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*DISCLOSURE* This is all my opinion and should not be construed as legal advice. This is meant to be informative, but please do your due diligence and if you need assistance, contact the appropriate professionals. 

 
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As I have pointed out in other pages on this site, there are many people that can take on selling their home without an agent. You may not want to, but if you have the time, energy, confidence in your understanding of contracts, you have a high chance of doing it. Want to try? Check out my seller – no agent page.

Why should you use a Realtor® when selling?

• Divorce – You usually cannot agree on anything, agreeing on house sold terms will be tough.

• An agent will be there not just to handle the sale but truly to mediate between the spouses.
• Inheritance – Full time job, family, kids, and you inherit a home possibly out of town/state, not to mention going through memories and parents belongings, handling the sale may not be high on your list. 

• Moving out or living out of state – If you are not in the area or you are moving, whether it is health reasons, job, family, etc, if you are in the middle of relocating to an entirely new area, you may not have the time/energy to be selling your home.
• Layer of protection – An agent will have the responsibility of ensuring you are following state guidelines and that the other party is following them in addition to the terms of the contract. If something goes awry, the agent and/or their broker will carry some of the responsibility.
• Not enough time and/or you just don't want to – If you/all parties in the home are working outside the home, have extracurricular activities, you do have to consider the time involved. When at work, are you allowed to be on your phone? Can you reply to inquiries in a reasonable amount of time? Who will be home for showings? There will be inquiries that go nowhere, no-shows for appointments, and investors who will try to low-ball you. It does take time. You have to decide if you have the time to handle all of that. If you don’t have the time, you may need an agent, just be sure to read my interview questions below and that your agent is working for you and not just for a paycheck!

Interviewing agents

This can be by phone, in-person, web cam, etc.

Questions to ask:

• Will you interact with them only throughout the entire transaction?
• Or is there a team?
• Are the specific hours they are available?
• What is the protocol if you feel you need to contact them outside those hours?
• Do they have another job that would interfere with their availability?

Do they use a professional photographer?

• Is it still pics, videos, drone footage, etc.
• It can vary depending on the property as well.
• I personally like to use someone that uses Zillow 3D walk thru.
• It is cost effective, and you get a lot of bang for your buck

If your home is vacant/or you live out of town:

• How often will the agnent stop by?

• Will it be them or an hourly person on their team?  

If it is owner occupied:

• how will showing requests be handled?

• Side note: if you want to be contacted directly by buyers, or your number will be in the MLS for any reason, get a Google Voice number so your number isn’t out in the universe. In addition, if your listing ever goes expired or withdrawn, companies scrub that info and sell the owner phone numbers for agents to cold call. Get a Google Voice number! ??

I would end my questioning with “What makes you different from every other agent in town”   This is a good segue into letting them pitch themselves. 

From the agent side:

Agents love to give presentations.

• Truth is, all the advertising they say they will do is mostly automated and offered by most if not all agents.
• Some people like to brag about stats, but that is a tough one. Okay, someone does 100 deals a year? You think they are hands on the entire way? And sometimes agents have teams but the team lead gets the credit for every deal even though another agent is closing the deal. I would definitely take stats with a grain of salt.
• My other “favorite” stat agents brag about. “I sold this home over asking price in 1 day”. Okay, that actually means the seller likely could have sold the home without an agent!!! You did nothing except maybe price it too low. The only benefit to that would be you have an agent that is handling the influx of calls, texts, emails, inquiries and scrubbing the multiple offers but they did nothing different that actually SOLD that home. That was a seller that owned something people wanted and a market that made it even more favorable. Anywho, I digress…

(IMO) A good agent should give a brief bio and/or elevator speech as to why they are the best person to assist you but then they should focus on you and your home.

Every deal is different; every situation is unique.

Is the agent asking you:
 

• What is important to you?
• Where you are going?
• What is your reason for moving?
• Do you have a timeline/hard out?
• Are they asking what you love about the property?
• What is unique about your property?
• What made you buy it?
• What upgrades have you done?
• What maintenance have you done?  (new WH? Appliances? HVAC?)
• Do you have solar?
• Etc etc etc… but you get the idea.

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