Factors To Consider When Hiring A Real Estate Agent To Sell Your Home

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It takes a lot of trust to hire a real estate agent. Which is quite counterintuitive, as trust takes repeated interactions to build. Since you are likely only going to do business with them one decisive time, what do you need to think about in order to hire a good real estate agent?

 

As stressful as selling your home can be, there is at least one great thing about it: The process is ultimately in your control. This is both an advantage and a disadvantage, as that level of control is also a responsibility. But if it is more one than the other, it is definitely an advantage.

 

Why? Simply put, because the easy part of selling your home is knowing what you need to do. Acting upon that knowledge is the hard part. But once you have that knowledge, you can compare what your real estate agent is willing to do with what you know they can do.

 

Today, we will go through the three most important things a real estate agent needs to be able to provide for you in order to be trusted to sell your home effectively.

They Must Know What Sells on the Market

Without a doubt, the very first thing that a real estate agent needs to be proficient in is knowing what houses sell and do not sell on the market. That means the local market in particular; every town, city, and street of the United States has one type of property or another that is selling.

 

In short, the real estate agent needs to know what is in demand and how to supply it. This will give them insight into the actual dollar amount you can get for the house. But it goes deeper.

 

They can’t just know what sells on the market. They have to know who to sell it to. Imagine that your real estate agent knows that ranch houses are a hot commodity at the moment. What luck! You own a ranch house you can sell. But what good is that if your agent can’t find a buyer?

 

While the demands of your region are ever-present, it is still possible to find a buyer from outside of your context. That is your real estate agent’s job. And whether they can or can’t do that, they must also know how to pivot the way your home is presented if it’s necessary.

 

For that reason…

They Must Know How to Change a Home

Tied in with the ability to find a buyer for a home is the ability to change a home into something that is buyable. Admittedly, not all homes are equally marketable. Even the best real estate agents in the world can’t sell something with water damage, mold, and plague-infested rats.

 

What do you do if your home, or a property you own, is one such place? Simple: You renovate. This is actually one of the most reliable markets in the housing sector. You buy a home for cheap, pay to have it refurbished, and then sell it for a newly inflated value.

 

There are two layers to this process. The first is knowing what kind of things need to be refurbished. That means knowing what brings the value of a house down, as well as what can be done to bring that value up. Water damage, mold, and rats are just three examples. But a home can have weeds, old materials, bad insulation, and a myriad of other problems.

 

The second layer to this process is fixing those problems and adding that value back to the property. Repairs for the water damage, cleaning for the mold, and an exterminator for the rats.

 

Basically, a real estate agent needs to know how to take a property from a cheap home to an expensive home. And, ideally, they know how to do this in a cost-efficient way.

 

Which is why …

They Need to Know Who to Work With

Obviously, this can mean a few things. For starters it can mean who they can count on for audits and repairs. Audits, in this case, meaning examinations to certify that the home is safe to live in. And repairs to respond to those audits should they indicate the home is not safe.

 

But moreover, the real estate agent needs to know who can do the work of the repairs. And, if it comes to it, they should know construction companies that can help demolish a house.

 

Now, you probably are not interested in getting your house demolished. But if you go back through all of the information we covered, you might begin to realize that sometimes, the fastest way to sell your home might be to change it entirely. That can mean the façade of the home. It can mean turning it from a house to a duplex. It can also mean rebuilding it from scratch.

 

And finally, as alluded to earlier, a real estate agent needs to know who is interested in this process. Some buyers are more interested in a long-term purchase than a short-term purchase. 

 

They might only buy a house if it has undergone this level of reconstruction. Dealing with these buyers can be better than you might think, as they are usually willing to contribute money to seeing the early stages of the project done (in the same way you are willing to pay an agent).

Conclusion

Like we said at the start, this is all knowledge of what to do. This is what you need to know and what you need to communicate to your real estate agent in order to sell your house.

 

Compare your knowledge of these things with your real estate agent’s knowledge. If they are not up on these things, then it might be time to find someone more competent to represent you.

 

And if you want to get more info, visit our site. No one should be excluded from the real estate industry. Least of all these days.