What to Expect from your Listing Agent

So it’s time to sell your home. This can be an overwhelming time, especially for first-timers. You will have people walking through your house, imagining their life there. You need to keep the place model-home clean and organized. And finally, you’ll need to know how to negotiate the contract and sale of the property. Even for experienced home sellers the process can become daunting. One of the best ways to calm your nerves and market your property is to employ a listing agent.

Your agent helps the selling process by marketing your property, scheduling your showings and handling the contracts and negotiations. Your listing agent is your advocate in the matter and should understand and be able to articulate your wants and needs for the sale of your home. Using a listing agent can also speed up the process of your sale and take some of the emotion out of selling your own home. Here are three ways your listing agent can help take the burden out of your sale:

Marketing Marketing your home is one of the most important pieces in selling your home. If you can’t even get people into your home, it will be on the market for quite a while. Realtors and real estate agents have many ways of marketing your home, beyond a couple websites and newspaper articles. Realtors have access to the MLS–or multi-listing service, which gives detailed information on each home listed with a realtor. This system is highly organized and you can create searches for specific neighborhoods and home features. Your listing agent should also understand the importance of marketing your home to their fellow agents and competitors. Since your listing agent will split the commission of the sale with any buyer’s agent, other agents will be more motivated to show their clients your home.

Showings This may sound like a simple process, but coordinating showings can become quite a chore without using an agent. Ask any agent and they will tell you, they are constantly on the phone; scheduling, canceling and re-scheduling showings. Buyers usually want to see quite a few homes at once and will schedule accordingly. Sometimes, however, things come up–they work late, they found the house of their dreams already or they’ve changed their mind about looking. When this happens your agent is your liaison, accepting phone calls at all hours so you don’t have to.

Negotiating While negotiating the sale may sound simple, it can become both frustrating and emotionally exhausting, especially when selling a house. A listing agent can take the emotion out of the selling process and understands you’re selling an asset, not your home. A listing agent should always get you the price you want (as long as it’s fair market value) and they will know when to play hard ball and when to step down. Negotiating is a listing agent’s strong point, and they’ll want to get you the best price possible.
by:
Carol Bayer