A good and experienced realtor can either break or make your deal. So, before sharing your confidentiality with your hired agent, its important to have a brief idea of the person you are dealing with. In this article, you get some of the best and reliable practices to find the right realtor, who can guide you to sell your home at the best price as quickly as possible.
How to Search for a Realtor?
Do a Market Research of Local Housing Personally
Go for a walk in the neighbourhood or drive around your residence to search for housing, there you will easily get the repeat agents names of real estate.
It will be a bonus if the house you found is already signed as “sold” on the sale board.
As per the recent experiment, about 60% of the sellers get their agents from the for-sale sign boards. Whereas, 15% of them prefer hiring a realtor based on his/her recognition in their respective community.
Consult with Realtor Face-to-Face in an Open House
Drop into your nearby open housing. Then notice the agent’s tricks of persuading the potential buyer to buy that house.
Make out some time to talk to that realtor- don’t be too professional to handover your business contact and leave. You must settle a good deal of professional relationship with the agent.
As per the recent estimate, about 5% of the home sellers get their realtor at open houses only.
Compare the Potential of Realtors Online
Firstly, do a random search of the names of some selected realtors of your knowledge.
Checking the online reviews is the second best thing you can do for a personal referral. Also, learn more about what people around your residence say regarding your recommended real estate agent.
Finally, you must make a note of the agent’s responses to the negative reviews.
Note: To stay assured of a reliable realtor, experts generally recommend using a high-rated agent finder tool to find the most recognized agents in your area.
Fee/Commission
Realtor Fees
Suppose you are the home seller here, then you are bound to pay the full (service) commission of your agent including the buyer’s (considering the buyer has one).
The agents of both the seller and buyer will typically divide the service commission. That is, if your home is sold for $200,000 (say), then a commission of 6% will be imposed on it.
This 6% commission will get further divided between the buyer’s and seller’s agents by $6,000 and $12,000, respectively.
But, you must know that the ratio of splitting the commission may differ from agent to agent. The newly arrived agents may not earn much commission than the experienced ones, who sell homes or properties at higher rates.
Important Questions to Ask a Realtor for Selling Your Home
- Since when are you working in the real estate domain?
- Do you have a wider connection base with the home sellers or buyers?
- What is the total strength of your client at present?
- Are you working in collaboration with a company or team?
- What are your skills and specialty?
- Are you fit for managing my home selling phase?
- What will be your primary strategies to market my home?
- Can you refer some of your contacts to me?
Is It important to Hire a Real Estate Agent?
Either sides (seller and buyer) can experience the advantages of hiring realtors to guide them. However, their purpose of hiring may vary. Let’s have a look at some of those factors:
It is a Money Game
Suppose, you are going for sale by owner (FSBO) while you list the home. Then you will certainly want to make as much money as possible without giving way to extra commission (if you hire an agent).
But, a study of 2017 showed that houses sold by FSBO fetched 30% less income to the owners compared to the money made by agent-based home selling.
Even if you don’t hire a realtor, you will have to pay the service commission for the buyer’s agent (if the buyer has one). The commission of the buyer’s agent will be included in the deal. So, you will save upto some amount, which otherwise you had to pay to your agent as commission.
Also, why not hire an agent when you are a buyer? After all, it is the owner who will pay for your agent’s service commission. Well, in this case, it may happen that the seller will decline your proposal. For that, make sure to have a deep market research of both the seller and buyer, and then decide who is leading ahead.
Pay Attention to Every Detail
You may not have the idea about the requirements when it is about understanding realtor-based multiple documents and reviewing the same, regardless of you being a seller or buyer. The purchase agreement file contains a minimum attachment of 10 pages. Other files requirements include local, federal, and state documents.
This is where the need of a real estate agent comes into view. Here, your selling agent will have a better understanding of the paperworks and can help you proceed.
However, there is a possible setback: any minor to minute mistake made in the agreement might cost you as much as the amount you were trying to avoid paying as commission, or might be even worse.
Privacy, Confidentiality as well as Fiduciary Duty
Your realtor has got your back if you are a seller or buyer, it matters not. Agents take care of the “fiduciary” responsibility of their clients (buyer or seller). Plus, whether you are the seller or buyer, your agent is bound to look after your monetary benefits at its best.
The fiduciary duty ensures high-end confidentiality. Being a buyer, you certainly won’t want to disclose your financial details to the seller, who isn’t under any bind to keep your details secret. Same is the case when you turn over your intimate details with the seller’s agent. Your realtor will take care of whether any details requested by the seller or seller’s agent is reasonable or not.
Note: In case, the seller’s agent has scammed you with false details, then being a buyer, you can charge against that person in that agent’s professional association, For instance, the National Association of Realtors.
Summing It Up
Whether it is about selling or buying a home, it is one of the toughest financial decisions you can ever make. Plus, you should understand the overall process by which both the seller’s and buyer’s agents get paid from the co mission. Only then, you can better decide whether selling your home alone or hiring a realtor would be the right choice for you.
