Chapter 3
How to Find and Hire a Top-Notch Realtor
In This Chapter
◆ How using a Realtor impacts the sale
◆ Choosing the right Realtor and agency
◆ What a Realtor does
◆ Negotiating commission
If ever there was an industry where advice and performance varies from professional to professional, real estate is it. All Realtors are not created equal. Some of them work full-time and have made a career of real estate, while others work part-time or dabble in it. Experience doesn’t necessarily equal talent, and a Realtor with only a few years in the business does not indicate a lack of talent.
 
If you are looking for a Realtor to represent you, it is crucial that you find a great one. Think of choosing a Realtor like a director casts a Broadway show. Once he finds the right players, the hardest part of the job is done. Once you find the right Realtor, a big part of your job is done. He will be the driving force in the sale of your home.
 
Your home is probably the biggest financial investment of your life, and you must protect it. The money that you make on the sale could be your retirement fund, a college education for one of your kids, or even the means for you to escape to Fiji. After putting your heart and soul into the property, making upgrades, and building equity, you want the person managing its sale to be top notch.
 
In this chapter, we discuss the steps to finding the right one for you.

Finding the Best Realtors

Working with a Realtor to sell your home is like being in a temporary marriage. You will speak with him almost daily and sometimes several times a day for an extended period. As in a marriage, the entire relationship is based on trust. It’s about knowing that this person truly has your best interests at heart. He not only needs to be good at what he does, but you must feel a connection—an ability to communicate with each other effectively.
024
Seller Alert
The Realtor that you choose to hire will have a direct impact on your sale price. One Realtor will get you more money than another depending on how he positions the home price-wise, stages it, reaches out to buyers, and negotiates a deal.
You may already know who some of the more prominent Realtors are in the community. You’ve seen their ads in the local paper, seen their names on signs, and perhaps you’ve even wandered into some of their open houses. Someone who has been in business in one community for years will have a recognizable name. But having a prominent name does not necessarily make someone a good Realtor, or the right Realtor for you.

How to Begin

When you’re starting the process, you may be tempted to just call the agent who sold you the house or the woman in your book club who happens to be a Realtor. Both of these Realtors may very well be fine choices. However, we strongly recommend (and by the way, most good Realtors encourage this) that you interview at least three of them, each one from a different agency.
 
Here are the steps to begin your search:
1. Target three different real estate agencies.
2. Contact the agencies where you do not already know a Realtor and speak to the broker or manager about recommending a good one for you.
3. Have a face-to-face meeting with the Realtor candidate.

What to Do If Your Friend or Relative Is a Realtor

This is an issue that comes up almost every day in real estate. Most Realtors are socially ingrained in the same community where they do business. Therefore, most people know at least one Realtor, or perhaps several. It’s an awkward situation when you are not sure that your friend or relative is the best Realtor choice for you. You may worry that someone’s feelings will be hurt.
 
But imagine if you needed open heart surgery and you had a brother-in-law who was a heart surgeon whom you were not sure you wanted to perform the operation. You probably would do what was necessary to make sure that you were in good hands, and you’d do so without guilt because your health is so important.
 
The point is that choosing a real estate agency and Realtor is a business decision—maybe one of the biggest of your life. You will be paying a lot of money to hire this person to do an important job. You need to feel that you are in the best hands possible.
 
Here are some things to consider when your friend or relative is a Realtor:
 
Concern: Your friend is a well-respected Realtor, but you’re afraid the personal relationship will suffer if you mix business with friendship.
 
Solution: If he is experienced, then he has addressed this concern before. Bring it up. Give him a chance to explain how he will separate the friendship from the business. We make it clear to our own friends that, while their home is on the market, the communication—in both directions—will be open, honest, and professional. There needs to be a trust that they can express any business concerns without worrying about hurt feelings between friends.
 
Concern: Your friend is a new and inexperienced Realtor.
 
Solution: There are two ways to look at this issue. On the one hand, you might not want to automatically dismiss someone because of being new to the business. Some new agents can be the early superstars with plenty of smarts and energy. If they don’t have an answer, they know where to get it. They are usually “hungry” for business and eager, and will often give you even more personal attention than experienced agents. Additionally, if they are affiliated with a good agency, they’ll have a mentor (or several mentors) in place as support.
 
On the other hand, you may feel that your friend is just too new to the business, after all. If this is how you feel, he will hopefully understand. If he is truly a friend, we recommend that you tell him immediately before he finds out from another source that you are selling your home with another Realtor. Although you’d probably love to be able to support him at this early stage of his real estate career, the sale of your home is not something on which you are prepared to gamble. As always, honest and open communication is the way to go.
 
Concern: Your friend has been in the business a very long time, but he is not at the top of his game anymore.
 
Solution: “Not being at the top of his game” can mean a variety of things. Perhaps your friend has lost his enthusiasm for the business or cannot keep up with technology. Maybe he is working less and making different lifestyle choices. Whatever the reason, it’s a sensitive situation and a tough decision for you to have to make. No one wants to hurt or disrespect a friend. Again, we recommend that you have a face-to-face meeting where you tell him that he is not the best fit for you. As cold and callous as you may fear this choice will be, remember that this is a business decision. Honest and direct communication is always the best way to go, especially when you’re trying to preserve a friendship. That meeting may be uncomfortable for you but, we suspect, not nearly as uncomfortable as the one where you accidentally bump into him and learn that he already has heard that you have not hired him.

Targeting the Best Real Estate Companies

Every real estate agency has a certain number of talented agents. No single office will have all the good Realtors. Consider them all and then narrow it down to three. Evaluating an agency is different than evaluating a Realtor. It’s important to ask questions. Don’t take their advertising claims at face value.

Agencies That Claim to Be the Market Leader

The funny thing about real estate agencies is that they all claim to be the best. The reality is that they can’t all be. If they claim to be the best or the market leader, you want to find out how they define “best” and “leader.”
 
To illustrate our point, let’s take two agencies that both claim to be the market leader based on “sales volume.”
 
One medium-size agency in your community has agents who are all experienced and who do the highest volume of sales in town—on a per-agent basis. This office claims that they are the leader because their agents do the most business.
 
Now, let’s take another agency which also claims to be the market leader for the same reason—highest volume of sales. But their numbers are based on the entire office as a whole.
 
To get this impressive statistic, they have hired a gigantic number of agents with mixed amounts of experience and many with very low business volume. In order to claim superiority over everyone else, they lump together the sales of twice the number of agents, even though they have the highest number of inexperienced agents of any agency in your community. Their claim to be number one is jaded at best, and misleading at worst.
 
We think that quality is better than quantity. We recommend going with the office where every single agent—without exception—is experienced, rather than the agency that is large for the sake of filling cubicles. Additionally, the caliber of work throughout the office will be more consistent.
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Trick of the Trade
Real estate websites are ranked by number of hits as well as how often their company name is used as a search term. If the agency you are considering does not have these rankings to share with you, they may not be ranked very high, or even ranked at all. If they were, they’d have the statistics. These rankings also include real estate websites such as Realtor.com, Zillow, and Trulia, which are among the most popular.

Agencies with a Global Reach

As we discuss often in this book, one of the major factors in getting your house sold is “exposure.” You want the entire buyer pool to know about your home. Having a highly active website is a very good thing, but it does not make a local real estate agency “global.” Having real estate offices located across the country and around the world makes the agency national or global.
 
This matters because you never know where your buyer is coming from. Relocation for work or career is an exploding phenomenon. When buyers shop for a home, they will begin on the Internet. They will begin with agencies with which they are already familiar. A buyer in Tokyo has never heard of the local agency in your community or even in your state. Ask your Realtor candidate how many offices they have outside of your town and state, across the United States, and in foreign countries.

Interviewing Real Estate Agents

We strongly recommend that you interview more than one Realtor; in fact, three is best. What you’re looking to evaluate is her style, track record, the quality of her listing presentation, marketing plan, the caliber of the agency she works for, and her response to your interview questions.
 
There are two meetings when interviewing a Realtor. The first one—a walk-through of your home—is brief, and the second one—a listing presentation at her office—is longer; they usually take place within a few days of one another.

Your Realtor’s First Walk-Through

Very often, the first meeting happens when you have called the selected Realtors (or agencies) to say that you are thinking of selling and want to know how much money your home might fetch. You can usually expect the Realtor to immediately set up an appointment to do a walk-through.
def·i·ni·tion
A walk-through is when the Realtor comes to your home to visually inspect, take notes, and collect information about your property. He then takes that information and studies it to come up with a strategic list price or range.
We know that you’re probably going to be anxious and excited to immediately find out the number at which your home should be priced. You may even be tempted to pressure the agent into giving it to you on the spot. But a Realtor should never give you a price at the moment he first sees your home, no matter how strong his gut feeling is.
 
Some Realtors will give you a number off the top of their heads in an effort to appear more knowledgeable and experienced. Real estate values are constantly shifting. The data can be read differently from day to day. The truth is that it’s impossible, unless it’s pure coincidence, to pick the right number without reviewing the up-to-the-minute data.

The Realtor’s Listing Presentation

There are three parts of a listing presentation. We recommend that it take place at the office of the agency. If this company should end up representing you, you want to see the condition of the office and the people who work there. Also, there are so many distractions at home—children crying, phones ringing, dogs barking, etc. This is a crucial business meeting and you should be entirely focused.
The steps involved in a listing presentation include …
1. Agent gives you suggested list price or price range.
2. Agent presents a marketing plan.
3. Seller interviews agent regarding track record and credentials.

Suggested List Price

The Realtor, after reviewing all relevant data, will present a number at which he feels your home should be priced. You may disagree with that number. Healthy debate about such an important element as pricing may not be such a bad thing. You ultimately have the right to market your home at whatever list price you wish, but it is critical that you and the Realtor you hire are in agreement about the viability of that list price. After bringing three Realtors in, you will end up with three different opinions about suggested list price, and that’s a good thing. It is yet another reason why it serves you to interview more than one Realtor. And, by the way, it doesn’t cost you anything to do so, except your time.
026
Seller Alert
Don’t be seduced by receiving a high suggested list price from a Realtor candidate. The Realtor may be trying to flatter you in a misguided attempt to get your business. It’s sometimes called “buying the listing.” If it seems too good (or too inflated) to be true, it probably is.

The Marketing Plan

People often confuse a marketing plan with an advertising plan. A marketing plan is a strategy. It’s the overall approach that will be taken in order to get your home sold. Advertising is only one part of a marketing plan. Advertising is exactly what it sounds like—taking out ads. Various other marketing strategies will be covered throughout this book.
 
In general, a real estate marketing plan should include …
A pricing strategy. It’s not just about the price at which your home will be introduced, but what approach you will take if it does not sell right away. Will you wait for your buyer passively or make aggressive reductions? For information on pricing strategies, see Chapter 9.
How your home will be presented and staged. This is important, and not all Realtors present a plan for this. They should. We have devoted Chapter 6 to this topic.
When your home will go on the market. Timing is key to maximize exposure and to get you top dollar. The season, the weekend within that season, and even the day of the week your home comes on the market are important. The Realtor should share with you what works best in your community.
How your home will be introduced to other Realtors. There is a saying in real estate that you’re not selling to buyers; you’re selling to other Realtors. Imagine, if you will, that Pepsi or Coca-Cola are trying to introduce a new soft drink. They can’t reach consumers without having a relationship with distributors. Distributors are connected to consumers and Realtors are connected to home buyers. Your Realtor should have a plan that will talk about reaching out to and communicating with other Realtors about your home.
How buyers will be reached. Where will buyers see your listing? How will the Realtor give your home the exposure that it needs to reach the entire buyer pool? It should be clear how many and which Multiple Listing Services and websites the home will be accessible through. Further, there should be a reason or rationale given to you for using particular MLS’s and websites. The Realtor should show you why and make you feel confident that it is an effective overall campaign.
How showings will be orchestrated. Your Realtor will work with you to determine how, when, and with whom buyers will get into your home for showings. There are different approaches and points of view on this subject. We have devoted Chapter 8 to this subject.
The type of photo brochures or highlight sheets that will be created for buyers to take away. Brochures are a terrific way for buyers, after they leave your home, to visually recall the best features. Buyers often see several homes in one afternoon. It is typical to have the fine details become blurry in their minds. When they get home, the brochure helps them to remember them. It is no longer prohibitively expensive to make professional glossy color brochures to market a home. Real estate has come a long way in this area, and you should expect beautiful brochures no matter how small or inexpensive your home.
How your home will be advertised. There are wildly different opinions among real estate professionals about whether or not advertising and open houses help to sell your home. We address this in depth in Chapter 9.
Sellers usually want advertising and open houses, regardless. Your Realtor should be clear about where she will advertise, how often, and if you wish her to do a public open house.
How offers will be handled once they come in. Buyers want and deserve to be responded to quickly, and treated fairly and with respect. What is your Realtor’s style and policy on the handling of offers?
How will the Realtor manage the deal once your home goes under contract? This is a major part of what you pay a commission for. All sorts of challenges, big and small, come up over the course of a deal. A good listing agent will not only make sure that all parties “hit their marks” on the way to closing and do what they are supposed to do, but will manage emotions that may run high. A good agent will continue to educate you and, in some cases, even the buyer and his Realtor, who may be less experienced. Ask questions about his negotiating skills and his strategies for keeping deals together. If he is talented, he’ll know exactly what you mean and will be able to share stories or examples of how he does it.
From these elements, a good Realtor will pull together and present to you a strategic overall marketing plan to sell your home.

Questions to Ask the Realtor

Now that you know how to evaluate the caliber of a real estate agency, let’s talk about how you’ll evaluate the Realtor.
 
There is only one way to get the information you need, and that is to ask questions. But they need to be the right questions. Up until this point in the meeting, the Realtor has had the floor in making her presentation. Now it’s your turn to conduct the meeting. Think of this portion as an important job “interview.” You are about to pay this person a good deal of money, and this may be the moment when you get the best information to make your decision. She should be prepared to answer any of your questions with ease. If she cannot, perhaps you should move on to the next candidate.
027
Trick of the Trade
A sign of a really strong Realtor is someone who does not push too hard. The best ones have the confidence to share information with you, give you options, and let you make the best choices for you and your family. If you are feeling pressured about any part of the process, there is probably something wrong.
Here are some questions you should ask:
◆ How many years have you been in the business?
◆ Do you practice real estate full-time, or is it a part-time job?
◆ How many listings have you had in the last year?
◆ Do your listings typically sell above or below the asking price? What’s your bat-ting average on that?
◆ What is the average length of time (days on market or DOM) that your listings are on the market before they sell?
◆ Can you provide past clients for me to speak with?
◆ What will you do if I am not happy with you and want to be released from the listing agreement?
◆ What is your availability? How long will you typically take to respond to my e-mails and phone calls?
As the meeting is concluding, make a mental note of how well he listened to you. The best Realtors don’t just talk, but rather ask questions and truly listen.

What a Realtor Does

We said earlier that not all Realtors are created equal. If you understand what it is that they should be doing for you, then it will be easier to spot a good one.
 
A listing Realtor has six broad duties, in the following order:
1. To educate you to the process and the state of the market
2. To price the property
3. To help present your home
4. To expose the property to the entire buyer pool
5. To manage the showings
6. To manage the deal all the way to closing after you have accepted an offer

Educating Sellers

It is so important that you begin the process of selling your home with a clear understanding of what is going to happen, but also of what is happening in the market, right now. A good Realtor can swiftly, efficiently, and clearly communicate all you need to know to make good educated choices.

Pricing Your Home Properly

Pricing a home well is a skill. It is not an easy skill to develop. It takes years of experience and requires three things we call RIB; these are summarized in the following list. We go through these in greater detail in Chapter 5.
Relevant data: Comparable sales of homes in your community that have already sold, are currently still on the market, or have gone under contract but have not yet closed.
Insider access: You need special access to comparables that have gone under contract but have not yet sold. The sale price in these transactions is still unknown. When the sale prices are not available to the public, you need the assistance of someone who is “plugged in” or somehow connected to these transactions in order to get them. If you do not have access, your pricing process will be more challenging.
Basic instinct: Instinct is critical when pricing a home with unusual features. Some characteristics add value, such as a special location or dramatic architecture. But how much value does the trait add? Other homes have unusual amenities such as an extra kitchen, recording studio, or koi pond. To some buyers, these have no value at all. Predicting the list price at which buyers will perceive value takes a good instinct.

Presenting Your Home Well

This is an area in which Realtors have varying opinions. We feel that staging is one of the most important elements in the sale, right up there with pricing and exposure. Some Realtors do not feel compelled to focus on it and may do nothing to help you stage your home. Maybe it’s because they simply do not know how to stage a room. Other Realtors understand its importance but they may only guide you with a few tips here and there, pay for some fresh flowers, and give you the telephone number of a professional stager.
def·i·ni·tion
Staging is the process of transforming a home into peak selling condition through the strategic use of furniture placement, props, and colors to create visual appeal and a feeling of spaciousness. It allows buyers to take in the best features of a home, envision their belongings in it, and create a greater perception of value.
The Realtor who gets involved in guiding you (and sometimes physically helping you) to stage your home, as part of his commission and at no extra charge, is the most valuable. This kind of Realtor is also becoming more the norm as they become more and more competitive with one another.
 
Chapter 6 is devoted entirely to hundreds of tips and concepts on how to maximize the look of your home while it is on the market.

Exposing Your Property to the Marketplace

To know for sure that you will be getting top dollar for your home, it is essential that the property be exposed to the entire buyer pool. If only a fraction of the buyer pool is aware that your home is for sale, then you’ve stunted the natural competition for it. For specific guidance on exposure and reaching the whole buyer pool, see Chapter 9.

Managing Showings

Your listing agent should share with you the various approaches to conducting showings. In Chapter 8, we talk about them and other issues including your own Realtor’s involvement, lockboxes, security, and contact information.

Managing the Deal When an Offer Comes In

This is a skill that is perhaps the most overlooked when sellers think about the commission they pay. When an offer comes in, the Realtor’s job kicks into high gear. After all, what good is a great offer if it never makes it to the closing table? The best Realtors are those who are able to usher the deal through in spite of obstacles along the way.

The Commission

The most important thing to understand about commissions is that they are negotiable. They are not set in stone. In fact, the Realtor should voluntarily state that they are negotiable. There is usually a percentage or range that is typical in your community. If the local agencies charge anywhere between 5 percent and 7 percent, then it is up to you to negotiate a commission rate within that range at which you feel comfortable.

How It Is Paid

In most states, it’s the seller who pays the commission and it is then split between two companies: the seller’s agency and the buyer’s agency. The amount of commission you will pay will be a percentage of the ultimate sale price. You do not need to write a check up front. You will pay with proceeds from the sale at the closing table.
 
In some cases, your agency may take all of the commission. This happens in the case of dual agency.
 
The percentage will likely be in the single digits. Five to six percent of the total sale price is typical at many agencies across the United States. For example, if your home sells for $300,000 with a 5 percent commission agreement, you will pay $15,000 to be split between two agencies.
def·i·ni·tion
If the agency that lists your home also happens to sell it, or bring in the buyer, then this is called dual agency. This means that the agency you have hired to represent you is now representing two parties—both you and the buyer. Your agency keeps the entire commission. There is an ethical duty for the agency to represent you both equally, even though you (the seller) are paying the entire commission.

What Your Realtor Makes

There is a great myth about how much real estate agents earn on a transaction. In the case above, where you have paid $15,000 in commission, your Realtor’s agency will probably keep 2.5 percent and give the other 2.5 percent to the agency representing the buyer. Out of that 2.5 percent—or $7,500, how much of that will the agent take home—after the broker takes his cut (often between 30 and 40 percent) and the agent pays her taxes and expenses?
028
The Commission Split Between Listing Agency and Selling Agency.
Remember, Realtors are independent contractors without benefits. Just about every dollar they spend is an out-of-pocket expense. Let’s focus on the $7,500 going to the agency that has listed your home.
029
As you can see, what your listing Realtor takes home is a fraction of what was paid out by you. Sometimes, Realtors will go months between transactions, so these dollars may have to stretch quite far.

The Listing Agreement

Any person whose name is on the deed must sign the listing agreement with the real estate agency. For example, one spouse cannot sign for the other if both legally own it. The contract is for a finite period of time. If, in that time, you find a buyer through your own resources, a commission is still paid to the agency. If the property does not sell in that time and the listing agreement expires, you are then free to go and hire another agency or sell it yourself.
def·i·ni·tion
A listing agreement is a legal contract between the seller and the real estate agency for the sole purpose of marketing and negotiating the sale of the property.

Types of Listing Agreements

The most popular type of agreement is called the exclusive right to sell. With this agreement, you give one agency the sole right to represent you regardless of which agency sells it. You pay the listing agency a commission. If another agency happens to sell it, it will share the commission. We recommend this type because, while only one agency lists your home, every agency works to sell it in an attempt to get a share of the commission. To see a sample listing agreement, visit www.TBA.com.
Other less common types of listing agreements include:
Exclusive agency. This agreement means that you will allow only one agency to both list and sell it. The key thing here is that if you, the seller, find your own buyer, you do not have to pay a commission. In other words, you retain the right to sell it yourself. We do not recommend this type of agreement because it limits your exposure dramatically. You are depending on the hope that one of the Realtors in that office happens to have a buyer for you, or that you will find a buyer yourself and avoid commission.
Open listing. These are not always in writing. You will pay a reduced fee to any Realtor who happens to bring you a buyer. The truth is that Realtors don’t take these seriously because they want to focus on transactions that have a guaranteed payday.
Net listing. These listings are illegal in some states. In this type of agreement, the property is listed at an agreed-upon net price. If it sells for more than that, the Realtor takes the balance as commission.
Flat-fee listing. Where most commissions are paid at closing, in this case, the seller pays a flat fee up front. It does not matter if the property sells. Typically, they cover only certain services by the Realtor and you must negotiate them. If another agency sells it, you may have to pay additional money.

The Commission Section of the Listing Agreement

There is a space on the listing agreement where the Realtor will write in the percent commission to which you agreed. She will also stipulate the portion of the commission that will go to the Realtor who brings the buyer. Pay attention to this—it is referenced as the “offering commission split.”
 
Some agencies charge sellers a higher commission than others. They will sometimes keep a larger portion of the commission for themselves rather than split it evenly with the buyer’s Realtor. You may not agree with this policy. You may feel that the buyer’s Realtor will be more incentivized by an even split and that she deserves as much as the listing Realtor for bringing the buyer in. Then again, the agent who listed your home has done more work to market your home and has likely gone out-of-pocket already on related expenses. Perhaps she does deserve a larger split. Decide what you think is fair and discuss it with your Realtor when signing the listing agreement.

The Term: When a Listing Agreement Begins and Ends

The term is the length of time that the agreement is in effect. Six months is typical from the time that it commences to the time that it expires (some states don’t allow agreements longer than six months). You can also negotiate a shorter term. However, if you get the Realtor to agree to a shorter listing period, even if you sell your home relatively quickly, the listing will probably expire before you get to the closing table. In that case, you will need to fill out and sign a new agreement in order to extend the listing through the closing.

Other Sections of a Listing Agreement

Aside from the percent of commission and the term or length of the agreement, a listing agreement should also include the following:
◆ Date of the agreement.
◆ Termination date of the agreement.
◆ Parties (or persons) to the agreement.
◆ The right to sell (what kind of listing type, as described earlier, for example: exclusive right to sell).
◆ Listing price.
◆ Commission splits.
◆ Description of the property.
◆ Name of the listing service. (The service, or MLS, must be notified of the agreement within a certain time frame, usually 24-48 hours.)
◆ Possession date.
◆ Personal property included in the sale.
◆ Signatures of broker, agent, and seller.
◆ An anti-discrimination section.

Selling to Someone You Know Without Paying a Commission

If you have a friend, neighbor, or family member who has stated that they are interested in buying your home, then you must name them in the listing agreement as “exceptions.” This means that, if one of them should buy the home while it is listed with your Realtor, you won’t have to pay a commission to the Realtor.
 
Exceptions must be disclosed in writing at the outset, in the listing agreement, and on the MLS. This means that buyers will know, before they walk into your home, that you may sell the home to a friend and avoid paying commission. This can easily scare them away from entering into a contract with you. It generally hurts the seller to have a named exception on a publically listed home.
 
The thing about exceptions is that, if they are truly interested in buying your home, they buy it right away. On the other hand, it’s possible that their interest is casual and they just want to be “kept in the loop.” They may say to you, “Let us know if you get an offer and maybe we’ll match it.”
 
But the idea of holding the door open and naming them as an exception on your listing is damaging to the marketing of your home.
030
Seller Alert
If there is an “exception” to the listing, or a private party who may buy your home on the side without paying commission, you must disclose it in the listing itself, on the MLS, for everyone to see. The result is that buyers become very hesitant to fall in love with a home that they may lose at the last minute to one of your friends.
The risk is not worth the potential reward. We recommend that you go to the friend, neighbor, or family member and share with them the date that you are putting the home on the market. Give them a window in which to come forward with an offer. If they are truly interested, they will make one before it goes on the market. If they do not come forward, you have lost nothing, as they were unlikely to have ever come forward at all.

The Least You Need to Know

◆ Your choice of Realtor will have a big impact on how much money you net when the sale is complete.
◆ Assess a Realtor’s track record thoroughly by finding out how many listings he’s had in the last year, how long they were on the market, and how high they sold.
◆ Assess an agency by the amount of business that each agent does—not the entire office. Also look at where their offices are outside of the community, state, and country.
◆ A Realtor’s duties include educating you as the seller, pricing your home, overseeing staging to ensure that the house shows well, exposing it to the entire buyer pool, managing showings, and managing the deal successfully all the way to the closing table.
◆ You can negotiate commission. It is not set in stone.
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