You may be be thinking it’s a good idea to avoid using a REALTOR® to sell your home so you can save yourself some money. But are you really willing to do all of that hard work on your own?
Once you start to understand how much of your own time you’ll need to invest in selling your home, how many tools for doing so aren’t available to you, and all the details you don’t know about selling real estate and the legalities involved, you might naturally feel overwhelmed. It’s a steep learning curve if you’re trying to learn how to market your house while you’re in the whirlwind process of selling it. Fortunately, a professional REALTOR® has already gone through all of that training for you.
Selling your home, like buying your home, will likely be one of the biggest financial transactions of your life. You can try to do it alone, but hiring a REALTOR® has many advantages. Here are seven reasons why you should let a REALTOR® do all of the hard work for you.
1. Agents avoid emotional decisions
Selling your home is an emotional experience and an agent keeps you at arm’s length, ensuring you’re less likely to make mistakes that will cost you money and lose potential buyers. Mistakes like overpricing your home, refusing to counter a lower offer because you’re offended, or accepting a bad offer when you urgently need to sell your home. It’s a REALTOR’S® job to follow up, and they do this without communicating a sense of desperation.
A REALTOR® will also protect you from having to deal directly with rejection every time a buyer’s agent tells you their client doesn’t want your home. No one wants to hear what’s wrong with their home. A REALTOR® can take the sting out of the rejection and put a positive spin on any negative feedback, while using that feedback to help increase the appeal of the home. Constructive criticism can be easier to digest for the seller when it comes from a REALTOR® who is on their side, trying to get the best for them.
2. Real estate is a full-time job
Can you rush home from work every time someone wants to see your home? Can you excuse yourself from a meeting every time your phone rings with a potential buyer? At the end of a long workday, do you have the energy to take advantage of every possible opportunity to market your home? Are you an expert in marketing homes? Do you have any experience doing so?
Your answer to all of these questions is probably “no.” A REALTOR’S® answer to all of these questions is “yes.” In addition, by going through an agent, you’ll get a secure lockbox for your front door that allows agents to show your home even when you aren’t available and keep track of who was there.
3. REALTORS® access large networks
Yes, you can list your home yourself on Facebook or Kijiji, but will that be enough? Even if you have a large personal or professional network, those people will likely have little interest in spreading the word that your house is for sale. You don’t have access to the online resource Multiple Listing Service® (MLS®) that agents do, or relationships with clients, other agents, or a real estate agency to bring the largest pool of potential buyers to your home. A smaller pool of potential buyers means less demand for your property, which can translate into waiting longer to sell your home and possibly not getting as much money as your house is worth.
A professional REALTOR® has a current list of names and contact information so they can quickly spread the word about the property they just listed. They also market the property in every available way, from publishing ads in the Winnipeg Regional Real Estate News to marketing online via MLS® on every available website, including www.winnipegregionalrealestatenews.com as well as their own, and on social media, too, to keep the momentum going and show the home consistently until it’s sold.
4. Weeding out unqualified buyers
An agent can find out whether someone who wants to view your house is really a qualified buyer or just a nosy neighbour. It’s a lot of work and a major interruption every time you have to put your life on hold and make your house look perfect to show it. You want to limit those hassles to the showings most likely to result in a sale.
REALTORS® are trained to ask questions to determine the seriousness, qualification and motivation of a potential buyer. They’re also trained to ask closing questions about how long buyers have been looking, whether they’ve seen any other homes that would work for their needs, if they are paying cash or have been prequalified, what schools they are looking for, and more. They can move a qualified and motivated person to the point of purchase.
It’s also awkward for buyers to have the seller present, rather than the seller’s agent, when they’re touring the home. Ideally, the owner should never be in the home because it makes potential buyers uncomfortable. When a seller is present, most buyers will rush through a house and won’t remember much about what they saw.
5. Price negotiations take skill
Even if you have sales experience, you don’t have specialized experience negotiating a home sale. The buyer’s agent does, so they are more likely to succeed in the negotiation, meaning less money in your pocket. An experienced REALTOR® has negotiated hundreds of home purchases.
Not only are you inexperienced, you’re also likely to be overly emotional about the process, and without your own agent to calmly point this out and calm you down, you’re more likely to make poor decisions.
REALTORS® also know the market and what’s driving demand, which gives them an advantage by knowing what issues are worth negotiating for and which ones are worth letting the potential buyer win.
6. You ignore your home’s flaws
Professional REALTORS® are experts in what makes homes sell. They can walk through your home and instantly point out changes you need to make to attract the best buyers and get the top offers. They can see flaws you’re oblivious to because you see them every day — or because you simply don’t view them as flaws. They can also help you determine which feedback from potential buyers you should act on after you put your home on the market, to improve its chances of selling.
7. Exposure to legal risks
A lot of legal paperwork is involved in a home sale, and it needs to be completed correctly. One of the most important items is the seller’s disclosures. A seller is obligated to disclose any fact that affects the value or desirability of the property they’re selling. If a seller doesn’t disclose properly, they can be held liable.
Unless you’re a real estate attorney, your agent probably knows more about disclosure laws than you do. If you fail to disclose a hazard, nuisance, or defect — and the buyer comes back to you after having moved in and found a problem — the buyer could sue you. Agents can make mistakes, too, but they have professional errors and omissions insurance (E&O) to protect themselves and give the buyer recourse, so the buyer may not need to pursue the seller for damages.
REALTORS® can get broader exposure for your property, help you negotiate a better deal, dedicate more time to your sale, and prevent your emotions from sabotaging it. A professional REALTOR® brings years of experience to a complex transaction filled with potential financial and legal pitfalls. Most importantly, a REALTOR® is your ally and will help guide you through every step of the very complex process of selling your home.
Knowing all of this, why would you trust anyone but a REALTOR® to help you sell, or buy, your home?
— REALTOR.ca