Ever wondered why Realtors make sellers more money for the sale of their homes? Here are the 11 strategies top Realtors use to sell houses for the most money!
Did you know that the founder of ForSaleByOwner.com, Colby Sambrotto, couldn't sell his home for sale by owner? He enlisted the help of a Realtor, who then sold it for $150,000 more than the original price. So, exactly how did a Realtor earn Mr. Sambrotto more money than he would have if he sold it himself? Let's talk about it.
As with anything in life, some people work hard to master their craft. Many of the best Realtors spend their time learning, adapting, and selling the homes of their clients each and every day. Most Realtors work 60+ hours a week for their clients, including weekends. To sell a property, you need a buyer, and Realtors work with nine out of every 10 ready, willing, and able buyers.
So, if Realtors spend so much time, money, and effort working for their clients, what exactly are they doing to sell my home?
Chapters
- FSBO Homes Sell For Lower Prices Than Realtor Assisted Homes
- Great Realtors Interpret Local Market Data & Trends
- Determine the Best Possible Listing Price for your Home
- Realtors Know the Top Online Marketing Strategies
- Top Realtors use Professional Photography and Video Marketing
- To Sell your Home, You Need a Buyer
1. FSBO Homes Sell For Lower Prices Than Realtor Assisted Homes
The results show Realtors sell homes for a better price because of their marketing, sales, and negotiating strategies. Over 88% of sellers use a real estate agent, and with a Realtor, a home for sale would net $101,500 to $326,500 more than if the owner sold the home.
The number one reason someone chooses to sell their home independently is to save money. That is something we all can relate to and understand. While an owner may be saving on the commission, is it possible they are actually losing on the total equity they could walk away with?
The statistic from the report may be high in favor of Realtors. If you're selling a luxury home, a 25% sale price could be over $150,000. Anyone looking to buy a luxury home would jump at the opportunity to save that money, right? Not necessarily. The Founder of forsalebyowner.com couldn't sell his home at a $150,000 discount, and he's a pretty smart guy.
2. Great Realtors Interpret Local Market Data & Trends
One of the biggest mistakes home sellers make is they price their home far above where it should be listed. This is one of the fastest ways to devalue your property.
A lot of what a Realtor does is help you determine a list price that will earn you the most money while causing your home to sell. This is done through knowing the neighborhood, understanding what has sold and what hasn't, and the specific absorption rates for a property like yours. Information is power, and Realtors have MLS access to pull accurate numbers to sell your home for more than your neighbors.
Certain months are better than others for selling homes. Every local real estate market has a heartbeat, and you need to move accordingly to maximize your profits.
This strategy demonstrates expertness. Every month, Raleigh Realty puts together reports for people who live in Raleigh, discussing the monthly real estate trends, housing inventory, and pricing trends. In less than 75 seconds, we deliver high-quality information and give professional advice to those thinking about buying or selling real estate in the area.
Knowing the local market trends is something every Realtor should know of. You should be able to be at a party and say, "Hey, did you know there was a $24,000 dollar jump between the months of April and June in average selling price?"
Applying this knowledge to the sale of your home is part of what a Realtor does to put a sold sign in your yard. Once they study the numbers, they will report their findings to you. It may be a number you like, and it may be a number you don't. Understand that Agents are students of the numbers; they don't make them. Once you have your price range, it's time to pinpoint a list price.
3. Determine the Best Possible Listing Price for your Home
A Real Estate Agent will help you sell your home by finding the best possible list price.
Each client has a unique situation, whether selling their home for the first time, needing to sell quickly, or even an owner focused solely on receiving the most money possible. Each of these situations could impact the price point for selling the home, especially when time becomes a factor.
By interpreting the local market data and understanding your situation, a Realtor will give you the top-selling price for your property. This avoids overpricing or underpricing it because the factual data determines the list price, taking the guesswork out of it.
4. Realtors Know the Top Online Marketing Strategies
One of the most essential things Realtors do when selling homes is they use the top online marketing strategies and approaches. You want to ensure your home is found everywhere online and by a targeted audience.
Social Media
A part of the day in the life of a Realtor is to utilize social media as a tool to sell homes—specifically Facebook and Instagram. By targeting a specific audience, you can ensure that everyone in a particular area sees your home so that they know it is for sale.
Realtors will run these Facebook ads to generate buzz in your neighborhood and city because there is a strong chance someone will know someone looking to buy a home. Once the tagging and liking begin, you reach a targeted audience of hundreds of thousands of news feeds.
Listing Description
An essential part of advertising online is writing a great listing description. Reading can spark emotion, and buyers attach feelings to homes. Writing content that speaks to the home's uniqueness helps it appeal to the buyers looking for those select features.
Target an Audience
The first thing you should do when selling your home is learn about your potential buyers. If you're looking to sell to real estate investors, you'll want to find the websites and forums on which those investors hang out. Many of the investors I know always look at BiggerPockets.com and Craigslist. So, if you want to take your listing a step further, place it on websites where people will find it. If you're listing a commercial property, check websites such as LoopNet.
Targeting a specific audience and figuring out how to reach the maximum amount of people in that audience is something strong Realtors do. They also ensure that they are marketed with professional photos and videos when people see them.
5. Top Realtors use Professional Photography and Video Marketing
Using the best marketing strategies to sell real estate means nothing without a captivating product. That's why you'll see the best Real Estate Agents using photos that are high resolution and edited with software programs like Adobe Photoshop, Lightroom, and Final Cut. You can create a video in less than five minutes by importing your photos to YouTube.
97% of all home buyers use the internet in their home search before seeing the home in person. With so much information accessible, they are creating an opinion of your home before seeing it. That type of relationship will be a great one, a poor one, or an apathetic one. The goal for any Realtor is to convert the maximum number of people who see your listing into great relationships. The result will show up in the showings report.
Professional Photography and Video Marketing for your home go along with buyers. They create an emotional attachment to your home through the photography, the videos, and the listing description.
6. To Sell your Home, You Need a Buyer
Every home for sale needs a buyer. There are many ways to market, sell, and price your home. You need to find a buyer if your house will sell. Serious buyers are checking the real estate market daily and constantly talking with their buyer's agents about new properties that come on the market.
A Realtor will ensure that your property reaches the buyer's agent, who will report the information to the buyer. There are specific types of Realtors as well, some of whom specialize in working with only buyers.
7. Realtors Collaborate with other Realtors
New listing information is often passed from broker to broker in the real estate office. One of the first tools I use to ensure my colleagues are aware of my new property is to display it to them and ask if their buyers are interested.
Before listing homes for sale in Raleigh, it is essential to know what other local Realtors have potential buyers. Either way, make sure every method in the book is used to ensure your colleagues know a new home just hit the market.
One of the first things a listing agent should do is reverse prospect your home to other Agents. Reverse prospecting in real estate is similar to how it sounds. You are prospecting buyer's agents who have created saved searches for their clients inside the MLS platform.
8. Reverse Prospecting to Other Realtors in the MLS
It's a direct way to inform buyer agents working with clients looking for a specific property like yours and in your area. It's a targeted approach to prospecting your home and is one of the most effective and efficient ways to market any property.
When I mention to colleagues in the industry that they have a saved search for a potentially interested client, they are very receptive to my marketing. They enjoy it because they are the first to know about the property for sale, long before their clients might have discovered it.
You can lose a potentially interested buyer for your home during negotiations; that's why it's essential you have an expert Realtor negotiating for you.
9. Excellent Realtors Negotiate The Right Way
Buyers buy with emotion when purchasing properties. If you're negotiating an FSBO with a Realtor and you do something to cause any stress on the buyer, they will change their mind. By adding both a listing agent and a buyer's agent, you can change the tone of the conversation through the phone.
Selling homes is not about trying to take, take, take from the buyers. It's about determining what is a win-win for both parties involved while keeping everything professional and polite. Great Realtors can sell homes for more money through their strategies AND create great win-win deals for everyone involved.
A great strategy is to say, "My sellers are only comfortable selling to someone who wants the property, can you help them understand why they should sell to your client?" Now, the buyers are the ones trying to convince the sellers why they should sell to them, it creates a type of emotional chemistry that causes the buyers to earn the home.
If you list a home at a specific price, remember buyers are viewing the house with the expectation that they will pay that price. Realtors who are confident in their numbers know this and will have less wiggle room than an agent who doesn't know the neighborhood real estate statistics.
We inform sellers of monthly Raleigh Real Estate Reports, including important information and trends.
10. Realtors Can Spot a Potential Problem Before it Happens
This may be something that sellers can only discover in hindsight, though for the forward thinkers, it may hit home.
It's a day or two before closing, and suddenly, the buyers hit you with a list of issues they want fixed, the price reduced, or they will 'back out.' We often set the expectation that the seller needs to prepare to make repairs before we sign the offer to purchase and contract because that is a future problem that could arise.
When selling a home, it's essential to understand that the first negotiation happens when you're working on an offer to purchase and contract. If the negotiations during this period go well, you should feel comfortable moving on to the next set of negotiations. Repairs.
The inspection report will not come back spotless; if it does, you should find a new inspector. Every home will have some sort of issue because there is no such thing as a perfect home. Be prepared to negotiate again during this period potentially. Before your sellers sign the offer to purchase and contract, it may make sense to inform the buyers of whether you plan to negotiate repairs after a home inspection with them.
11. Give You Tips to Increase Your Home's ROI
Realtors know ways to increase your investment return when selling your home. For instance, adding a half bath can cost you a few thousand dollars and push your home to value by over $10,000.
A lot of the tips and tricks that Agents explore with their clients are relatively cheap from switching brass fixtures to nickel fixtures, you can increase your home value right away. Today's buyers are focused on rooms like the kitchen, the living area, the floor plan, and the bathrooms are important. A great master bedroom will help sell any home.
Before listing your home for sale, there are steps you can take that will help your home sell for more money and faster than it would have otherwise.
FAQs
How do you maximize sales in real estate?
The best ways to maximize sales in real estate as an agent is by creating a website, starting a blog, partner with local businesses, and devloping email marketing strategies.
How do realtors get more clients?
Some of the ways that realtors get more clients is by networking with the community, creating a website, posting on social media, hosting open houses, and asking for referrals.
Final Thoughts on Selling Your Property with a Realtor
Knowing who your home's buyers will be before you go to market your home is important. For an investment property that is not in great condition, you are not targeting someone who is looking for a luxury home.
Realtors do a lot of things to get homes sold. The article would never end if we went into detail about everything an Agent does, so we discussed 11 things we thought would help. Determining a proper list price from the start is important since it is one of the first things a seller will look at.
If you are ready to work with a Realtor, contact us today to start your home search.
