
For example with Century 21 Award Agent the sellers home would be on the listing agent website, Century21Award.com,
Century21.com and it will automatically go to almost 500 other sites including Realtor.com.  Many real estate
companies listings also goes to  Trulia, Zillow, Yahoo!, etc.). It would be impossible for a for sale by owner
seller to get the this exposure.
   -Social Media
Social media is beginning to play a large role in  promoting real estate. Real estate professionals are using
the power of social media with gathering followers on tweeter and creation of business page to help with
their business.

To make sure the sale of your home is handled smoothly & professionally hire a trained and knowledgable
real estate agent.
Should you spend the money on a real estate commission or save that money by selling your home by owner?
That is a question many home sellers ask themselves.  it is imperative to have a true professional guiding
you through the  of challenges that exists in the transaction. As the saying goes, "You get what
you pay for". Hiring a real estate agent will save you money not cost you money.