Selling home agent

Selling your house with an agent

In certain circumstances, selling your house yourself can be the best option, but in many cases it will prove preferable to employ the services of a real estate agent to run the show on your behalf. If you need to sell in a hurry, if you are simply too busy to have the spare time to devote to the process, or if you want the advice, security and support that a professional agent can bring, finding a broker may well be your best bet. Below is advice on securing the services of the right one for your needs.

Above all, you will be after an agent who has the specialist knowledge and proven track record that comes with local experience selling your sort of house. While some agents deal primarily with starter and first-time homes, there are others who tend to focus on more trade-up places. Reach out to friends, family and colleagues for advice and recommendations, and put together a provisional list based on this.

If you've been living locally for some time, chances are you already have a good sense of which firms are well established and trusted in the area. If you aren't too busy, pop in to a few home opens on a Saturday or Sunday to get a feel for the professionals in action. If you have a mate in the business, it can be tempting to give your listing to them, but there is the potential for this to end in disaster, since disputes with agents crop up unfortunately often.

Next, get on the phone to local agents. When you interview them, a good agent will demonstrate knowledge of your particular market, in addition to details about schools, taxes and public transport in the area. Ideally, finding someone with four or five years experience is great; however, a recent arrival in the business may have extra drive to prove themselves, as well as being more flexible with commission and payment. A good broker will be perfectly willing to divvy up the commission they receive from you with a separate agent who introduces an eventual buyer.

It goes without saying that an agent who agrees to climb down on commission will be your new best friend, and in a sellers' market, this ought to be perfectly achievable. Simply let the agent know that if they are serious about securing your business, they are going to need to trim a point or two around the edges of their rate. One percentage point may not sound like that much, but it amounts to a 17% pay cut for an agent to go from 6% to 5%.

If it's a buyers' market on the other hand, it might require a bit more ingenuity on your part to catch a break. In many cases, agents will offer discounts to clients who give them exclusive rights to the property before listing it elsewhere. This obviously increases the chances that the agent will not have to split your commission with a competitor. Additionally, if the asking price is large, or if you arrange some sort of agreement whereby you commit to buying your new home through the same agent, you can usually secure some sort of reduction.

Depending upon where you live, it might be worth your while to touch base with one of the discount brokers that operate. More and more of these guys are cropping up, agents who provide a lower level and quality of service, but in exchange charge you a flat fee or lower commission. Some of them will take care of your home's listing and take care of negotiations with interested parties, but leave you to conduct the home opens and tours for prospective buyers. One drawback of pursuing this route is that other agents prefer not to conduct business with the cheap end of the market, so the volume of traffic through the property might suffer. If you do decide to opt for a discount agent, establish that they have a solid reputation and a decent track record.

Once you've slimmed down your list of contenders, invite the top three agents to come past your home for a chat. On their initial visit, they ought to enquire about your aims and expectations regarding the sale, present you with their qualifications, and clarify for you their standard approach in circumstances such as yours. Make sure you get your hands on a copy of their standard listing agreement, so that you have a clear idea of the basic terms that an agreement with this agent would hinge upon. However, avoid signing up to anything straight away. Take contact details for their previous two or three clients so that you can get an idea of the quality of service they provide, and get a small concensus on typical experiences when dealing with this agent. Find out whether each previous seller will be working with this agency again in the future.

When visiting you for a second time, the best brokers will generally make a formal presentation, which gives you a detailed advertising strategy that incorporates their plans for marketing, home opens and approaches and contact with other agents. They should also provide you with a suggested list price for the property, based on similar recent local sales, and an estimate of the time they expect it will take to sell your home. Don't walk into the common trap of blindly going with the real estate agent who presents the highest asking price for your place – there are certain agents that will set unrealistically lofty prices simply to get the job.

You won't be certain that you've found your real estate agent until your signature is on the listing agreement. Some agents may be thrown by the rigours of the advice here, and the agreement might require tweaking in certain places. You should insist on the option of taking the property off the market at any time for any reason, and the right to change agents or to cancel the deal at any point, and without fallout, if you aren't satisfied with the efforts or measures the agent is taking. As a standard rule, the agreement ought to be of 90 days' duration, and should have a maximum period of six months within which the agent is owed commission if the home is eventually sold to someone who originally found it through their services. The agreements you sign with them also documents the commission rate you have agreed, and the guidelines for marketing the property and receving offers on it.

At first look, the information above may seem like rather a lot to absorb and implement before your house is even on the market. However, the more judicious you are with your choice of agent, the easier and more advantageous for you the selling process will be. If you follow the advice we've given you, it might just turn out that once you've sold your house, a small part of you even believes the real estate agent deserves the money you've paid them.