Thursday, June 28, 2007

Making Smarter Choices in picking your Real Estate Agent

Choosing your agent for the wrong reasons. Many homeowners are tempted to list with the real estate agent who suggests the highest listing price. Selecting an agent and pricing your home properly should be two mutually exclusive decisions. One of the oldest Realtor tricks in the book, and known in real estate circles as "buying a listing", is a strategy designed to have you sign a contract and then a short time later, ask for reductions until your home is priced properly.

This is not to say that a home should never be reduced, markets do change. Look at the data presented to you carefully through the eyes of a buyer. Market data never lies. * Homeowners should choose an agent with the best marketing plan to sell their home. In the real estate business, an agent with many successful closed transactions usually costs the same as someone who is inexperienced or doesn't do much business. Past success is a great indicator of future success. This point can not be stressed enough...Do you want to be stuck with an unqualified agent who has overpriced your home? A sure recipe for disaster.

Hiring a friend....More often than not when you hear this, you later find out that they are no longer a friend or that their relationship has become strained. Is your friend a Top Producing agent? Helping a friend is great but not at your expense.

Hiring a part time agent....Don't you want an agent that support their family by selling your home? Lets face it; there are a lot of people in real estate who are part time, semi-retired, or have a spouse that supports them. It's not their career.

Shocking statistic....According to the National Association of Realtors 93% of all real estate transactions are done by 7% of the agents that are licensed Realtors. What this statistic says loud and clear is that there are a lot of part time Real Estate agents that don't do much business.The take home message is that selecting a top agent to work with is paramount if you want to increase your chances of being satisfied with the home selling process.

For more great real estate information check out Metro West MA Real Estate

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