Selecting An Agent
Real Estate Agent Needed
At some point during your search to buy or sell real estate, you
will need the services of a real estate agent. Selecting an agent
can be confusing. There is a way to determine who is most likely
to succeed in helping you get your price and terms when selling,
or finding the perfect house when buying.
Questions to Ask a Prospective Realtor
Do you work as a full time Real Estate Agent?
How do you market your property?
Do you have a full time Assistant to see that no details are overlooked?
How do buyers contact you?
Are you marketing real estate on the internet?
If I choose to do a tax deferred exchange, are you experienced in
such transactions?
In what ways will you encourage other Real Estate agents to sell
my home?
Do you have a system to follow-up with other agents so that we get
valuable feedback after every showing?
How many properties have you sold within the past 30 days? 90 days?
6 months?
Do you have a list of references that I may check? Are you on the
internet exposing my property to millions of buyers instantly?
What is my property worth? What listing price do you recommend?
How did you arrive at that price?
How will you assist in my relocation plans?
Do you have a written Specific Marketing Plan designed to sell my
property quickly and for top dollar?
Are you affiliated with a Mortgage Broker with over 300 wholesale
lenders & have underwriting experience?
Will you offer 24 hour Talking Home Marketing on my property, for
any prospective buyer who drives by?
Do you guarantee my satisfaction by allowing me to exit the listing
agreement at any time, if I am not happy?
If the agent you are interviewing does not answer
the above questions to your satisfaction, you should probably find
another who does!
Setting the Price on your Home
The three factors to consider in selling your home
Location - Condition - Price.
Location
Your home's location and setting influences its value. A home inside
a quiet subdivision sells for more that the identical home on a
busy street. Remote areas typically sell for less than close-in
areas. Views, streams and trees usually enhance value. You obviously
have no control over location.
Condition
New homes enjoy a marketing edge over resale homes because they
are shiny and clean. ASnd builders enhance their appeal by offering
model homes (clean, bright, decorated in current colors and amenities)
for buyers to examine.
Pricing
If IBM stock is trading between 110 and 120, it does no good to
insist on selling at 150. Likewise, your home must be priced within
the appropriate range. You must actually "sell" your property
twice: first to a buyer and then to an appraiser. The buyer is more
subjective and compares the amenities of your home to those of other
homes in the same price range. The appraiser is more objective and
compares age, size, and cost-identifiable features in your home
against other properies that have sold. Your agent must use his
experience and expertise to fine-tune the price by taking into consideration
all of these variables.
Prequalification
Most homebuyers go about the process completely backwards! That
is they spend several weeks, months and sometimes years, looking
at Real Estate ads, driving neighborhoods and attending open houses
looking for the perfect home. Once they've found the house of their
dreams, they place an offer to purchase it subject to obtaining
financing. Then they shop for a loan. More often than not, it is
above their means and they lose the sale because they can't finance
it. Not only are they frustrated but so is the inexperienced agent
who chauffeured them around for a year.
The savvy buyer of today shops the loan first and
then knowing exactly how much they can afford, will then seek only
properties that are within their reach.
There are two methods of doing this. The standard
way is to call or meet with a loan agent, tell them their financial
and credit history, have the agent "run the ratios" and
then tell the borrowers about how much they will qualify for.
The flaws in this scenario are that the borrowers often forget to
tell about their 5 late credit card payments, their new boat payment
or push their income figures beyond reality.
The preferred method is to complete an application,
provide income and employment records, have the loan agent run a
credit report then actually submit the file to a wholesale lender
for underwriting then recieve an approval and commitment for a loan
for the borrower.
This is also a powerful negotiating tool when presenting
an offer to purchase. I don't know of a single seller who would
prefer to accept an offer from a buyer subject to obtaining financing
over the buyer who already has a loan commitment! This can and will
save you money when negotiating the contract. Get a loan commitment
first, then find your dream house.
Click
here to find out what homes are listed for sale in the Pensacola
area
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