For most people, home equity is one of their largest assets. Protecting that equity and maximizing the selling price of their home is the priority when selling. Second to price, is convenience. You’ll want to know that you hired a professional with those goals in mind.
Here are the 5 top things to look for when hiring an agent.
1. Pre-Market Home Inspections. Make sure your agent hires a home and termite inspector to provide reports about the property. Based on the findings, he or she will advise on the most cost-effective repairs. Those reports and repair receipts will be provided to prospective buyers upfront so additional repairs can be pre-negotiated with the offer itself. Without these reports, you would have to wait for the buyer’s inspection and re-negotiate repairs a week or so into escrow. At this point, the buyer has more of an advantage.
2. Stunning Online Presentation. The home search is done online. It’s a bit like a dating app, first impressions matter and you don’t want them to swipe past your listing. If the home needs staging, staging should be done. Great agents will engage a top-notch media company to produce stunning photos, drone photography, and a full motion video to give a commercial quality tour of the property. Add a professionally written house description and a property website that contains the complete media package, and you’re good to launch.
3. Attend All Showings. On a typical showing day, I show an average of six properties. Almost always, the house is locked up and dark when I arrive. I immediately turn on lights and open exterior doors. I present the home based on the information in the listing. I have no particular bias in my showing as the other five showings may be just as good or better.
Every once in a while, I run into a professionally managed showing appointment. It’s rare and refreshing and you should make sure your agent does it. The listing agent greets us at the door. After making sure we are COVID safe, they invite us into the brightly lit, beautifully staged home. Keeping a polite distance, they share additional information about the house and stand ready to answer questions. I’m free to experience the house with my client.
4. Exclusive Representation. When you hire an agent to list your home, he or she works for you. It’s nearly impossible to negotiate on both the seller’s and the buyer’s behalf. As such, your agent should refer any unrepresented buyer to another respected agent.
5. Transparency. There’s a lot going on in a real estate transaction and impossible to remember everything we share during our initial presentation. As such, it’s important to have an online communication platform that keeps track of everything. Sellers should be able to see exactly where they are in the process and everything coming up. The categories should include Pre-Marketing, Marketing Launch, Showing Feedback, Escrow Timeline, and Post Closing Activities.
Remember, in any profession, who your hire matters.