Professional real estate agents and brokers want your business and will gladly give you valuable information on the current market to get it.
Since you need plenty of market information to price your home right, you will inevitably run into a real estate agent or broker in your search for facts and figures. But, according to a 20-year veteran of the industry at Rockwood Real Estate Consulting, you should know a little about how to deal with the people who sell homes for a living.
Free Market Evaluations Provide Valuable Information
Professional sales agents are paid commissions based on the sale price of your home. They qualify for that commission if they ‘list’ your home. ‘Listing’ your home means they get you to sign a contract where they agree to market the house and show it to prospective purchasers. If they sell the home during the ‘listing’, you agree to pay them a percentage of the sale price. In a competitive market, these agents must compete for ‘listings’, and they often offer to give prospective sellers ‘free market evaluations’. Those market evaluations can provide you with a wealth of valuable information, and you should not hesitate to take advantage of their offers if you are considering selling your home.
If done correctly, that evaluation will involve two visits from the agent. On the first visit, they will come and gather basic information about your home – its size, age, condition, location, number of bedrooms and extra amenities. Next, they will take that information to their office and find comparable sales using their access to detailed figures from the local real estate board. Then, after seeing the appropriate comparisons, they will again visit you, bearing the results of their work.
It would help if you didn’t tell the agent or broker what you feel the house is worth or your expectations of its value. However, you must allow them to remain objective and not influence their numbers. Be clear with them that you are considering selling and only doing your ‘due diligence about market research. You might inquire about their perceptions of the local housing market. As professionals, they should be able to answer your questions about that market and should be willing to do so to earn your trust – and your business.
This ‘free market evaluation’ is a ‘listing tool’ for professional salespeople and part of their business. You don’t have to use their service, and you can make it clear to them that you are just doing preliminary research. It would help if two or more different agents conduct market evaluations for you and make each one aware that they are not the only professional you have consulted. An excellent real estate agent or broker will welcome the opportunity to evaluate you and thank you for it.
The Right Comparisons for the Right Price
If the evaluations are done correctly, they will include the ‘listing’ information on several homes that compare closely to yours that have SOLD recently. The homes should be of the same approximate size with the same amenities and in the same or very similar neighbourhood. Comparisons should be made against a minimum of three or four examples, depending on the market activity, but they must be SOLD homes. Looking at the prices of homes listed for sale can be very misleading, as those figures do not accurately represent the marketplace but are instead a variety of other people’s ideas on what the market should be.
By examining the information on the sold listings and comparing it to the information you have on YOUR home, you should be able to get a pretty good idea of the current value of your place.
If you wish, you can inform the agents or brokers who evaluated your decision to sell privately and offer to co-operate with them if they find you a buyer. They may have an arrangement with their buyers, who may be paying the brokers to find them the perfect home – and maybe it’s yours!
By getting all the information from the professionals and pricing your home right, you will look like a realistic and severe seller – and that is an excellent way to enter the housing market. It is a competitive business.
