Tips for Sellers

Interview several agents before you select one. Tell them right up front that you are talking to several agents and would like to compare services and analyses before making a decision. Let the great American system of business competition work in your favor.

Compare and make the decision that best suits your needs. However be ethical and fair and do not reveal one agent's analysis to another and try to negotiate on that basis. We put in a lot of hard work and thought in developing our strategy. When you compare proposals, compare on the basis of your bottom line and not just the sales commission. Top agents rarely discount commissions because they are able to sell your home at higher prices.

Discount agents are discount agents for a reason. If a high quality agent offers to sell your house at a higher price, do not try to use a discount agent to sell at the same price -- it is unlikely to succeed. Discount agents are unlikely to be able to provide the marketing support, expert negotiations, home preparation and showing ideas that will be required to get a good value from a home sale. This is specially true in a sellers market when prices of comparable homes vary radically!

In a market where supply of houses are low, a For-Sale-By-Owner (FSBO) can be successful, but statistics show that the price obtained is typically 10% less than that obtained through a full-service brokerage company. Never try to sell by yourself at a price that a top quality agent has suggested. You are unlikely to have the marketing, presentation, or negotiations skills that a top quality agent will have. Buyers have a mind-set that a FSBO is a great deal. If you have to discount the price to have success, what have you really gained -- other than a lot of stress. You may also have restrictions on showing times. Lack of a lockbox will reduce market exposure.

Your goal should be to appeal to the mass market and it is very difficult to do that with local yard signs. Even if the home is listed in the Multiple Listing Service (MLS), many top agents are reluctant to show it because of discounted fees and double work. The vast majority of buyers are working with real estate agents and if agents are unwilling to show your property to buyers your market exposure is limited. Your goal should be to make the property available for showing 9am-9pm, 7 days a week. You should make yourself scarce when buyers show up to see your property. You need to let them bond with the home. The seller's presence during the showing is typically a distraction. Buyers typically feel they are intruding when sellers are present. You may also be unaware of the legal disclosures that are required to any prospective buyer and this could expose you to law suits later. A major source of frustration can be figuring out the financial strength of the buyer. Can the buyer obtain or qualify for a loan? Will the buyer be able to get to the settlement table?

The size of the real estate company you choose is also very important. The higher the number of agents and offices that a company has, the higher will be the number of prospective buyers associated with that company. Long and Foster Realtors is the largest Real Estate company in this region with over 8000 agents. The relocation programs available through the company can make a huge difference as well. Sometimes national and international marketing may be required for a property. Small companies have limited marketing resources.

Make sure that the agent or the agent's office is able to answer phone calls about your property and schedule showings even when they are on vacation. If your agent goes on vacation during the first two weeks of your listing and your property is not shown during this time it could have a remarkable effect on your price. Your property needs to be available for showing even when the broker's office is closed. This happens quite frequently when there are showing restrictions which require a call to the broker's office and an appointment with the sellers -- and the broker's office is closed or the sellers are not reachable. Make it easy for agents to show your house.

It is important to choose someone who is knowledgeable, helpful and polite and is able to converse with the public with ease. Your agent is representing you at all times. You would not want the ill manners of your agent to turn off prospective buyers. Your agent should be able to talk about the property and to defend the price and any subsequent changes in a reasonable manner so that your bargaining position is not undermined.

Several factors affect the price of your home. There are some factors you cannot control. Do not worry about those. Focus on the ones you can control such as season, cleanliness, flowers, smell, neatness, proper repair, fresh paint, fresh carpet, power-washed deck, power-washed siding and concrete. Other important factors that will impact your price are the number of buyers interested in your type of home (demand) and the number of houses of your type and price range available in the market (supply) at the time yours goes on the market. Attractive community features such as shopping Malls and schools will also make a huge difference in price. The interest rate and other macro-economic factors are also likely to affect your price. Your agent should be able to analyze the market economics and advise you on setting a realistic price.

If your home is likely to be in high demand, do not be afraid to choose an aggressive path -- this is specially true if you are not in a hurry to sell. Many people think that if a property stays unsold on the market for two weeks it places a stigma on the property. My experience shows that nothing could be further from the truth. It takes a minimum of two weeks for the word to get around and for buyer momentum to gather. Homes that are sold in one or two days or even before they are marketed extensively, usually fetch lower prices than homes that are marketed and presented properly. It is a lot easier to lower the price of a home than to raise it. There is no stigma attached to this event -- it just means your home will be available to a larger pool of qualified buyers. When a department store has a SALE do you think the product is stigmatized? On the contrary this tiered pricing allows them to test the market at the higher price before making it appealing to a larger pool of buyers. Price reductions will often make buyers feel that they are getting a great deal. This does not mean that you should be unrealistic in your pricing. In addition to providing a price analysis, your agent can take you to see a couple of comparable homes so you can judge where your home fits into the market place.

A major mistake made by sellers in a sellers market is not doing anything to prepare the home for visitors. If people do not fall in love with your home and find your home clean, fresh and appealing to visit, your chances of getting a good price automatically diminishes. Buyers are guests in your home -- make them feel welcome and remove all things that are likely to disturb or offend them. If your pet is running around the house or your home smells of cigarette smoke or animal odor or your carpet looks shabby it may turn away many prospective buyers.

The law requires a real estate agent to explain "agency" and who works for whom and the limits of each type of agency at the first substantial contact with any member of the public. Agents who represent the seller can never represent a buyer and this relationship must be disclosed to a prospective buyer prior to writing an offer to purchase the property being represented by the agent. As long as buyers understand this relationship and are willing to waive their right to have representation, a seller's agent can write a contract for the buyer and assist the buyer in the purchase of the property. Seller's agents are prohibited from assisting buyers in lowering the price of the properties they are representing. They are also prohibited from providing the buyer any market information that might negatively impact the sales price of the property.

All agents, regardless of who they represent, must disclose material defects about the property and deal with all members of the public in a fair, honest and non-discriminatory manner. All real estate agents regardless of who they represent are working on behalf of the broker they are affiliated with.

The probability that your buyer will be represented by a buyers agent is very high. Whenever another agent is involved in the sale of your home, the commission will be shared. You are notified of this sharing arrangement and the percentage of the commission that will be given to the agent bringing the buyer. You need to make sure that the commission for buyers agents is competitive. You need good agents on both sides and many buyers agents will not work for a discounted commission. If the buyers agents commission is too low, your property may not get as many showings -- and more showings mean more chances for you to make a good sale.

The concept of dual-agency is quite important to understand. This situation arises when other agents affiliated with the company you are hiring, wishes to show your property. Unless you agree to dual-agency they are prohibited from showing your property. If you agree to dual-agency, the broker of the firm acts as the dual agent while the respective agents act as intra-company agents with one representing the seller and the other representing the buyer. If you are engaging a large company to market your property, understanding and agreeing to dual-agency is very important. Otherwise a large portion of prospective buyers for your property could be lost.

You should treat the commission as the marketing costs of the product you are selling which happens to be your home. In a free market economy such as the United States, the consumer always pays for the marketing costs -- even though the check is written by the seller. Ultimately the commission is paid by the buyer because it is built into the price of the house. Therefore it is in your best interest to find the best agent possible and not an agent at the lowest commission possible.

Many people think that the true market price of a property is what the appraiser comes up with. Nothing could be further from reality. Appraisers work for the lender and their primary job is to help the lender manage the risks associated with providing the loan. In the age of drive-by, electronic and statistical appraisals, where the appraiser never enters the property in question, evaluation errors are fairly common.

An appraiser looks at SOLD information only in arriving at an appraised value. In a rapidly moving market, low appraisals are often successfully challenged. The true market value of your property is what the buying public is willing to pay for it.

Once you have accepted a satisfactory proposal, you will be executing a listing contract with the broker with whom your real estate agent is affiliated with. The length of this listing contract is negotiable and so are many of its terms. One important term to negotiate is the manner in which the contract can be terminated. You may decide you wish to turn the home into a rental property or you may decide to postpone the sale or you may find that you are not happy with the service or you may find that you and your agent are just not getting along the way you initially anticipated. You may have some termination expenses specially if the company you hired spent a lot of money advertising your property but in most cases a 24-hour termination clause is your best protection. However, you should never attempt to use the termination clause as a method of avoiding the commission because the law provides protection against this for the brokerage firm and agents. You will owe a commission if you sell to a buyer who learned about the property while it was listed with a brokerage firm.

If you are selling your home, why do you need to know about financing? A vast majority of buyers will need financing to buy your home and your openness in accepting contracts with a wide variety of financing options will expand the pool of potential buyers for your home. However you need to be aware that some financing takes longer to process that others. This is because of the appraisal process. How long an appraisal takes can vary by lender and type of loan. Your real estate agent can provide you information about how long various appraisals are taking in your area. With FHA and VA loans, the buyer is prohibited from paying some costs and these costs are invariably passed on to the seller. These costs can be as high as $ 600. Your flexibility in looking at the attractiveness of the entire deal and your bottom line and not just at the costs will help you make better deals. Your real estate agent can advise you on these issues. If the buyer is unable to obtain financing after making good faith efforts, the contract usually falls through and the buyer's earnest deposit is returned and the property is made available for showing again.

Contingencies in a contract are events which will allow a contract to be terminated without penalties. These can be on the seller's side as well as the buyer's side. If you need to buy a home before you can move out of the home you are selling, you may need a home-of-choice contingency or a rent back. Your buyers will typically have a financing contingency and a home inspection contingency. They might have a home to sell as well! You should discuss your strategies for dealing with these contingencies long before you actually start looking at contract offers.

You and your agent have done a great job and now you start getting some offers to purchase. Your choices are: accept, counter-offer or reject. Many people forget about the "conversation" before the counter-offer or rejection. This exchange is very important in the event of multiple offers. Sometimes two or three offers are equally acceptable but you may need to negotiate some terms or conditions or shorten the length of contingencies. You cannot make counter offers to two parties because you do not want to be in a situation where you have sold your house twice.