The Benefits of Working With a Realtor When Selling Your Home

The decision to sell your home can be a challenging one to make. But if you’ve concluded to go through with it, you must do it right to get your property’s worth.

Typically, you can take two paths. The first is the For Sale By Owner (FSBO) route — selling your home yourself. The second option involves hiring a professional real estate agent to handle the entire selling process.

Both paths have their pros and cons. However, based on our experience at Homes by Ador, the second option is best. The benefits of using a real estate agent to sell your home far outweigh that of doing it yourself. This post will examine these benefits in detail.

Ready? Let’s go!

Why Work With a Real Estate Agent When Selling Your Home

Here are nine benefits of using a realtor to sell your home:

• Professional Representation

Just as you can hire a real estate agent to sell your home, potential buyers can also hire one to aid their purchase. Buyers use professional agents to get the best property at the best price. Some even sit back and allow the agent to handle everything.

Most buyer agents will typically contact colleagues and consider homes under their listing. Simply put, agents prefer doing business with professionals like themselves. That way, they can conclude the transaction faster and avoid the “back and forth” surrounding negotiations and paperwork.

Without an agent, you lack professional representation. Buyer agents who show up at your door can turn back when they discover you don’t have a realtor representative. Even if their client is bent on purchasing your property, the agent can discourage them. 

Meanwhile, if you work with a licensed professional, they’ll speak the real estate language with the buyer’s agent and facilitate seamless transactions.

• More Exposure

What do you do if you want to sell your home yourself? You put a “For Sale” yard sign in front and publish the notice on your social media accounts. Afterward, you inform friends and families.

However, this route doesn’t garner much exposure unless you’re targeting your local market. Statistics back this fact. FSBO sellers only accounted for 10% of home sales in 2021. Other routes like yard signs and marketing from friends, neighbors, and family comprised nearly half of this value. 

Stats also show that 29% of home sales stem from real estate agents and 51% from the internet. To attract clients via the web, it’ll be best to hire a realtor that doubles as an online listing agent.

Since they’re familiar with multiple listing service platforms, these agents will display your home for maximum exposure. 

Exposure is one of the many benefits of listing with a realtor, as they’ll more potential buyers with top dollar offers.

• Objective Sales

Sometimes, as a homeowner, you can’t help but feel emotional when parting with your property. It may be where you grew up or hold some other precious meaning. As a result, you become subjective during the home selling process.

When there’s an emotional attachment, making a mistake is easy. For example, you may overprice the property or take it out on a buyer if they undermine its importance. While it’s understandable, it’s also unprofessional.

Selling your house with a realtor makes the process objective. A professional real estate agent will have your best interest at heart. So, they’ll understand your emotions and factor them in when listing prices and discussing with buyers.

The difference is that they keep it professional. How you handle rejection from buyers’ agents differs from how a realtor takes it.

Going solo might see you get reluctant about completing the transaction even after getting a reasonable home sale price. Meanwhile, a realtor will quickly grab a good deal when they see one. At the end of the day, it’s to your advantage.

• Save Time

One of the top benefits of using a real estate agent to sell your home is that it saves time. If you work in an office or have some other business you manage, what time will you have to meet and discuss with buyers?

Of course, you can squeeze out a few minutes or hours. But prospective buyers can reach out at any time. When a buyer is interested in your property, they usually want to see it. Hence, you’ll need to rush home and show them around. But there’s no guarantee that they’ll purchase it.

On average, most buyers check up to five houses before settling on one to buy. Yours might just be the first or second. It can be disappointing when a buyer tours your property and shows no interest in acquiring it. You feel like you’ve wasted time.

But for a real estate agent, that’s not the case. Real estate is a full-time job for these professionals. So, whether a buyer completes the purchase or not, they’re not wasting time. They’re simply doing their job.

• Accurate Pricing and Negotiation

In business, generally, price negotiation is a skill. When it comes to real estate, it’s a critical skill that can make or break transactions. You must price your property properly to get the best proposal.

Setting a good price alone is difficult when you don’t have the experience. You’ll most likely ask people for their opinions or check the prices of comparable homes online. If you fail to set a reasonable price, you’re at risk.

Realtors understand the ins and outs of the market. A buyer agent, for example, can easily spot when a house is overpriced or underpriced. If the former is true, they’ll look elsewhere. But if it’s the latter, they could leverage your inexperience and agree to the structure’s selling price straightaway.

You eliminate such risks when you work with a real estate agent. A good realtor can tell the perfect price for a property at a glance. How? Because they perform related estimates daily and have closed multiple deals in the past.

Notably, it doesn’t end at just setting the price. Negotiations are critical, as potential buyers will want to save money. An experienced real estate agent is in the best position to handle such price discussions.

• Less Legal Risk

Legal proceedings are always present in every real estate transaction. You’re not just exchanging house and money with the potential buyer, but also deeds and certificates. The legal paperwork can be overwhelming, and it’s easy to make serious mistakes.

Take seller’s disclosures, for instance. You can get into trouble if you don’t meet the document’s requirements. In fact, a buyer can sue you if you back out of a deal already set into motion.

The last thing you want is visiting the court during or after the selling process. Court visits are expensive and will require you to spend heavily on hiring a real estate attorney. To avoid these legal risks, work with a professional agent to sell your home.

Thanks to their experience, real estate professionals are well-versed in the legal requirements of selling properties. They’ll ensure the change in ownership is swift and seamless for both seller and buyer.

Indeed, agents are not perfect and can make mistakes as well. However, they get protection with errors and omissions insurance, a luxury that isn’t applicable when selling your home yourself.

• Identifying Home Flaws

Some factors you overlook may be critical in determining how much your home sells. Perhaps there’s a broken tile somewhere or a leaking pipe or an electrical fault. Although these appear minimal, they may cause a buyer to underprice your property.

Ultimately, the new house owner will spend money fixing them, even if it’s a few dollars. Therefore, making the repairs before inviting a buyer is always a good idea. Here, the best thing to do is to hire a home inspector.

A home inspector will provide a well-detailed report of what you have to fix. However, the report can be lengthy and from a financial perspective, quite expensive. To save time and cost, you must identify what repairs are necessary and avoidable. 

Here’s where real estate agents come in. 

A professional real estate agent knows what makes a house sell. So, they’ll know what fixtures can be repaired or neglected.

• Identify Unserious Buyers

Not everyone who contacts you and shows interest in your property is serious. As mentioned earlier, buyers check multiple houses before paying. So, they may contact you solely to compare your home with the one they intend to buy.

Dealing with unserious buyers can be tiring and frustrating. And when you’re frustrated, you can miss out on the serious buyers when they come.

One of the benefits of using a real estate agent to sell your property is that these professionals help you avoid such unserious buyers. Agents know what prospects are willing to purchase your home and those who aren’t. How? They’ve got experience in dealing with buyers from previous home sales.

The reverse is also true. A great real estate agent will spot a serious buyer when they see one. This discerning attribute helps when you’re reviewing the list of potential buyers. Thus, you’ll know who deserves more attention and who doesn’t. 

Sometimes, it’s difficult to know if a buyer is serious or not. You can only tell after discussing and exchanging questions. And a real estate professional will know the right questions to ask.

• There’s Nothing to Lose

With all the points already discussed in this post, it’s clear you have a lot to lose when you don’t hire a real estate agent. Meanwhile, you’ll stand to enjoy multiple benefits when you use one.

You may argue that you lose money since you pay agent commissions. That’s true. Most homeowners skip using real estate agents to avoid paying the realtor’s commission. However, these payments are closing costs. You only pay them after selling your house.

It’s different when compared to buyers who hire real estate agents. Home buyers usually pay the real estate agent an upfront fee before they start reviewing houses. When they find the right house, they pay from their pockets, too.

So, technically, the buyer pays the real estate agent you hire. Besides, the commission percentage is relatively reasonable, considering the work agents do. Some realtors might take 5% of the total sales price, while others could demand 6% to 7%. 

However, the commission percentage will be lower if your house is a highly valuable asset. Here, you could dole out around 4% of the structure’s sale value in commissions. Again, these percentages are reasonable.

You could lose more than that when selling your home yourself. For instance, you lose money when you underprice the property or get into legal problems.

Bottom Line

In summary, selling your home becomes easier when you let real estate agents handle the process. However, you must work with only qualified real estate agents, or the process becomes a headache.

At Ardor Homes Massachusetts, we have qualified and dedicated estate agents to assist you. Our experts will ensure you get the best possible deal for your property in the shortest possible time. If that sounds like what you want, don’t hesitate to contact us today.

FAQs

Why Use an Agent to Sell Your Home?

The top reasons to use a realtor to sell your home include saving time, sorting all the paperwork, and fixing a suitable price. Also, it’ll ensure you have a professional representation. Hiring a realtor is essential, especially if your buyer has one.

What Is the Most Important Thing for Real Estate Agents?

The most important thing for a real estate agent is that you get the best value for your property. Realtors have a strict code to place customers’ best interests above theirs.  

Selling Your Home Yourself vs Hiring a Realtor: Which Is Better?

Selling your home using a realtor is easier and faster than doing it yourself. Real estate agents are experienced, and can handle the technicalities associated with selling houses.

Should You Use a Local Realtor to Sell Your Home?

Yes, hiring a local agent is ideal if you’re targeting your local market. These agents have an in-depth understanding of the regional area’s real estate market.

Where Can I Find a Realtor to Sell My House in the US?

You can find some of the best real estate agents in the United States with Ardor Homes Massachusetts. We’ll help you sell any house, from apartments to flats, villas, and others.

Steph Wilkinson

In her 25-year career, Steph Wilkinson has been involved in the acquisition, marketing and sales of over $3 Billion dollars of residential real estate. A number of years ago, Steph transitioned into Brokerage Leadership for National real estate brands and tech start-ups. She has served as a Business Strategist for real estate agents and brokerages alike and is also a real estate coach and trainer. In her new role with the Iconic Team, Steph will be responsible for the growth of the team and will be working with all of our agents to increase their productivity and bottom line.