A recent National Association of Realtors report, “Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers”, shows that 92 percent of the surveyed home buyers used the web to search for suitable options. A whopping 96 percent of these buyers, however, bought their homes through a real estate agent. As the percentage of buyers purchasing through agents is quite substantial, it is advisable for homeowners to hire real estate agents to take advantage of their network. Moreover, the agents help homeowners reach out to those buyers who depend on agents for real estate deals. In this post, we discuss the various reasons why homeowners should consider hiring a real estate professional at the time of selling their homes. (IMPORTANT:  Service First Mortgage is not a real estate brokerage and does not offer Realtor services.  We do, however, have a vast network of real estate experts that we would be happy to refer you to.  Just ask one of our mortgage experts.)

Negotiation Benefits

Many homeowners believe that hiring an agent for selling their home means an unnecessary, additional cost burden of paying a real estate commission. However, little do they realize that an agent with good negotiation skills can help them get far better price for their property. A 2014 study, “Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers” by the National Association of Realtors showed that if a typical house was directly sold by a homeowner, it would fetch $208,000. While if the same house was sold through an agent it would have fetched $235,000. Sellers should know that by not having an agent in the loop it would require them to negotiate with a lot of other individuals and third parties other than the buyers, for example the buyer’s agent, attorneys, home inspection companies, appraisers and more.

Hassle-free Paperwork

It’s a fact that contracts are hard to handle due to lots of paperwork. In addition, as industry disclosures and regulations are becoming a mandatory norm, the paperwork involved in buying and selling homes has drastically increased. As a result, more homeowners are now relying on agents to avoid the headache involved in paperwork. A recent study shows that the percentage of FSBO (For Sale by Owner) deals has dropped from 19 percent to 9 percent in the last 20+ years.

Widespread Network

Even in the current scenario where many of us rely on the Internet for buying almost everything, a lot of prospective buyers rely on agents, and not the Internet to look for properties. In such a scenario, hiring a real estate agent with a wide spread network of real estate agents is a good idea. It gives you a better access to all those buyers who are solely relying on the agents to buy a property. Another advantage of hiring an agent is that in all probability they would share a good rapport with the real estate authorities, which in turn would make the process of buying or selling a property much smoother.

Extensive Experience

Owing to the knowledge and experience that the agents gain over the years, they are in a better position to guide the seller about the changes they must make to their property to make it more sellable. Similarly, there are times when the sellers are adamant on selling their property at a price that may not be justified. In such cases, the agent plays the role of an advisor who helps the sellers set the right expectations for their property.

Targeted Expertise

Studies suggest that a major percentage of the homeowner leads come from the Internet; however, merely listing your property on the Internet wouldn’t help you generate the interest of prospective buyers. If you want to market your property and get the best price for it, you need to have a strong internet marketing strategy. You also need to rely on experts, real estate agents, who have expertise in the type of properties you would like to sell. Only then, they would be able to use their knowledge and expertise for the right marketing strategy, to get maximum viewership for your online ad.

Last Few Words

A good agent would never rush you into striking a deal. In fact, some real estate agents advise homeowners to procrastinate their decision of selling their properties when the markets are down. If you are a homeowner and are looking to sell your property get in touch with us at Service First Mortgage and we will refer you to a licensed real estate agent. If you are interested in purchasing homes, on the other hand, and want to know about VA loan current rates or searching for a mortgage expert, we can help you with that, too. Fill out our contact form to request a no obligation consultation.