Responsibilities of a seller’s agent
A Real Estate Agent representing the Seller is known as a Seller’s Agent. There are countless decisions to be made when selling a home, and many of them will significantly affect whether or not you make a profit and how much time it takes to sell your home. A real estate agent can offer specialized knowledge in research, marketing and negotiations to help you meet or exceed your goals. According to the National Association of REALTORS®, 82 percent of home sales are the result of agent connections.
A “Sellers” Representative will:
• Serve as your advocate and representative when dealing with buyers, buyers’ agents and service providers.
• Help you establish a fair asking price that also meets your goals.
• Advise you on how to present your home aesthetically to maximize its appeal to buyers.
• Design a customized marketing plan that will promote your home 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Tactics can include the MLS, direct mail campaigns, fliers, yard signs, advertising, Internet listings and open houses.
• Schedule and host open houses and home tours.
• Screen all written offers and discuss their advantages and disadvantages.
• Assist you in making counteroffers.
• Prepare your closing documents.
• Represent you at closing and mediate any last-minute obstacles to ensure a smooth, successful transaction.
• Provide referrals to proven service providers, including title companies, inspectors, appraisers, pest control, moving companies and more.
The Real Role of A Listing Agent:
What sellers don’t realize is that a listing agent’s main marketing emphasis is directed toward other Realtors, not the general public. Their main goal is to convince the selling agents (buyer’s agents) to find buyers and make offers. This is a good thing because if you are selling a home, you want as many Realtors as possible bringing buyers around to take a look. Most of a listing agent’s marketing efforts toward other Realtors are invisible to the general public.
Therefore, a listing agent’s primary job has absolutely nothing to do with finding buyers — it is to convince all of those selling agents to show your home to their buyers. That is why there is a “broker preview” or an “office preview” of your home — including food or other “enticements” that appeal to selling agents. They want the selling agents to “preview” your home so it will be “fresh” in their mind to show potential buyers.
Your listing agent also puts your house in the local Multiple Listing Service (MLS) and sends flyers to all of the other local office (and their agents) — telling them about your property. They talk to as many agents as they can about your house. This is also why you want to price your home properly during that preview period. If you price it too high, the selling agents just laugh and say they’ll wait till the price comes down. Of course, by then your house is “old news” and no longer fresh in their mind.
As for all those “open houses” and “ads” you want your agent to run – or else you feel like they aren’t doing anything? Those rarely sell your house. Sellers just “think” they do. That is part of why most FSBO’s do not successfully sell their homes on their own. They begin with a false impression of what makes a good listing agent effective. The real value of a listing agent is proper pricing, providing instruction at what you need to do to properly “present” your house, and in marketing — but not marketing to buyers — marketing your home to other agents.