If you live in North Carolina and are planning to put your house on the market, hiring an experienced REALTOR® is the easiest way to sell your home. While trying to sell your home yourself may seem like an easy and profitable tactic, a professional realtor has the negotiating skills, marketing access, and expertise to sell your home quickly and efficiently. Below are a few reasons why it’s smart to hire a realtor to sell your house.
REALTORS® Can Price Your House Correctly
One of the quickest and most profitable ways to sell your house is to price it correctly, but pricing is hard if you don’t understand the nuances of your local market.
If you price your home too high, you run the risk of your home becoming a stale listing, and when buyers see stale properties, they tend to lowball their offers. Overpricing a home does not make the home seem any more valuable than other homes in the area that are priced for less.
If you price your home too low, you may find yourself selling significantly under market value and lose money on your property. A smart strategy is to price your home right at or just slightly below the market value to gain a high level of traffic, or interest, in your home.
In order to figure out the fair market value of your home, an experienced realtor will run a comparative market analysis of all the homes sold in your local area within the past few months. At A New Dawn Realty in Stokesdale, our real estate agents will take the time to thoroughly understand your home’s condition and compare homes with similar features to recommend the best listing price for your home.
REALTORS® Know How To Negotiate
Selling your home is one of the largest personal transactions you will ever make, so it’s important to ensure you understand the process. A licensed realtor can help you navigate the sales process and negotiate a fair price for your home. The sales process can be broken up into three significant negotiations:
- Initial Offer
- Counter Offer
- Post-Offer
Initial Offer. When a buyer is interested in your home, they’ll let their agent know that they’re interested. The buyer’s agent will then send you, or your realtor, the offer letter at which point you can either accept, decline, or make a counter offer. If the buyer makes an offer lower than your asking price and you submit a counter offer, there is no guarantee that the buyer will accept. This is why you should hire a professional realtor. A real estate agent from A New Dawn Realty can give you advice on how to proceed with your initial offers.
Counter Offer. When you’re selling your home, you cannot “play nice.” Negotiating is what will help you save money, convenience, and time. Most buyers will make a counter offer on the sale price, and you can either accept their asking price or you can counter their counter offer. Some buyers may agree to the market price but ask that you cover some of the closing costs. And some buyers may ask for an extension of the closing date (from when the offer is accepted) to allow them time to move — this can be a common ask from people moving in from out-of-state. Whether you’re juggling multiple counter offers or just one, it will be easier to navigate the negotiation process with an experienced agent on your side.
Post Offer. Even after you’ve signed on the offer, the buyer still has great negotiating power. Most real estate contracts carry a home inspection contingency, which allows a buyer to back out of the sale, just in case the home you’re selling has a significant amount of repairs. At this point, they may ask you to make certain repairs before they move in, and as the seller, you can accept, decline, or begin another round of negotiations. There are more contingencies within the contract that a realtor would be able to walk you through, so that you feel confident about negotiating.
REALTORs® Provide A Smooth Sales Process
Professional real estate agents have the experience and knowledge needed to effectively sell your home in a stress-free manner. At A New Dawn Realty, we’ve helped hundreds of North Carolina residents sell their homes. We’ll work closely with you to ensure you understand every step of the sales process, facilitating the contracts and escrow to a successful close. Contact our realtors in Stokesdale today!