All agents develop and adapt their own toolset and processes over the years in order to make the most of any home sale or purchase, even their own. Here are 5 things Belleville real estate agents do when selling their own properties.
Full Disclosure
In the instance of an agent selling their own property, there are municipal, state, and federal laws that outright require the agent to inform the potential buyer that the property seller and agent are the same party.
For some buyers, this can be a warning sign that stokes fears of being conned into purchasing a faulty property, but oftentimes the opposite is true. Experienced and knowledgeable real estate agents live or die by their reputations, and making sure to keep everything on the up-and-up throughout the sale of their own properties is of the utmost importance.
Therefore, full disclosure of an agent’s ownership and role in the sale of a property is key to moving forward with the transaction.
Carefully Establish Pricing
One of the biggest reasons owners often hire attorneys is that they are unsure of their local market and don’t know the first thing about pricing the property appropriately.
Pricing too high can leave you hanging for months without any interested buyers while they wait for the price to drop. On the other hand, initially pricing too low can lead some buyers to think there have to be some critical reasons why it’s priced so far below market norms.
Striking that perfect balance and staying within market value expectations is key for any owner or agent to getting things started off on the right foot. Going further than analyzing your neighborhood comparable data, taking into account current market trends helps inform the resulting price even further.
Call in the Cavalry
As time goes on, all real estate agents build a network of professional connections, and they cultivate and leverage these relationships in a mutually beneficial way.
Whether it’s a professional photographer to create a spectacular photoset for the listing, an interior decorator to take staging to another level, or a landscaper there to give the exterior that extra oomph, agents know whom to call to get the job done right the first time.
Taking advantage of the services provided by these individuals helps pull the entire presentation together, from the first impression to closing.
Maximize Exposure
With the house ready for sale and a listing carefully manufactured, agents then do their best to push the marketing as much as possible.
This goes beyond showing a picture in the local newspaper and having a detailed listing online.
These days, agents do everything they can to get as much mileage as possible out of social media platforms. This includes creating a post with a link to their active listing along with a small blurb highlighting the strengths of the property and contact information. The next step is to share this post publicly, within local groups that allow posts about for-sale real estate, and by asking friends and family to share the post as well.
The amount of additional exposure and interest generated simply by getting the listing pushed out straight into hundreds – if not thousands – of personal news feeds is invaluable.
Consider All Aspects of a Bid
After bids start coming in, it’s very easy for your average seller to jump on the highest offered price and not look back, but that’s a big mistake.
Bids often come with specific contingencies and additional details that affect how much money a seller could net from accepting and closing using that bid. Repair and inspection contingencies are very common, and it’s important to think about how much additional time and cost fulfilling those contingencies could tack onto the existing set of circumstances.
Since it can be easy to overlook these details, it’s important to take a step back and review all facets of each offer before making a final decision.
Professional Real Estate Agents in Belleville
If you want to work with a team of real estate agents who will work just as hard at selling your property as they do selling their own, contact us today at (618) 830-7931!