Getting ready to sell your home?

Think you can do it on your own? You can. We are here to support you, and whatever you decide, but we thought you should know what goes into selling a home and why selling your home for top dollar hinges on our expertise.

No, this is not a ploy to get you to use a Realtor, it’s an educational expose. We believe when you know better, you do better.

Pricing Your Home? Here Is How Realtors Help You.

How much is your home worth? That can be a hard question to answer. You can get an estimated value by entering your address on, but from there you’ll want to do some fine-tuning—and that’s where a good realtor can help.

It’s not as easy at is sounds. What are comps? What type of lot do you have? Have you kept your home in pristine condition? Does it need a new roof? New grass? Does it have foundational problems? Do you know the answers to these questions… yeah, that’s what we do!

Price your home too low, and you could lose out on a lot of money. Price it too high, and your home could be on the market for several months. Worse than that, price drops sometimes deter buyers as they think something is wrong it with your home. Especially if it has been on the market for months. If that happens, we have seen many people low ball offers on homes as they think there are problems with it. If this happens to you, it is hard to change the tone of the sale.

Realtors have many duties and responsibilities, but at the top of the list is to properly price your home.

To do this, realtors analyze the sales prices of comparable homes, or “comps,” in your area to see where yours should fit in, and advise you accordingly.

Ready To Sell Your Home? Here Is What Realtors Do.

After you determine an asking price, a realtor should provide you with a comprehensive marketing plan detailing how he’ll/she’ll get your property sold. This plan should include the following:

• Recommendations for home improvements or home staging, if necessary. Yes, these alterations will cost you time and money, but they will improve your chances of a faster sale and higher asking price. If this sounds like too much work for you – hire professionals.
• Taking photos or hiring a photographer who will be able to highlight your home’s best features. No, you cannot take pictures on your iphone and call it a day. Well, you can… see what happens.
• Adding your home to the (MLS) multiple listing service, where home buyers and their agents can view your property and decide if they’d like to come visit for a closer look. This is a great step. There is a lot of traffic on the MLS and it is perfect for a lot of exposure.
• Advertising online with Facebook, Youtube and Google is a major step in selling houses today. More than 80% of home buyers research homes online on their own before contacting their realtor.
• Holding open houses is also something the real estate team takes care of for you. Do you really want to spend your weekends showing your home to buyers?
• Coordinating showings with prospective buyers. Anyone who is interested in buying your home is going to want to come for a tour. There can be several emails back and forth and there will be people who no show. Realtors expect this, they are equipped to handle this.

Negotiating With Buyers? Realtors Are Expert Negotiators.

Once you receive an offer on your home, it’s the listing agent’s job to present it to you and advise if any negotiating needs to be done.

For instance, if you get an offer below asking price, your reaction may be to refuse without further consideration. However, a realtor  might be able to negotiate with the buyers and bring that price up to a decent level.

Or, if the buyers truly can’t budge, realtors find other ways to sweeten the deal like a faster closing date or waived contingencies. These compromises can actually save you tens of thousands of dollars. It might not be the home selling price you wanted, but you still may come close to the return on investment.

How Do You Know Which Realtor To Work With?

This is much like dating. You are not going to “like” everyone you go out with. So, rather than meet one person and use them as a realtor we have some suggestions.

Choose a handful of agents  to meet with and ask them some questions to assess whether they’re right for you. Take referrals from friends who have bought or sold houses. Who did they like working with and why?

Here are some questions to ask:

• How many homes have they you sold in this area, and how long did it take?
• In what price range do you sell most of your homes?
• Do you have advice for me regarding the condition of my home, and what could be improved to acquire a higher sales price?
• What is your marketing plan? Online. Offline. And word-of-mouth to reach other realtors?
• Can you recommend contractors, photographers, moving companies, etc.?
• Is this your full-time job? Or do you do this as a hobby?

Whoever you decide to work with, make sure they fit your needs and are able to tackle your home sale the way you want them to.

As always, if you need help buying or selling your home contact Gregg Bamford or Ryan Bamford.