Why Use an Real Estate Agent to Sell Your Home?

First and foremost, let’s get down to the reason people list their home themselves: money. That’s right, the main reason people list their houses as “For Sale By Owner” is because they think that paying a commission to a real estate agent will make them earn less money from the sale of the house. That is not true, and is often actually the opposite. 

When it comes to using a real estate agent to sell your home, you need to pick the best fit for you. You need to know what a good real estate agent should be offering you. See our blog post on what to look for in a real estate agent. 

There is a reason why there are so many real estate agents to choose from. You are encouraged to search! Dave Ramsey suggests meeting with three different real estate agents before moving forward with one. Some agents are too busy for you, some just creep you out, others are super annoying, and others look like an ex you never want to see again. Whatever it is, you don not have to settle: there is the right agent out there for you.
 
Here are some reasons to use a real estate agent to sell your home that you might never have thought about.

#1: Safety

The number one problem that we find home sellers run into is safety.
Our top concern is in the safety of all our home owners and home buyers, so when we hear about deals going south or people’s lives and livelihoods being put in danger, our hearts ache knowing it all could have been avoided.

Criminals:

When people walk through your home, you don’t want to have to worry about them casing the joint or walking out with things in their pockets that belong to you. A good real estate agent vets buyers before taking them into your home, and no random walk-ins will be permitted to come into your house without the proper steps followed. 

Unfortunately, there are plenty of criminals seeking out homes for sale-by-owner. They know that there is less security and assume that there is a significant level of hope to sell fast and to the highest bidder. They come to your home dressed like great candidates, acting like sincere potential buyers, walking through your home sounding completely interested and capable of paying what you are asking, and then they later hit up the place for everything you own, or worse. While walking through and commenting on the features of the home, they may also be taking a mental inventory of all the entries into the home, all the valuables and where they are placed, and figuring which buyers they should line up to take your belongings. Or, they may be ironing out their plan to cause you and your family physical harm. These types of people are not invited to walk through your home, and you should never have to meet these people.

Whatever the case may be, your agent will take care of all of that for you. So you can rest easy knowing you and yours are safe.

Loan Issues: 

Buyers have to be approved before they can borrow money for a mortgage.

The reality is, most buyers do not have the cash to avoid a mortgage. The process for being approved for a mortgage can be a long and grueling one, so to avoid working with buyers who have yet to be approved, work with an agent that will filter out the unqualified buyers; otherwise, you might end up making agreements with people who are high risk. 

At the least, a buyer might waste your time. You’ll walk them through the home, they’ll fall in love with it, and they’ll begin the process of getting approved. In a short time, they’ll come back with information about how the process is going, and things might look good. You’ll feel like you found a buyer, go to bed with sweet dreams of moving onto bigger things, and then wake up to find out that the buyer could not be approved. No big deal, just keep showing.

But what if it isn’t as simple? What if it gets more than mildly annoying? What if the process for the approval drags out for 10 months? Can you afford to wait? What if it went into escrow and you took your home off the market because you were told it is under contract? You signed! They signed! It should be finished, but it’s not. What if during escrow, the buyers fail the final approval for their loan and you are about to finalize on your new home? Now you’re in trouble.

An agent is set up to help through all these situations. Agents often have a pool of buyers, so when one falls through, they can find you another quickly and with no extra cost or effort from you. Agents also have access to professionals to assist in the legality of the paperwork, and they have the know-how to prepare you for and walk you through the whole process.

Making and Breaking Contract:

Ever heard that you have to be careful what you tell a genie? He could make all your wishes come true--what a blessing! But how you word things could result in a curse instead of a granted wish. 

It is the same with a contract. You have to be careful what you agree to and what you refuse. 

Buyers can also try to break or manipulate contracts. 

Buyers can make requests and requirements that are not always fair to you. You might be eager to sell your home and consider meeting their unreasonable demands in order to do so, or you might be uncomfortable with confrontation and hesitant to respond. A real estate agent is a skilled negotiator. Good agents know what you want and have your best interests in mind, so an unfair deal will be as unacceptable to them as it is to you. They will not only act as a mediator, but as an advocate for you, so you don’t have to worry about being taken advantage of.

Whether they are making an effort to back out after the deadline or even move things into the house before the deal is closed, if it is not legal or in the contract, then it is not acceptable. 

You might think, “That doesn’t happen that often. Why should I worry about it?” Well, our agents had two different cases of it in the past week, so we can tell you, it does happen, and it is easier for an agent to take care of it than for you to have to do it yourself.

Able agents have dealt with this before. They are great about contacting the right people, saying the right things, and they have a good grasp on legal housing agreements. If there is a question that is difficult to answer, they also have a whole portfolio of resources to find that information out for you. Your agent is there to support and protect you, so do not hesitate to rely upon him or her.

#2. Looking Good: Proactive Pre-inspection

Agents know how important it is to make a good first impression in the housing market. Failure to properly prepare and list your home could be detrimental. Ever noticed the red text, numbers, and percentages on some house listings? They are glaring. What's more, some simple fixes can be an utter turn off to home buyers. A nice house might be perceived as a dive, just because of a few minor issues.

Changes in price, description, and details--as well as days on market--are logged and recorded. Even when a listing as a “For Sale By Owner,” you will have agents, people, and whatever system it is listed on, viewing, documenting, and sharing your listing. If it is inaccurate, incomplete, priced incorrectly, or it is unappealing in appearance or description, you will almost certainly sell your house for less than it is worth and waste a lot of time, money, and energy doing it. Long story short, it will likely cost you more to sell it yourself than to pay an agent to do it for you.

Proactive Pre-inspection: An agent knows what needs to be inspected. In order for a home to be sell-able to a buyer who is getting a mortgage loan, certain parts of the home have to pass inspection. Especially if you have lived in your home for a while, some requirements are newer and you likely will not know about all of them.  You might be surprised what they actually look for. For an unofficial checklist of what is inspected in an official home inspection, check out our blog post on mortgage loans.

During a pre-inspection, the agent is going to let you know what already needs worked on. This can save you time and money. The thing is, many buyers ask for an inspection, so you are going to want the home in the minimal working order. Inspections are not typically a pass or fail, but when it comes to the mortgage, they can be. The inspection is there to tell you what needs fixed; if the buyer is an investor willing to buy the house--as is, for cash--you may not need an inspection, but investors are less willing to pay full price. Some fixing pointed out to you from your agent could bump up the value of your home with little cost to you. What's more, your agent can be asked far in advance what would increase the value of your home and what would be more of a waste of time and money. So you could already get ahead and slowly make changes as soon as you move in. If the house already looks good when the buyer does a walk through, the buyer will likely not ask for much more than what your home already has to offer. That is the beauty of being prepared; that is the beauty of a good agent.

#3. Speed: Marketing, Time, Price

Sure, you could market this yourself. Go ahead and post to social media, ask your friends to share, take photos with your phone, put it on craigslist, create a post on Facebook marketplace and cross post it, spread word of mouth, and put a sign up in your yard. Not too hard right? It might work, but it usually doesn't, even in a seller's market.

As mentioned before, agents have a portfolio. They know the best home photographers, the best investors, the best inspectors, the best lenders, and the right buyers. Agents also have an address book of other agents. Unfortunately, you do not have access to all of this, and agents are not big fans of "For Sale By Owner" participants in the real estate business. It is not just because they miss out on work and commissions, it is because it is often more difficult to sell their clients a "For Sale By Owner" home. Marketing to agents is a good idea, but it has to be done right, and the message from agent to agent is more welcome.

Agents also have a following. They are set up as a business, can make and send out ads that they pay for, and already have a social media following of people who are interested in buying houses. An agent posts a house and boom, you have three offers on the house even though you just finished the paperwork ten minutes ago. 

Agents are accustomed to listing houses and they are familiar with interior design and the language. When they list your house, they know what words will attract home buyers the most. The description on the listing for your house will make it sound like the catch of the day. Additionally, there are many agents who will even let you borrow some home decor to make the photographs stand out, and they might advise where to place it. Some agents even provide a designer to help you stage everything properly. There is a lot of value that comes from an agent's knowledge of marketing houses.

A real estate agent does this for his or her job. They have the time to devote what it takes to sell a home. They set aside time to walk you through it, organize the paperwork, talk to the right people, take buyers on tours of your home, and market. The speed in which they sell your home might amaze you, especially if you have had your home listed for a long time.

Agents also know the market incredibly well. They know what types of houses are going for what price and what you need to point out to buyers in order to guarantee that you get the right price out of your home. Agents know the minute the market changes and whether you need to lower or raise the price and your expectations before you even list your home.

There are truly so many reasons why using a real estate agent is a better idea than the alternative. Whether it be selling in a timely manner, selling for the right price, getting the information you need, relieving some stress of the process, or supplying you with the right people at the right time, a good agent is going to help you through. Make the right choice for you, but consider talking to an agent today.