What Real Estate Agents Do to Help You

We Buy Houses Posted on December 19, 2019 Posted by Will

For a variety of factors, which we'll explain here, not all real estate agents are created equal. If you aren't wondering how to sell a house on your own but instead are looking for tips on what you can do to weed thru all the realty companies around then you've come to the right place! In this article, we'll discuss what real estate agents do to help you and how to choose a realtor.

Experience and Education

In that exact order! Experience first, education second. Experience rains supreme because it's a fast and easy way to determine the quality realtors from the inferior ones. So what is a 'quality' realtor? They can be easily defined as 'a realtor who has sold hundreds of houses'. Why is this representative of quality? Well, as some folks say, the "proof is in the pudding" meaning the hundreds of sellers before you who have entrusted a particular realtor to manage the sale of their life's biggest investment - their house.

With experience, realtors inherently increase their knowledge of how selling a house works. As a seller, you are subsequently better positioned to approach buyers with a level of authority. Understandably, some sellers are intimidated by the complexity; after all, there are a lot of moving parts - timelines, legal disclosures, bank approvals, etc. When an educated realtor is involved, a transaction has a much better chance of flowing smoothly - realtors manage buyer/seller emotions and temper unsubstantiated expectations, transaction complexities, and property marketing.

MLS Listing

A primary tool of real estate agents is the Multiple Listing Service (MLS), a gargantuan online database subscribed to by more than 900,000 agents that contains the listings of 90 percent of properties for sale across the United States. Because it's a subscription based service and said "script" is contingent upon having a realtors license, only realtors can help expand your buyer pool by listing your property for sale on the MLS.

Realtors can also help you determine a strategy for pricing your home competitively. As you already guessed, when pricing a property for sale realtors go back to the MLS to reference "like" properties that have sold within recent months and within the nearby vicinity. They can advise you on how long those houses were on the market and the current months of inventory.

FixerUpper4Cash Pro-Tip: Get MLS facts without a Realtor!

We're here to help and would be happy to provide you with a comps report and opinion of market value. Best of all, we'll provide this 100% free. All we ask is that you let your friends know that we pay cash for houses! Contact us now for your free comps report!

Time and Energy

You will likely be working with all types of home repair professionals, staging companies, title companies, appraisers, and inspectors. Instead of researching these people individually and reaching out to them on your own, your real estate agent already has these relationships established and can recommend who to use, and more importantly, whom not to use.

Professional Negotiator Working for You

Costing on average 6% of the sold price, many home sellers think hiring an agent is just too costly. However, we find this to be faulty thinking that is bound to cost you. In fact, top buyer agents managed to negotiate an average purchase price $12,000 under the average selling price!

Realtors negotiate for a living and getting the highest possible sell price is just as much in their interest as it is yours. Don't undermine your bottom line, hiring an experienced and educated agent is a no-brainer!

FixerUpper4Cash Pro-Tip: Don't want to sell with a realtor or no good at negotiating?

We can provide multiple offers to buy your house and in many cases, can pay more than market value! Get your offers now and have us explain the details behind each offer. If our initial offers don't work, we can figure out what will work for you.

How to Choose a Real Estate Agent

The first step is to find a minimum of three (3) agents who might be able to help. Perhaps you know a couple personally, have friends who have recently sold their home through a realtor, or have heard or seen compelling advertising (if none of these apply to you, a simple Google search will give you plenty of options). Once you've identified three potential candidates, do NOT immediately sign a contract. Take the time to read reviews online, attend your prospect's open houses, get references (and call them), and ask your potential candidates questions like:

• "How many houses have you sold in the past 2-years?"
• "What is your list-price-to-sales-price ratio?" This is the ratio of what an agent's properties were originally priced/listed as compared to what the properties finally sold for. It should be close to 100 percent.
• "What is the average number of days your listings take to sell?"

At this point you'll likely start to get a gut feeling as to who is best for you. However, wait just a bit more before signing that contract! Ask for copies of the agency disclosure, listing agreement, and seller disclosures. Read them and if anything is unclear ask your candidate to clarify or have your attorney offer advice (you're going to need one anyways so it's advisable to get them involved early).

Select a Realtor

Make sure you discuss and are comfortable with your realtor's responses regarding your preferred method and frequency of communication, that they understand your reasons for selling, how they'll market your property, and the number of and dates for showings you're able to do.

Now you're ready to select a real estate agent. Go ahead, get on with it, sell your home!

FixerUpper4Cash Pro-Tip: Real estate investors are a great source for realtor recommendations.

Investors are involved in buying and selling real estate 365 days a year meaning they work with lots of realtors. If you're in the San Marcos or San Antonio area we recommend Century 21's top agent Zachary Adkisson.