Editorial
Front Page - Friday, July 17, 2009
Agents make the real estate world go ‘round: Part two
David Laprad
Over the last year, everyone connected to real estate has repeated, “It’s a buyer’s market” like a mantra. And it’s true. With economic misfortune forcing many homeowners to sell, home values dropping and inventories up, buyers who have money or good credit are holding all of the right cards — which means it’s more important than ever for sellers to have an agent on their side.
Despite this, FSBOs are on the rise, generally because homeowners believe they can make more money by not using an agent. That’s a common misperception, says affiliate broker Dottie Gunkel of Crye-Leike Realtors on Gunbarrel Road. “A sellers won’t know the market as well as a Realtor, so he won’t know how to price his home,” says Gunkel. “He might price it too high or too low.”
To avoid both scenarios, a seller’s agent will do a market analysis in which he looks at how much other nearby homes with similar features brought in. These days, many Realtors are also including homes that are still for sale. “You’re competing against other people in the neighborhood, so you’ve got to offer the best home at the best price,” Gunkel says.
Agents like Gunkel know what buyers are looking for, too, and can give a seller advice on how to spruce up his property. In fact, Gunkel gives her clients a checklist containing the things a seller should do when preparing his home for a showing. She can’t make a seller get rid of clutter, remove personal items, eliminate bad odors, put on soothing music and install plenty of lighting, but she will offer her expertise on making a house more appealing.
Realtors also handle the stacks of paperwork involved with selling a home and are familiar with all of the laws that apply to the process. “The seller has to fill out a disclosure form when he lists a home, making an inventory of all the things that are wrong with it, how old his heat and air unit is, how long it’s been since he’s installed a new roof and if there are any leaks or problems with mold,” says Gunkel.
If a seller tries to handle these things on his own, he risks missing something important, Gunkel says. Worse, if he sells his home without having disclosed a problem and the buyer learns about the issue at a later date, he could be subject to a lawsuit.
One of the biggest advantages a seller’s agent offers over a FSBO sign in the front yard is marketing muscle. Realtors sell homes to make a living, so the serious ones are going to do everything they can to sell a home.
Gunkel, for example, places all of her listings in the official Crye-Leike magazine, which comes out every month and is distributed throughout Chattanooga. In addition, all listings are placed on the Crye-Leike Web site and on the MLS, which makes it available to anyone using a buyer’s agent.
“Most of the people transferring to Chattanooga are using a buyer’s agent,” Gunkel says. “They tell the agent what they’re looking for and the agent searches the MLS for those things.”
In addition to online marketing, Realtors host open houses, send out postcards to prospective buyers and more, all in an effort to promote a listing. “It’s a huge responsibility to sell someone’s home, so I treat it like it’s my listing,” says Gunkel.
The staying power of a Realtor is another boon to the seller. The average home is spending about 150 days on the market, which can be a tremendous chore for a seller who’s shoved a FSBO sign into his grass and is doing his own marketing, making his own appointments and showing his home.
“It’s taking longer to sell a home. Realtors are patient and will work with a homeowner for as long as it takes,” Gunkel says.
Also, a good seller’s agent can play hardball when negotiating a price and handling the other aspects of a sale. When a person sells his home on his own, he has to do the bargaining, which can be a problem when he’s dealing with a savvy buyer’s agent. “A person who sells his home without an agent isn’t going to have any help when it comes to setting the price. And there’s a lot of negotiating going on right now because it’s a buyer’s market,” says Gunkel.
Finally, a seller who uses an agent doesn’t have to worry about the contractual process, which can be a dicey affair for the unschooled. “Most people who try to sell their home on their own don’t have the expertise they need, which means they can get in a situation where they think they’ve sold their house, but they haven’t,” Gunkel says. “Without a contract, a buyer can back out of a sale at any time. The contract is what makes a sale binding. A seller’s agent will make sure the contract is in order.”
Ultimately, when a seller uses an agent, he can rest assured he has someone on his side that’s going to work hard to get the job done. “When we go to work for somebody, we promise to represent them, and be trustworthy, and pour all of our experience and knowledge into selling their house,” says Gunkel.
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Through this two-part series, the Hamilton County Herald has endeavored to identify the importance of each party in a real estate transaction having representation and the dynamics that come into play when both a buyer’s and a seller’s agent are involved in a sale. In the end, we have simply confirmed that, like all professionals worth their salt, Realtors are as concerned about helping their clients and preserving the health of their industry as they are about earning a living, and are willing to work hard and use all of their expertise to make those things happen. That, more than anything else, is why more people than not will continue to use agents, today and in the future.
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