Every homeowner contemplates using a Realtor when thinking about selling their home. A commission seems like a hefty price to pay for someone to list your property. Most of the time though that commission is going to get split in half right away with the selling broker, because we only sell our own listings about 7% of the time. So if you were to figure on a 6 % listing here is how it generally gets broken down. Your 6%, like I said earlier, at least 90% of the time gets split in half between the two real estate brokers. So now we have 3%. 1.5% of that goes directly to the company for which the agent works for and then the agent gets the other 1.5% of the commission. So we have 1.5% for the individual agent before any advertising costs and all of the other footwork that goes into the listing. So although 6% seems like alot, the aactually agent about 90% of the time is only going to be getting around 1 of that 6%. There is alot of behind the scenes work that goes into marketing, negotiating, and selling a property.
However I believe there are many key positives that give an owner a very good advantage when listing their home with a FULL real estate brokerage. What I mean by full is someone that handles your property from putting in into the MLS and other various sites all the way through negoitiations to the day of closing.
Some of the advantages include;
Exposure- The difference in the amount of exposure you receive when listed with a broker compared to trying to do it on your own is significant. Brokers can place you into various magazines, websites, newspapers, etc. This exposure pays off. Just for example when list with me your property gets advertised on (www.jerseyshoremls.com) (www.realtor.com) (www.coldwellbanker.com) ( www.craigslist.com) (www.coldwellbankerredtoprealty.com) my own personal website (www.JerseyShoreRealEstateAgent.com) which syndicates to many other sites such as google, trulia, zillow, oodle, yahoo, etc. Plus we do magazine advertising as well. Mainly be concerned with your online advertising because about 83% of buyers start their home search online.
Showings- Realtors handle the showing schedule and your personalized instructions on how and when to show it. They generally keep a log and follow up with every agent that shows it to get feedback from them on why they did or did not like the property and what things should be ajusted to help it sell (i.e. price, appearance, etc.)
Negotiations- Your Realtor should handle all negotiations from the moment you receive and offer. They should immediately contact you to review the offers terms, conditions, and price. Your counter-offers should be realistic and reflect the current market in your area. Both the buyer and seller need to understand fair value when making and counter offering. Your Realtor is working hard to get you the best price at this point.
Under Contract- Your Realtor should be key in helping to coordinate the time of a home inspections, termite inspections, appraisals, etc. They should be able to provide you with some names of Real Estate attorneys if you choose to use one.
Professionals- This is probably the number one reason to list with a real estate broker. Realtors are professionals and this is their job. They deal with and study the market everyday to give you the best educated advice available. You have your own family, career, and life and selling a home can be personally time consuming and stressful, especially if it is your first time selling. The Realtor is there to take away that stress and free up your time. However the Realtor should keep you fully informed and make sure every decsision comes from you.
I hope this helps in understanding why listing with a Realtor gives you an extremely competitive edge when selling your
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