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Selling your Home? Don’t get stuck with the wrong real estate agent

Written by Posted On Thursday, 07 September 2017 17:16
Selling your Home? Don’t get stuck with the wrong real estate agent

 

Imagine walking onto a car lot where every car is priced the same. From the high-end luxury cars to the economy cars, from the brand-new to the beaters. Since they all cost the same amount of money, will you buy the Bentley or the Ford Fiesta? Will you buy the most reliable car on the lot, or drive off in one you know will fall apart tomorrow?

This car-buying concept may sound ludicrous, but it is identical to the real estate service-buying concept. Regardless of who is delivering the services, and regardless of how many or few services are offered, you will typically pay the same commission for any agent you choose.

You’ll pay the same for the highly competent agent that you will for the incompetent

Consider this: the seller pays the real estate commission. On the nation’s median home price right now ($255,600), that fee (typically 6 percent of the sale price of the home) amounts to $15,366. The higher the sale price, the higher the fee you will pay.

While it may seem “unfair” or exorbitant, you are essentially paying for professional representation in the sale of a very large investment. And, you are paying for a professional whose job it is to market your home to ensure it sells for the most money possible.

Yet, the National Association of Realtors tells us that 72 percent of home sellers choose the first agent they speak with.

Without interviewing at least three agents, how will you know if you’re hiring the Bentley or the Fiesta? Unless you don’t mind paying the lazy or incompetent agent the same as you would for the expert, comparison shopping is critical.

Seller services

When you speak with more than one real estate agent in your efforts to hire one to help you sell your home, if you ask the right questions, you can learn a lot. First, ask each one about the services they offer to their listing clients.

You’ll find that some offer none, others offer a few and some offer a full menu of services.

Then, there are those who will hand you a list of items that, although the agent refers to them as “services,” they are actually standard practices within the industry.

For instance, offering ‘staging suggestions” is quite common among the nation’s real estate professionals. Since consumers can get staging advice and tips from professional decorators all over the internet, staging “suggestions” from a real estate agent offer no value and are not, therefore, a service.

Offering to actually stage the home, for free, is a service, and a valuable one at that.

Following is a list of standard practices that some agents will try to pass off as “seller services”

  • Offering an opinion of the home’s market value

  • Discussing your goals, needs, and priorities in selling your home

  • Discussing market trends

  • Making recommendations (on repairs, staging, etc)

  • Marketing your home

  • Communicating with you through the process

  • Guiding you through the process

  • Helping you review offers

  • Negotiating the purchase contract

  • The offer to refer the homeowner to cleaning crews, stagers, home warranty companies, etc.

  • Handling the coordination of the home inspection and the appraisal

  • Delivering the executed contract and other paperwork to all parties

 

Looks like an impressive list, doesn’t it? It’s garbage. In fact, it’s akin to your child-care provider saying that “offering a safe environment” is a special service. The promise to teach your child to read, however, is.

In reality, the items on the above list are expected from all real estate listing agents. If you interview an agent who tries to pass these off as services, thank him or her for their time and move on to the next one.

Some agents, on the other hand, offer genuinely valuable services to their listing clients. The savviest understand that staging a home for sale is no longer a choice (for most homes), but a must.

A large real estate research firm finds that staged homes may earn up to 10 percent more at closing than un-staged homes. Complimentary staging, even if it’s just two rooms, is a service some agents offer.

Other valuable services include:

  • A listing agreement that you can cancel at any time if you’re not satisfied

  • A free, professional pre-sale home inspection

  • The use of a moving truck

  • Complimentary house cleaning, carpet cleaning, landscaping, organizational or handyman services to help ready the home for the market

What’s in the plan?

A listing agent’s marketing plan is, or should be, the backbone of her business. Some agents use a cookie-cutter approach to marketing while others customize it to each particular home and to the perceived ideal buyer.

Many agents list their marketing plans on their websites, making it much easier for consumers to weed out the weak. The following “tasks” do not constitute “marketing,” but, again, standard practices within the industry:

 

  • Placing your property information in the multiple listing service database

  • Posting a “For Sale” sign at the home

  • Attaching a brochure box to the sign

  • The creation of feature sheets or brochures to be placed in the aforementioned box

  • Attaching a lockbox to the home

  • Hosting a broker’s open house

  • Hosting public open houses

  • Sharing your listing with other real estate agents

  • Sending postcards to the neighbors

  • Standing up in an office meeting to tell the rest of those in your office about the home

  • Displaying mortgage affordability sheets in your home

  • Featuring the home on the agent’s and/or broker’s website

 

So, what should be in a powerful marketing plan?

 

  • The promise of a plan that takes into account research of your home’s most likely buyer and then an enhanced, customized plan, focusing on the wants and needs of that buyer.

  • At the very least, a plan customized for your home and your neighborhood

  • Professional photography of the home by an architectural photographer

  • Drone footage of the home and the surrounding neighborhood

  • A professional video tour and 3-D tours of the home

  • A dedicated website for your listing

  • A list or graphic representation of every, single website on which your home will appear

  • Direct mail and print marketing, and where it will be broadcast (if appropriate)

 

As you can see, the powerful marketing plan requires that the agent have a marketing budget. Many do not, which is why they try to convince potential clients that a sign and a lockbox are marketing tools.

Marketing is the number one job of a listing agent

And, the best way to determine an agent’s marketing prowess is by taking a look at how he markets himself. Go to the agent’s website and take a tour among the pages. Check out the photos – are they clear, compelling and professional? Read the blog posts and other content. Is it recent, engaging, without spelling and grammar errors and, again, professional and of value?

If not, find another agent.

Don't expect real estate agents who can’t or won’t spend the money to market their own businesses effectively to put any more care into the marketing of a stranger’s home.

The good ones are out there – it just takes time and diligence to find them.

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Shannon OBrien

www.allwriteythen.com

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