What to Look for in a Realtor®
Finding the right Realtor® can be the most important single step in the home buying/selling process. The right Realtor® acts as a knowledgeable guide for you throughout the process. They will help you select the appropriate home, negotiate the price and terms that are acceptable to you as their client, create a marketing plan and also help you through the due diligence process. The due diligence process is a series of dates and deadlines to accomplish the major components of the process. The major components are financing conditions, home inspections & title review.
When looking to purchase a home choosing the right Realtor® to help you is crucial. You will want to make sure that this person has the experience and knowledge of the local market conditions and inventory so they can guide you effectively. You also want to make sure that the chosen Realtor® is a savvy negotiator. During the buying process some Realtors® will simply ask you the client “what do you want to offer”. This strategy most often ends up splitting the difference between asking price and original offer price after a series of offers and counterproposals. A skilled negotiator will have a better strategy than this. At TRU Real Estate we have had great success with our negotiating strategy by using the following technique. If we feel that a property is not appropriately priced and we will be offering less than 15% of asking price we will illustrate our value estimate with a written illustration or comparative market analysis. This technique serves to educate the other broker and seller. Sometimes the seller and broker have arrived at an offering price that is “testing” the waters. Showing the other party a comparative market analysis illustrating that the actual value is lower than their desired price gives them real reasoning and proves you are an informed buyer.
If you are selling a home, strategy comes into play the same way. When you are listing your home you want your marketing efforts to be coordinated and executed effectively. You should have great photos for a print media campaign, a well staged home, signage on the property with brochures, a web marketing component preferably with a virtual tour, open houses for other brokers to visit and a carefully devised pricing strategy. Pricing is by far the most important component. The most critical time in a listing period is the first 2-3 weeks. As a new listing this is when you will be receiving the most amount of attention and visitors. Pricing well from the start will give you the best chance of getting offers immediately. In most markets people will shop in price points, that is to say that a pre-qualified buyer will only be looking at properties priced up to a certain point. If you do not fall within that range because you are hoping that a buyer will make an offer and you can negotiate the difference is the wrong approach. It is considerably more effective to be priced where you think the home will sell for and stick to the price through the negotiating process. This strategy will make sure that more buyers will look at your property.
Another important characteristic to consider in your Realtor® is their community involvement. The ability of your Realtor® to network and personally advertise your property can not be underestimated. A well connected Realtor® may find your buyer by asking friends and acquaintances about their interest in home purchasing or they may no a business owner that has an employee that they know is shopping for homes. Every effort helps, especially in an uncertain market like we are in now.
Tru Real Estate stays involved with community organizations and social networking groups, so you can be sure that we are out there every day looking for potential buyers and sellers. Tru Real Estate donates 10% from their commission to your charitable organization of choice.
