subject: Should You List With An Agent Or Not When Selling Your Home? [print this page] Have you noticed that there are selling home tips all over the internet, yet the people who write the articles may have absolutely no experience selling homes? That would not be true of real estate agents of course, but there are many other authors posting on the web claiming to have expertise and they have none. Well, I am a genuine expert and hopefully you can benefit from the selling home tips I have to share in this article. My goal is to help you make your sale transaction happen as quickly and easily as possible. Let's see how that goes now.
As you read through the selling home tips online you will want to compare them to your own experience and the experience of your family and friends. Of course the first big decision you'll need to make involves whether or not to use the services of a real estate agent. That is a very important decision each seller has to make. Your own personal circumstances, meaning how busy you are with work or other obligations, how much you know about real estate and sales in general, and how much you have budgeted to spend on a real estate commission, all these factors must be considered.
If not, if you simply call an agent and list your home you will not need to do too much else. If you have a good agent and trust that he or she will be looking out for your best interests, then you can simply relax and know that the marketing, negotiating and closing details will be handled. That is how many homeowners prefer to handle the sale of their homes, and I often utilize the services of agents as well. As I like to put it, there's a time and a place for everything, and there is certainly a time and a place to hire an agent to help sell your home.
If your home is listed you'll get plenty of selling home tips directly from your agent and you should follow them closely for your own benefit. Then you and your agent will be on the same page in your marketing efforts, which always produces the best results to everyone's satisfaction.
However, if your home is not listed with an agent you'll need to invest considerably more creativity, time and effort into marketing your own home. Putting a For Sale By Owner sign in the yard is a good first step, but along with that you need to post your home on craigslist and other free online forums where most buyers are shopping for their new homes. Statistics show that nearly all buyers look online for homes these days, even buyers who are working with real estate agents and prefer to have their own agent show them homes for sale. Sometimes what happens when you're selling your own home is that agents will call to see if you're willing to pay a commission. This is quite common and it's one reason you have to think about the possibilities beforehand.
Don't get caught by a surprise phone call from an agent who is sitting outside in her vehicle with some interested buyers and they want to come in to see your home, but will only do so if you are willing to pay their agent a commission. Sellers who have listed their homes with an agent don't have to deal with calls like this, for the most part, but when you sell by owner it is not uncommon.
