Do I Need a Real Estate Agent When Selling My House?

by Murray Anderson

Thinking about selling your house and moving on? Does this thought process sound familiar? Do I really need an agent to sell my house? After all, it looks really good, the basement's tidy and a real estate agent will charge me all kinds of money. (I mean 5% to 6% commission is thousands of dollars). Seems like I could just sell our house myself and save all that money.

Well, apparently selling houses isn't quite as easy as it looks from the outside and well over 90% of the homes sold in North America end up being sold through a real estate agent. In reality, a good real estate agent could well get you more money than you will have to pay in commissions and help minimize the aggravation of the entire process. A 'not so good' agent is unfortunately pretty much a waste of money.

So how do you know you've got a good real estate agent?

A good real estate agent knows the local market and provides open and ongoing communication with you, the client. They will give you a fair evaluation of what your home is worth, based on recent comparable home sales in your area. You may not like it, but it's better to have reasonable expectations and hopefully make a quick sale rather than unreasonable hopes and have the process of selling your home drag on for months. “Not so good’ agents will try to try to get the listing for your home by promising to get you way more money than homes in your area are selling for. Then when it doesn’t sell for 3 months say the price is too high and you need to lower it.

A good real estate agent will tell you exactly what you need to do to make your home saleable. While you might love the dark chocolate brown walls in your bedroom and not even notice the 'at home' smells from smoking or Rover, a good agent will point out the problems from a buyers perspective and how to fix them. Poorer agents will just gloss over any problems.

Good agents take the time to put together a marketing plan for your home and can tell you exactly how they plan to sell it. The marketing plan may include an agent's caravan (an open house only for real estate agents), a plan for a series of ads in local media, a number of open houses and being available to show your home to prospective buyers in evenings and on weekends. A ‘not so good’ agent might just put a sign on your lawn and list your home on the Multiple Listing Service and hope for the best.

Good agents are accessible and keep you informed about progress in your home sale. If you have questions you can reach them and they will have answers to your questions. "Not so good" agents are hard to reach and some of their answers to your questions may not make a lot of sense.

Finally, a good agent will provide sound advice when it comes to dealing with offers. Their knowledge of what is a ‘fair ' price and their negotiating skills can add thousands of dollars to your selling price. ‘Not so good' agents would like you to accept any offer so they can get their commission and move on to the new listing.

Real estate like any other profession has its share of both good and ‘not so good’ agents. A good one can make your home selling experience reasonably pleasant and could well get you thousands more dollars than you could on your own. A 'not so good' one will add to your stress and simply end up costing you money. Take the time to find a good one!