Selling your home is a business transaction plain and simple and more often than not sellers can make emotional and impulsive decisions that will end up wasting their time and money. It is imperative that you interview and pick the right agent that will help you achieve your goal of selling your home.

Here are some of the mistakes sellers make when choosing a Realtor:

Choosing a Realtor without interviewing others.
Selling is a big task and can put a lot of stress and worry on a homeowner. But, you have to think when you are looking for services in other professions such as lawyers, doctors, contractors, etc. do you shop around? You should do the same when picking a Realtor. It is easy to get caught up in the moment of a wonderful presentation, but making an impulse decision and learning later that it is not going to work out can cost you time and money with wasted days on the market or not getting it listed when you wanted it to. What do you do? Interview at least 3 agents and ask them all the same questions and see who will not only fit your needs but whose personality will fit yours as well. Ask yourself, “ is this the person I want to go through this process with?”

Choosing a Realtor strictly based on their agreement with your selling price.
Beware! Some agents tell you only what they want you to hear. You will find some agents that
are more interested in themselves than they are with you. Generally, sellers often have a list price that they want to stick to as it only makes sense to their bottom line and what proceeds they want to get from the sale. OR, sellers google online other homes in their area that are listed for a certain amount and compare their house getting a price that may be way off. We are all guilty of thinking we have figured something out based on what we see online but it takes a true expert to get down to the reality of it and make a correct assessment based on actual data from the MLS system that only Realtors have access to. Let an expert agent properly price your home at what the market will bear to get it sold. They will show you data in the form of comps to support the list price. Again, beware of the agent that over prices your home as they know they will win your business so expect to be disappointed later when they ask you to price reduce causing added days on the market which produces red flags for buyers. Buyer will think “what is wrong with this property?”

This agent offers the lowest commission.
You get what you pay for, cut and dry. This “discount” agent will put a sign in your yard and list your house in the MLS but little additional effort will be made. Agents use their own funds to market your property and can cost them $300 for professional photos, $100 on printing, pay other websites to market the property, hold open houses with food/drinks, just listed postcards can be anywhere from $100-$500 depending on the community. And, not to mention the agent’s time spent having phone conversations with other agents asking if they have clients interested and receiving calls off the sign in the front yard. Think about what your time is worth and how would you want to be compensated. If an agent reduces the commission, you will not get the extra marketing or superior service.

This agent has sold lots of homes, they must be the best!
Think to yourself, do you want an agent that had a bunch of listings and only sold a small portion of them or do you want one that has sold all/majority of their listings? Say an agent listed 40 homes last year and only actually sold 30, what happened to the other 10 or the agent that only listed 20 but sold 19. How many of those listings were reduced? How many days on the market? Quantity is important but only if quality was present.

I am going to pick the large Real Estate Team!
Yes, most real estate teams are successful or they would not be a team. But, you must decipher through as not all teams are created equal. Teams come in all shapes and sizes but it’s not size but the service you receive that matters. Ask the big team agent how accessible they will be throughout the process. As once you sign with them, you may never hear from them again but only from their assistant or support staff. You better bet they will be at closing to collect their check. It is very normal for a large team to have a support staff to ensure that you have as much communication as possible and you can always contact someone. The support staff is just that, to support. The agent should be the main communicator helping you along through the process.

There are so many more things sellers should do and be aware of when picking a Realtor, but these are some of the biggest. We believe that honesty is the best policy. Hope this was helpful and that you call the Stacey Feltman Team for all your real estate needs. Our clients are our number one priority!

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