Selling your house is a monumental milestone in your life. Whether you’re looking to upgrade, downsize, or looking for different scenery, selling your home is the first step to getting there. Many people believe this is something they are able to do alone, but there are many beneficial reasons you should use a real estate professional. Here are some of the top reasons to use a real estate professional when selling your house:
- It is their job.
All a real estate agent does with their day is look at houses. They live and breathe the transactions of homes within the market they work. I hear this line all the time, “I’ll just put a sign out in my yard and sell it myself.” While this may possibly get someone interested in the home, that is not the only thing that needs to be done. There are many behind the scenes tasks to complete before you can sign the papers. Not to mention all the research, advertising, negotiating, and guidance that a real estate professional provides.
- Get an accurate picture of what your home is worth.
- A real estate professional will be able to give you an ACCURATE estimate of what your home will be worth on the market. There are so many factors that go into pricing a home: Bedrooms, Bathrooms, Square Footage, Decks, Garages, Pools, Acreage, and so much more. So many times I hear, “Joe and Sally just listed for $XXX,XXX on their house, and it isn’t as nice as mine! Mine should be worth more!” That may be true, but how many bedrooms and bathrooms did they have? How long was it on the market? What did it ACTUALLY close for? Maybe they closed a year ago and the market has shifted since then. You will want someone who looks at these factors on a daily basis.
- Use a network of resources.
- When you sell with a real estate professional, you are not only using that individual, their brokerage, and their friends. You are using every realtor within their multi-list service and beyond. That means that people across the country are able to see your house. Take, for example, you believe you can sell your house by putting a sign in your front yard and call it good. (Nothing wrong with that, people do it every day.) You are limiting the exposure of your house to people that drive on your street. What if you post it in the classifieds? Limiting it to people who read that newspaper. Put it on Facebook? Limiting it to your friends. If you put it on the multi-list, people from anywhere can see your house. How do you get it on there? By finding someone with access to the multi-list, or as most call them, real estate professionals.
- Have a negotiator.
- There are many tactics when negotiating a real estate transaction. It is important to have someone representing you who has been in these situations. A real estate professional will not only have an outside view of the situation, but will not have as much emotion in the transaction. A good negotiator will be firm for what is needed, but will also be able to see both sides and come to a common ground.
- Dot your “i’s” and cross your “t’s”.
- Everyone wants to sue you. This is the unfortunate climate we live in today, and it is important to have all your affairs in order. Things like disclosures, title work, and municipality tests are important to have in order to prevent any issues down the road. You will also want to make sure you have a second set of eyes looking over your contracts and documents to make sure you aren’t being bamboozled into giving away more than you had intentionally wished. Lastly, you are going to want an extra set of those documents in case of an emergency. Real estate professionals are required to keep your records for a certain number of years.
There are a lot of moving parts going on behind the scenes of a real estate transaction. Many of these take a substantial amount of time and knowledge to complete. It is beneficial to yourself to at least consider using a real estate professional when making such a huge life decision. If you ever have any questions, reach out to your local real estate professional and set up an appointment! If you don’t have a real estate professional that you work with, or are in the market for a new one, check out Pittsburgh’s Hardest Working Real Estate Team.
