Buying or selling a home? How do you choose the right real estate agent? What qualities are important to you and how are you going to make that important decision? Lets talk today about choosing a Listing Agent to help sell your home. You dont have to be a total news junkie to know that we have been through the worst housing market for sellers in a very long time. It started back in 2007 and prices declined through 2008 and 2009. Foreclosures in all price ranges and all neighborhoods have also had a negative impact on pricing and appraisals. How do you choose? What questions might you ask?
- How long have you been in real estate?
- Is real estate your full time job?
- Will you work weekends?
- Do you answer your cell phone in the evening and on weekends?
- What is your Internet Marketing strategy? Do you have your own web site and blog site?
- How are you using Social Media to market your listings?
- Do you have a Facebook Business Page, a Twitter account?
- How do you use digital photography and video to promote your listings online?
In a challenging real estate market, will you choose a listing agent who tells you the truth or tells you what you want to hear? As I was writing this, I turned on HGTV and one of my favorite shows was on - Real Estate Intervention. Mike Aubrey consults with sellers whose homes have been on the market for a while without success. He takes them to see similar homesin an effort to find the right price. On this show, the seller is a woman who has lived in her DC home for many years but she has lost her job and has to sell. She feels her home is priced right even when Mike shows her others in the neighborhood that prove it is overpriced. His concern is that if she hangs on too long, she may not sell at all and could end up in default. Later in the show we learn that she did get a contract for the exact price that Mike told her it would sell for. Was she happy? She was certainly relieved and commented that she had learned a lot from Mike. Even though she had a hard time accepting his expert opinion, she agreed that he was being straight with her. She decided to accept the lower price and move on with her life. Mike Aubrey is the kind of agent sellers need to choose. He doesnt tell them what they want to hear, but he does tell them the truth. He also does it in a way that isthoroughly researched. The agent you choose needs to be current with todays Internet technology. According to research conducted by the National Association of Realtors:
- 87% of buyers used the Internet in 2008 to search for a home; a dramatic increase from only 2 percent in 1995. That means the largest number of buyers for your home in Coastal Delaware probably do not live here!
- 32% of recent buyers reported that they first found the home they purchased on the Internet.
- 89% of all Realtors belong to firms that have a Web site, and 60 percent of Realtor sales agents have a Web site for business use.
- 82% of all Realtors now use a cell phone daily or nearly every day; 92 % use e-mail and 89 % use laptop or desktop computers to communicate with clients.
- 39% of Realtors use Smartphones with wireless e-mail and Internet capabilities. A small but growing segment of Realtors use newer forms of communication, such as blogs and podcasts (3 % or less).
How will you choose an agent to get your house sold? If you live in Sussex County, Delaware, and your home appeals to active adults, contact us today.