If you are thinking about putting your home on the market, you should first decide what kind of seller you want to be.
There are two types of sellers, just as there are agents. Proactive and Reactive.
Proactive sellers are those homeowners who take an active role in getting their house sold. Now, I don’t mean marketing or advertising the property themselves. If they had that kind of time and knowledge, why would they hire an agent. I’m referring to those homeowners who hold the agent to a standard and demand to be kept in the loop on what. Is being done to get their home sold. Proactive selling is marketing your property through multiple websites, social media sites, print media, & blogs; open houses; potential staging; developing curb appeal; professional pictures; and the list goes on.
Reactive sellers are those homeowners who sit back, relax, and hope their agent knows what he or she is doing. Just because you are acquaintances with or are related to someone who seems nice and happens to be a agent does not mean they are going to work harder for you than everyone else. Reactive selling is sticking a sign in the yard and an entry on the Agent MLS and hoping that a buyer will see it and put in an offer.
Regardless of the worth of your home compared with all the others on the market, it is YOUR home and probably a big chunk of your assets. Are you really going to leave the selling of such an investment to an agent without knowing how their marketing plan will get your home sold for the most amount of money, in the shortest amount of time, and with the least amount of hassle?
Every agent should have a marketing plan. Gone are the days when an agent could just stick a sign in the front yard and wait for a buyer to stroll through and make an offer. While we all wish we were back in 2005 and the market was still growing at an unprecedented rate, that is not the reality of today. If you want to get your home sold, you are going to need a serious agent who can not only be honest with you regarding how much your home is worth in today’s market (there are many who just want to stick their sign in your front lawn for advertising), but has a proactive plan to get it sold.
You can be a reactive seller and potentially end up with a great proactive seller. The problem is what if you don’t. By being a proactive seller and demanding a serious marketing plan from your agent as well as weekly updates on what he or she is doing, you are guaranteeing that your get a proactive agent.
Dan Brassil
St. Louis Real Estate Agent
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