The Benefits of Having A Realtor
If you are on social media, there is no doubt that every single day you will find at least one Realtor posting about the benefits of having a real estate agent involved for your home purchase or sale. Some buyers or sellers potentially see this as simply a self-serving advertisement and decide it's "easy" or "they don't really work, they just show people houses". Unfortunately, this couldn't be further from the truth and I wanted to explain some of the benefits of having a Realtor from an outside perspective.
All you have to do is look around your town or city to see WHY you need to have a Realtor. Properties are being bought and sold everyday with the benefit of market research and planning. Often times, these two elements are outside the scope of a person who wishes to sell their own home. Sure, you know what kind of equity you put into your own home, but how much did that other house down the street sell for last week? What kind of pricing is affecting the homes around you currently? How is your particular housing market doing right now? Is it rising? Is it flat? Is it falling? Do you know how to reach out to prospective home buyers? These questions all lend to reasons why there are benefits of having a realtor.
Benefit 1: Market Research
Realtors have the benefit of not only searching the MLS (Multiple Listing Service) for you while finding a home or property you might like, but they also are privy to any phone calls that come into the office that might be from new sellers who are wishing to sell as soon as possible without going into the MLS. As a person who is not represented by a real estate agent, you would be missing out on these deals. Agents also have the benefit of researching market analyses of different property types in the area that you are looking to buy or sell in. This is invaluable information as it would go towards how much something is definitely worth.
Benefit 2: Planning and Consultation
Realtors are the people who have gone through assisting with many times hundreds of home closings and home selling situations. They are the ones to consult with in understanding how to sell your home. Do you keep you animals away when you have a home showing, and how much do you clean up? What do you want to highlight and what do you want to keep in the background. What type of staging works well? And probably most importantly: What price should I sell my home for? -or- What is a good offer price for this home that I love? These are all questions that real estate agents can assist with. You see, prices for real estate are not just arbitrary numbers. They have real data to support them and listing prices and offer prices should reflect actual recent data. We all know that many times most sellers think their home is worth more than it actually is, and most buyers think the home they are looking at is worth less than it is listed for. Only an experienced real estate agent and an official appraisal can answer the question of the actual value - which many times is somewhere in between the buyer and sellers numbers.
Benefit 3: They are on your side
Are you aware of which services you are allowed to shop around for when it comes to appraisals, inspections, title fees, insurance, and other costs associated with buying and selling a home? Do you know how to read a mortgage Closing Disclosure to make sure you are not being overcharged or paying for items which the other party to the transaction is supposed to be paying for? Experienced real estate agents know how to read the various legal documents that are associated with real estate transactions. You need someone on your side to make sure you are getting exactly what you are paying for and not paying for things you are not supposed to be paying for.
You will never have someone as loyal on your side to help you buy or sell a home. Realtors are commission based for their service fees, but they rely on their network of clients to bring in their next client. Without their network, they wouldn't have anyone to represent. That being said, they will do everything possible to get what you want. Without satisfying their clients, they would have no clients. In my opinion, as a seller, the typical 6% transaction fee for real estate agents is well worth it. As a buyer, you do not pay any real estate commission (the seller pays it all typically) so it would be honestly fairly silly to not have representation by a real estate agent. As always, experience levels of real estate agents varies widely - so CHOOSE WISELY!