A Real Estate Agent Could Help you Sell your House Properly

By: Stephen Morgan

It might not be rocket science but it is safe to assume that actually selling your home is not necessarily that easy an undertaking. The logic behind this assumption is fairly simple in that if it is was then there would be no need for Real Estate Agents.

There are two known ways of selling your home, by FSBO (for sale by owner) and the other option is thru a sales agent or real estate company.

If you opt for FSBO, the first thing you need to do is to determine the current market value of your house by benchmarking with comparable houses for sale in your neighbourhood. You can do a personal survey or flip the pages of the local daily to obtain references. Once determined, it's time to do some house cleaning: clean the clutter in the yard, perform necessary house repairs and make the interior as presentable as possible. The next step is to advertise your intention of selling your home thru the local daily. Make use of the internet, print flyers and employ friends and relatives to distribute them for you. If payment is made in cash, then this will not be a problem; however, because a huge amount of money is involved in most cases, it is best to ask a mortgage broker to help in the facilitating the sale.

Once all of the above items have been set up, interested buyers will make a house call to request for an open house, a tour of the premises or negotiate for a fair price.

In most instances, professional appraisers accompany house buyers to assess carefully the actual state of your home. Thus, be alert and precise in your answers so as not to downgrade the marketability of your home. Some buyers hire real estate agents to do the negotiations for them and to consummate the sale as well. It is preferred that negotiations be conducted between real estate agents since this would make the sale easier and also hassle free.

If on the other hand you don't like the FSBO set-up, then hire a reliable real estate company to handle the sale of your house and sign a possible listing agreement. They normally charge a fixed fee from the proceeds of the sale. However, don't be alarmed about such charges since these are all mandated by regulating government agencies and agreed upon as a standard by legitimate associations of real estate companies. Therefore, you're assured that you won't get overpriced.

A swift sale of your house can be expected from most experienced real estate agents, since they are well entrenched in the business and have connections in the industry. If you put your house in the sale block, real estate agents will swarm like bees and alert possible buyers of the intended sale. Agents arrange for mortgage financing in case buyers could not pay in cash or refinancing if they have an existing house loan and wish to transfer to your house. All you will ever need to do is wait! Let your real estate agents do the peddling and just sign the sale agreement once the sale is consummated.

After a thorough assessment, a sale sourced a real estate agent is much better than one sold by FSBO. The only drawback is a chunk of money is usually taken out of the proceeds to pay for professional services. But this is rightly justified. After all, you don't need to experience the rigors and hardship of a FSBO and might as well get to possible buyer scams. So go find a real estate agent today and let them do all the work for you.

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