What should I expect from a listing agent? Understanding agency relationships is an important part of buying or selling a home. From preparation to possession, your listing agent should provide capable, professional assistance, including:
Preparing Your Home Study Market and Recommend Price (Comparative Market Analysis, or "CMA"):
Your Noles-Frye listing agent can generate a report that compares your home to the other homes currently being sold in your area. It may also show other homes that have sold recently, or "expired" from the market before selling. This data will help you and your agent determine the most effective, realistic asking (or "list") price for your property. Recommend Interior and Exterior Improvements
Your home should "smile a welcome" to prospective buyers! The exterior attracts with "curb appeal" and the interior closes the sale. Your agent will tour your home with you and advise about which improvements that should or could be made. For instance:
- Exterior:
- Keep the landscape clean and free of debris
- Make sure doorbell and outside light(s) wor
- Clean your gutters and downspouts
- Interior:
- Unclutter - especially stairways!
- Organize the basement and attic
- Shampoo the carpets and wax floors
Marketing the House to Brokers and Agents List House in the Multiple Listing Service (MLS)
The MLS lets real estate agents show and sell each other's listed properties as "cooperating brokers." It's an electronic database promoting large and small broker's listings. The more agents who know your home is for sale, the faster it's likely to sell.
Host Brokers' Open
This tour (usually held on a weekday morning) invites local real estate agents to see your home, previewing it for their buyers.
"HotList" Your Property
Noles-Frye sales associates are able to quickly broadcast new listings within the real estate community, via computerized "hot sheets" that announce your home's arrival on the market. The faster agents and brokers know your home is for sale, the sooner their buyers will pay a visit.
Provide a Lockbox for House
An electronic "key" will open this door-hanging box, which holds a house key allowing agents entrance to your home when you're not there. It's very useful for sellers who are often away from home, or for homes off the beaten path.
Marketing the House to the Public Provide a Yard Sign
Yard signs are an awareness-generating tool, notifying neighbors and drive-by buyers that your home is for sale.
List House on Web Sites
The Internet is exploding in popularity with home buyers. Nationally, more than 60 percent of people "in the market" for a new home are surfing Web sites that promote homes in their market areas. It's especially valuable for capturing incoming transferees. Noles-Frye guarantees that every one of our listed properties will be promoted on multiple Web sites.
Run Classified Ads
This most basic marketing tool still prevails in most areas. Your agent will advertise your home in the real estate pages of your local newspaper (you'll want to know how often), with a brief description, asking price and contact information.
Advertise House in Home Book Magazine
Free of charge and available everywhere home buyers shop, the Real Estate Marketplace is a popular marketing tool among sellers and a very useful catalogue when you're buying a home.
Arrange Showings
Your Noles-Frye sales associate will set up the showings of your home, accommodating the schedules of qualified buyers and their agents - without inconveniencing you and your family.
Conduct Open Houses
Your listing agent may not already know your home's eventual buyer - but open houses can bring that buyer to your doorstep. Will your agent hold them? Should you plan to be away? You'll want to discuss this marketing option.
Advertise House with Direct Mail
Promotional postcards and other written materials about your home can be sent to targeted market areas and the potential home buyers who live there.
Provide a Home Warranty
Noles-Frye offers a home warranty program that's essentially a one-year "insurance" plan, assuring prospective buyers that your home's systems (electric, heating/air conditioning, plumbing, appliances, etc.) will be functional once you've moved. Warranties protect the seller while reassuring buyers that your home is of solid value and in good condition.
Sales/Closing Support Qualify/Pre-Screen Potential Buyers
Prospective buyers visiting your home should be financially able to purchase it. Your listing agent can work with the buyer's agent, assuring that the people who see your home can afford its price range. You may wish to require pre-qualification (or more complete pre-approval) by a qualified lender.
Attend Inspections
City code inspections, "general" home inspections, pest and radon inspections - your Noles-Frye listing agent can represent your interests attending various inspections of your home while it's listed and once you've accepted a buyer's offer.
Evaluate and Negotiate Offers
It's what we most often think of when choosing an agent to represent us in a home sale or purchase. Is the price acceptable to you? Do you need to push back the closing date? Will you repair the roof in exchange for full asking price? These are just examples of why you'll want a trusted, objective professional to help shape your decisions.
Counsel for Contract Acceptance
Buying a home is one of the biggest decisions of your life. Rely on the guidance and objectivity of a trusted professional. Your Noles-Frye listing agent can make sure that details are remembered and your interests protected.
Prepare Required Documents
A real estate transaction today can involve listing and purchase agreements, multiple disclosure statements, addenda and amendments. Do you work with real estate-related legal documents every day? Your Noles-Frye listing agent does. Rely on his or her familiarity with the language, timelines and requirements that lie within these legal documents.
Negotiate and Resolve Disputes
Even the smoothest, simplest real estate transaction involves two parties, with needs and objectives that may differ. The right real estate agent can provide skilled negotiation, mediation and conflict resolution, helping you navigate a potential minefield without "taking it personally."
Facilitate Closing/Follow-Up
It's in the details that frustrations often mount - and the details come at closing time. Once you've accepted an offer for your home, a real estate agent works efficiently below the surface, so that what's above the surface moves smoothly. Broker, lender, title examiner - everyone needs papers, signatures, verifications and certifications. From opening escrow to title transfer, it's another area where the right agent sooths nerves.
Coordinate Transfers
What's the No. 1 irritant among home buyers? That they ran into unanticipated difficulties gaining possession of the home they purchased! Your Noles-Frye listing agent will make it happen, finalizing the transfer of utilities, house keys and ownership to your home's new owners.
Coordinate Repairs and Upgrades Prior to Sale
Leaky roof that requires a certification? Or perhaps you've said you'll remove that unsightly tree stump. Your listing agent can create a "tickler" system that helps you fulfill such agreements - in a timely fashion that prevents breach of contract.
Contingency Resolution
Contractual contingencies are terms that must be met before an agreement is binding. The written contingency, therefore, must also be removed in writing, by a specified date, before the contract can be fully in effect. Whether it's financing, inspection or any other item your agreement is "subject to," your Real Living listing agent can assist you in understanding and fulfilling these contractual conditions.
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