Sometimes, it can seem like selling a house can be an even trickier proposition than buying one. For themost part, that would be an accurate perception; it's a cutthroat world out there, and you could easily end up with a raw deal. But picking the right real estate agent, a property professional in your corner to help you navigate these uncharted waters, can be an ordeal in itself. The wrong real estate agent can often cost you 10 times more than you would otherwise in fairness need to pay.
Think about it - how would you go about hiring a real estate agent? Chances are, you would call a couple new friends or perhaps a sibling to find out what kind of experience they've had with any real estate agent they might have used at one time or another. Going with a personal opinion is hardly the right way to go about hiring a professional for perhaps the biggest single deal you will ever get to make in your life.
Take the case of what happened to neighbor of mine in a major city in Ohio. When she needed to pick a real estate agent to handle a home sale for her, she just went with a friend of hers who happened to be in the business. She actually felt she was making a wise decision in this choice - why would her friend rip her off? The will decided to list her house right away at $250,000. When that didn't get any bites, she lowered it to $225,000 after a couple weeks. There still were no real offers from serious people. In the end, my neighbour actually sold her house not through any expertise of her real estate agent's but through sheer dumb luck. A family visiting friends next door, happened to see the sign on her front yard. They came a-knocking, and sealed the deal a month later. Now "the friend" that the real estate agent was, she still charged her 6% - thousands of dollars. The real estate agent may be a useful asset when you're trying to buy or sell a house. They are rarely useful enough to warrant 6%.
Here is what I would recommend you did instead of running to a real estate agent the minute you decide to sell your house. Try an online real estate company such as you might find on FlatFeeListing in your state. They will put your home up for sale in a Multiple Listing Service. At one time, it used to be that these were only accessible to a real estate agent; not anymore. And you don't pay 6% either - all you ever do is to make a one-time payment of $500. Of course you'll still owe 3% to the buyer's agen. But, that the could still save you thousands of dollars.
If you decide that this is not the way to go for you (especially if the thought of getting all the paperwork through yourself terrifies you), here's what you need to know to pick the right real estate agent. You can't just go with a real estate agent because he's friends with your uncle or something. A good way to find the most prolific real estate agent in your area would be to just drive around and look to see what name appears on most for-sale signs on front yards. Pick ones that you like, and visit them to evaluate how comfortable you are working with them. Make sure that you don't pick one just because he happens to have a much higher quotes for your house than anyone else. He's probably just trying to dazzle you.
Before you make your final pick, make sure that your real estate agent has been in the business at least 10 years; ask about their personal purchase or sale records in the business, ask them how their quotes usually compare with the price they usually close at, and of course, ask them for their plan for how they believe they will go about selling your house. Take your time; you'll probably made the right choice.
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