The real estate market is speeding along, homes are flying off the shelves and people sometimes ask "why do I need a real estate agent?" So, why do you? Why not just try and sell the home yourself?
There are all sorts of boring stats that I can throw at you (some of which I've thrown at you before), but I actually want you to read this article and I fear that stats will just make you skip right over this and on to something more exciting. The nuts and bolts of it is, do you know HOW to sell your home? Do you know all the steps that are necessary to keep yourself out of trouble? A Realtor® does more than just putting up a for sale sign in your yard.
It's a Realtor's® job watch out for you and make sure that you cross all your T's and dot all your I's. I know all the forms and documents that you need to deliver to the buyer's agent. I know each and every deadline that is important to both send and receive things by. It's my job to watch your back and make sure that if the buyer doesn't get their repair addendum in on time, that you don't have to pay for any unnecessary repairs.
A Realtor® not only does research on what your home can sell for, by looking up details on past comparable sale prices but also weighs out condition, location and amenities that can sway the flat numbers. Trying to determine the value of your home by going it alone, or using Zillow, can be a huge mistake. Huge. Did you know that Zillow admits that they are off by more than 6.8% on half of their estimates in the Portland area? That means that if you have a $400,000 home, Zillow's estimate of value could be off by more than $27,000! That's a pretty big margin of error. I hope you aren't using Zillow to estimate the price of your home. I use real world variables to find the value of your home, verses a computer that is just calculating hard numbers and not taking into account any of the variables that can greatly move those numbers around. As a real estate professional it's my job to help you look at what your needs are and how different pricing strategies can get your needs met.Besides the paperwork, the pricing strategies and the research that a Realtor® does for you, what else do they do? A Realtor® puts your home in the RMLS, making sure that any and all buyers see your home. What good does it do to price your home right, if no buyers can find it? You don't want to rely on Craig's List and having people drive by your home to see the for sale sign in order to know your home's for sale, right? Of course not. You're not selling a toaster, a VCR or an old Elliptical that you don't use anymore. You're selling your home. This entails a whole different marketing strategy. And a Realtor® is just the person to make sure you get it right, the first time.
I hope that I've helped you brush away any thoughts of giving it a go by your lonesome first, because let me tell you, in real estate, first impressions count and count big. Putting a house up For Sale By Owner and then realizing a month or two later that you're out of your league and need a Realtor's® help, well shoot, you've just given the public two months of a wrong impression of your house and there's no erasing that!
Going back to the beginning, if you're the type that needs stats and lists to recognize the benefits of a Realtor®, well I've got you covered too! Give me a call or drop me an email and I'll get you all squared away!
