What to Expect when Selling your Home
As we enter 2018, the market forecast is shaping up for this year to be another strong year for seller's throughout Orange County. With the unmet demand for housing due to low inventory, you may be considering taking advantage of this current seller's market. Once you’ve made the decision to sell your home, the next step towards selling your home will be to hire the right real estate agent. Finding an experienced real estate agent that has a strong sense of the local market in your neighborhood can make or break your home selling experience. Equally important is understanding the role that your real estate agent will play in helping you sell your home. Having a strong understanding of the characteristics you're looking for will ultimately help you set proper expectations on the realtor you're working with and will help you to better define their role in the home-selling process. As you begin your search for the right agent for the job, consider the following characteristics that separate a good agent from a great agent.
Your Listing Agent Should Be...
- Honest – An honest agent is both credible and reliable. Take the time during the interviewing process to ask for recent sellers' contact information and fact check against recent testimonials you found for the agent. This may lengthen the process, but you want to be sure your agent is both honest, experienced and has the results to prove it before you hire them.
- Professional – Timeliness and a well-maintained appearance are the main keys to professionalism when it comes to the right real estate agent. Finding an agent who is always on time and dresses the part shows both you and the buyers’ agent that you’re working with that they are committed to helping you sell your home.
- Able to Negotiate – Your listing agent’s job is to be your voice. Having a real estate agent who brings strong negotiating skills to the table will help ensure that you sell your home for the most amount of money in the least amount of time.
- Creative – A creative agent won't rely on the 'for sale; sign in front of the house to sell the home. Rather, they will invest time and resources into creating a comprehensive marketing plan that uniquely markets the home. Having a listing agent who is creative with the property description, angles of photos and copy in advertisements plays a large role in the time it takes to sell the home.
- Well Connected – Great professionals tend to align themselves with other great professionals. One of the fastest ways to find out what level of professionalism your listing agent is operating at is through their sources of preferred vendors or partners. For instance, a reliable moving company or a trusted real estate attorney. Any experienced real estate agent should be able to provide you with a list of business recommendations to help you.
- Communicative – Last but most definitely not least is frequent communication. One of the most important questions you can ask in your interview with a potential agent is about their communication. A listing agent should be able to adapt to your preferred communication method. For instance, if texting is best than you should communicate that with your listing agent at the beginning to ensure you’re on the same communicative page.
Selling your Home in Orange County
If you’re thinking about selling your home in Orange County in 2018, I can help. Properties listed at market value throughout Orange County are getting a lot of attention and now is the time to take advantage of low inventory of housing throughout Southern California. With more than 30 years of local knowledge in South Orange County, I can help you sell your home at the right price. Recently named #10 of the top 50 Coldwell Banker agents in September 2017 within all of Orange County, I would be honored to help you. Call me at 949-500-9714 to get started.