You’ve decided to sell your home? Now what? Do you list it with an agent? Do you try and sell it yourself? What do you do? Should you stage your home? Should you offer owner financing? Do you list it on a website?? Do you…..AGHHHH! Don’t pull out your hair just yet! The bad news? The questions are endless. The GREAT news? The answers to those questions are within reach.

Who do you call? A local agent, of course, one from your community. If you need a reason to rely on the expertise and knowledge of a real estate agent, go no further. I’ll give you five.

1. Advertising- Agents pay, they pay dues to be allowed into listing services so that they can market your home to every other agent in your area. These are listing services that you don’t have access to. When you choose a good real estate agent, they will input your home into these listing services and begin the process of marketing your home to all the right people. These listing services are invaluable to getting your home sold. A reliable agent will know which forms of advertisement will get the most buyers to your home.

2. Contracts- Fine print!! Acronyms!! Impending DOOM!! STOP! Don’t run for the hills! A competent agent knows their way around contracts. They will insure that the contract you sign is beneficial to you and not to the other party. Generally there are two agents in a transaction, a Buyer’s agent and a Seller’s agent. If the buyer gets an agent, that agent is going to be working hard to make sure that their buyer is getting the best deal for their money. Don’t you want to make sure that you have a superhero real estate agent in your corner?

3. Availability- Picture this. You decide to sell your home on your own. You put that new “For Sale By Owner” sign in your front yard. Some interest is already buzzing around your house. Good for you! You have a great home, why shouldn’t there be interest? The calls start rolling in!

5:01 PM- Samantha calls. She wants to see your house on Sunday at 12:00. Great! You’ll be done with your brunch by then.

6:00 PM- Dan calls. He wants to schedule an appointment with you Saturday at 6:00 PM. Perfect! You don’t have work that day.

7:09 PM- John calls. He wants to see your house at 3:30 on Thursday. Wait, you’re not out of work until 5 PM. That’s okay you can take 30 minutes off.

8:06 PM- Samantha calls again. She’d like to re-schedule. 10 AM on Thursday is more convenient. Oh no, Can you ask for 2 breaks from work?

…….Sure, you could re-schedule the conflicting appointments, but what if they find something else before? What if they want to see a home where an agent makes them a priority?? What if?… What if??….What if?!?

Leave it to your agent. They’re available when you aren’t! They’ll make sure that your home gets shown when it needs to be shown.

4. Access to People- Not just ANY people, but the RIGHT people. Like I mentioned under advertising, your agent is in contact with other agents, buyer’s agents, seller’s agents, people looking to buy homes. Your agent is constantly networking to make sure that they know enough people who want to buy homes. Now, don’t get me wrong, that’s not their only goal in meeting people, but a good agent develops long lasting, soulful relationships with people. If these people are looking to buy a home, who do you think they’ll turn to? And who’s going to benefit? That’s right, YOU! This deal just keeps on getting better.

5. Money- No, no, no… not spending your money, but saving you money! A real estate agent knows how to budget their expenses to get you the most BANG for your buck. They’re going to save you money on expensive advertising, gas, phone bills, expensive errors that you might make; not because your incompetent, but because you don’t know, and why should you! Why should you run up your wireless minutes taking buyer calls? Why should you review a contract painstakingly for hours to make sure that something didn’t sneak past your attention? Not only that, but the average home “For Sale By Owner” sells for 14%-16% less than a home being sold by an agent. That’s an average of $22,500 on a $150,000 home. Are you willing to lose that because you didn’t want to pay a commission.

So, let us do the dirty work. Let us get our hands dirty. Believe me, we’re HAPPY to do it. We want nothing more to get your home sold! So get out there, research an agent, and pick one. There’s a good agent out there and RIGHT HERE, just waiting to sell your home!

-Jess Marie