Serving the Entire East Bay
Steve Lederman
Listing Agent – Broker
Big Seller’s Market–Reduced Fees a NO BRAINER
What should you look for when choosing a listing agent?
The process of selling your home starts with finding a good listing agent. This individual will be your guide in having a successful home sale. What are the qualifications and qualities you should be looking for in a listing agent? If you are reading this blog; chances are you are in the East Bay area and you are looking for a full service reduced fee listing agent. This is a listing agent who offers a discount on their listing commission as part of their business plan, to you the home seller and still providing full service with you, not giving up anything compared to a regular agent. Once you do the initial search for reduced fee, low commission realtors, the next course of action is find out what are the specific qualifications of that individual reduced fee listing agent. You will notice here that I speak of the individual agent and not the company the agent works for. When you think about it; it is the individual agent who takes you step by step in guiding you through the entire sales process. It is not the corporate name like Coldwell Banker, Century 21 etc.. For the most part, what a company name represents is corporate branding and has little or nothing to do with the specific qualifications of the individual agent. Contact the agent; a telephone interview is a good preliminary step. Here you can verify how many years in the real estate business and generally level of expertise and if they have an established track record. Communication style is important. After all, this is someone that you will be dealing with though the entire sales process. The next step is typically to interview the agent at the house that is to be sold. A good listing agent will typically satisfy at least three goals upon meeting with you at the house: (1) They will view the home to provide which enable them to provide a Comparable Market Analysis to give for the home seller with a suggested list price for your house. It is typically imperative for an agent to view a home before conclusively giving an estimate of value to fully understand upgrades, location, and attributes of your home (2) They will give you advice on how to make your home ready for sale and will provide optional suggestions, for example, regarding furniture layout and general home presentation. (3) The third goal for a good listing agent when meeting a seller should be to provide an overview of milestones of the entire home sale. It is much easier for the homeowner to know what they can expect at what point of the sale by the listing agent addressing and discussing each stage of the sale upfront. This is also a great opportunity for the home seller to ask questions as needed, providing more insight into if this agent is a good match for them.
In closing, when choosing any listing agent, a reduced fee full service listing agent or a regular commission agent; you the seller are looking for the same qualifications. An individual that has the skill set that I described above who can successfully produce the highest market value sales price and provide excellent professional service while doing so. The added advantage of working with a qualified reduce fee realtor is the large cash savings you the home seller receives at close of escrow.