What you need to know to sell your home and get an offer quickly
Today's blog post comes from our wonderfully talented Experience Manager, Brandon Budda. If you are a Houwzer client, you will surely cross paths we with him, as he handles all the admin work for our agents. Brandon took a few minutes from his day to share important tips for those ready to sell their home. Let’s hear what he had to say.
How do you choose the best way to list and sell your home?
There are an endless number of brokerages and agents to choose from, not to mention the For Sale by Owner option. Still… which option is the best? Most agents and their brokerages charge a 3% commission for listing your home. Here is what the best agents do to get your listing ready for the public:
- Professional photography of the home
- An accurate listing in the Multiple Listing Service (MLS)
- Signage at the house
- Representation through the offer process
For those not experienced in the listing process, let’s walk through it.
Photographs
It is important to remember that your home should be in showing condition before the photographers come to take photos. When a home is in showing condition, buyers can envision a space where they are going to live their new life. Your home should be neat and it’s a good idea to put away some of the stronger personal touches in the space.
Property on MLS
After the photographs come back, it’s time to put your listing in the the MLS. An MLS ensures that your listing is seen by other Real Estate agents, which is helpful if you want potential buyers to be able to easily schedule home tours. Don’t worry about listings on the MLS not getting out to popular sites such as Zillow, Trulia, and Realtor.com either. An MLS posting will typically syndicate to those websites. This is a crucial aspect of selling your home as 98% of home buyers begin their search for homes on the internet.
Brokerage Sign
Not only should your home be ready for the photographers, but you’ll also need to be prepared to readily have your home shown as soon as the brokerage sign is out front. A brokerage sign at the home will let your neighbors, their personal network, and buyers shopping neighborhoods know that your home is up for sale and will get people in the door to see the place.
Post Listing
The listing goes up. Your agent shows buyers your house and they’ve hosted open houses. Third-party agents and brokerages have brought in their own interested parties. Social media marketing (an awesome perk with Houwzer!) has done its work. Finally, an offer comes in. Your listing agent will have your back through the process: negotiating terms of the agreement of sale, walking you through the inspection process, and making sure all of the necessary paperwork gets taken care of. They’ll be next to you at the closing table making sure everything runs smoothly.
Costs to Sell Your Home
While there is some work an agent does to help prepare a home for sale, a lot of work lands on the home owner. So why do brokerages charge the same to list a home as they do to represent a home buyer? If you wonder about this, you’ve come to the right place.
Soon, Houwzer will be listing a home in Malvern, PA located in Delaware County. The list price of the home will be $550K. If we charged a 3% listing commission, we’d effectively be charging our client $16,500. But we aren’t doing that. Houwzer doesn’t charge a listing commission in Malvern. We don’t charge a listing commission in Delaware County. In fact we don’t charge a listing commission at all. We offer the services of a full real estate brokerage all for an administrative fee of $495 (collected at the closing table), but we list your house for free. Our client in Malvern will save $16,500 at the closing table, all while receiving first class customer service from their Houwzer agent.
We’ve gone through the listing process with many happy clients and have collectively saved them over $500,000 since we opened. We’ll list your home, help you get the resources you need to sell it, walk you through the offer phase, and get it sold, all without charging a listing commission. And if you're happy with your selling experience, we can help you buy your new home too.
Want to join the real estate revolution and become a Houwzer client? Contact us today to get started.
