I'm closing in on the date to list the house.... (I still have allowed a little wiggle room) I want the house on the market in September. I want the pictures of the outside to be taken with the flowers at their very best and the yard groomed to perfection. I have been working on final touch ups although the Realtors may have additional ideas to present my house at its best. It is always interesting to me that the quirks we love may in fact hold other buyers at bay, and we certainly don't want that!
So the search begins for the right realtor. I am clueless in knowing what questions to ask to determine who can best present my house. As you know, I often learn from my mistakes and this is a major decision that protects my mayor investment. So here I am asking my dear readers and friends to share questions they have found helpful (or ones they wished they had asked) in determining who can best represent my home and investment. Feel free to share with any of your friends and bloggers as I can use all the help I can get!! I want to learn from your experience! Give me you best!
I have reached a time in my life where I take time to enjoy the view. I love sitting on the porch and gazing out to the setting sun and basking in all that the day has brought my way. I started my journey in My vintage trailer, Lolita with a back door to enjoy the view of each day. Now, my journey continues in a Class B Roadtrek. Life and Dreams Change as life dictates, Come along and enjoy..... My Back Porch View.
I would look through the real estate ads and magazines for your area and see who does the most and best advertising. They are often the most successful in selling, as it costs to advertise and yet does pay back. In business, image is important to many people, especially buyers. Get them to commit to running a certain number of ads, etc.
ReplyDeleteI would also try to negotiate the lowest possible fee. They may tell you their office doesn't allow that, but most do, even though they don't want you to know that. In this economy, I would think you could get a percent or two lower. Remind them that you're going to make the place as presentable as possible, which makes their job easier.
I've always done FSBOs, but the economy was better.
Be sure they're comfortable with basic online presentation (Postlets, etc.). We hired someone who sent a thumbnail of our house to the Realtor mag for the front page. I did all the online marketing. It was horrible.
ReplyDeleteCan you ask locals who they recommend?
We used the most famous realtor in our area, the one whose name you'd see the most on for-sale signs and who won awards every year for highest number of sales. She was a down-to-business woman who knew what she was doing. We wanted a certain price and she agreed to list it at that. After a couple weeks of no showings, she told us we needed to lower the price. We asked her at what price she thought it would sell, told her to price it at that, and it sold in a matter of weeks. Could we have left the house on the market longer and gotten more money? Perhaps, but we were just happy to get it sold.
ReplyDeleteJust know that some realtors are good a helping you buy, some are good at helping you sell. I tried the one who helped me buy a place as a selling realtor on my other one, and it took moving to a different one to get it sold. Word of mouth, or if you can look at what has sold in your area lately (past year?) and see who the listing realtors were?
ReplyDeleteIf you want to sell fast, don't make your initial price too high. We made that mistake twice and our homes sat on the market for 18 months. If your realtor sees that no one is looking or there isn't much interest at the price you've set, lower it within the first week!
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