Top 10 Reasons to Hire a Real Estate Agent to Sell or Buy a Home in 2024
From this article, you will learn about the benefits of using a real estate agent to sell your home or buy one.
You may be questioning yourself if it’s cheaper and maybe even more effective to take on the whole process yourself rather than hiring an experience Realtor.
Our Real Estate Bees editorial team asked professional real estate agents to explain what exactly realtors do for their clients and why it’s worth hiring one.
Let’s start with a short summary of the benefits for the buyer and the seller.
Benefits of hiring a real estate agent as a seller:
- Local market knowledge and proper pricing.
- Due diligence with the buyer and their agent.
- Effective solutions for home condition-related problems.
- Legal scrutiny.
Benefits of hiring a real estate agent as a buyer:
- It’s free for the buyer (the seller normally pays both agents’ fees).
- Legal scrutiny.
- Professional advice on property prices.
- Professional advice on a property’s condition.
- Investment advice.
- Protecting your interests in negotiations with the seller and their agent.
Why Should I Use a Realtor to Sell My Home?
Most often, the question “why should I use a realtor to sell my home?” is asked by home sellers, because they are the ones who pay listing agent commissions (as well as the buyer’s agent’s fee).
Of course, sometimes it happens that hiring an agent doesn’t turn out to be a better experience than conducting a “for sale by owner” transaction via one of the best FSBO websites. Those situations mainly appear when working with a bad real estate agent.
But in most cases, if you do your due diligence when choosing a real estate agent, you can get significantly better results with less liability than if you did everything yourself.
Below is an extensive list of advantages showing why you should hire a realtor to sell your house, even though at the first glance, the agent’s commission seems to constitute the lion’s share of the typical seller closing costs.
Dan Ihara, Keller Williams Honolulu
- Local market knowledge. An experienced agent will understand local real estate values. They can share with you ways that an appraiser and buyers may look at your property. Pricing it right matters. With an agent, you don’t have to get an appraisal before selling your house and price it based on appraised value. Instead, the agent will find the highest possible price at which the house can be sold at a current market conditions. They will also adjust it in the marketing process and negotiate it effectively with a buyer.
- Due diligence. Asking the right questions to the buyer’s agent to understand the buyer’s motivation could help you make good decisions in who you select to be in contract with in a competitive market. Asking the right questions to the buyer’s lender could help you understand the financial strength of the buyer so to reduce fall out at the end.
- Property remedies. When a buyer conducts his home inspection, he will likely discover issues a seller may not be aware of. An experienced agent can bring solutions to the table, and keep the transaction moving to closing.
- Protecting you from liability. An experienced agent will help you to understand the importance of each of the seller disclosures required by law so that the buyer cannot come back to you after closing for a failure to disclose. Knowing what’s important matters.
Dotty Hopkins, Keller Williams Napa Valley
With all the options the Internet makes available to buyers and sellers, many people must be wondering why use a realtor and pay all that money to sell your house when this online service will do it faster or represent me when I buy and give me money back?
There are several very important reasons why you should use a realtor and here’s what to look for if you’re a Seller:
1. A knowledgeable, experienced local realtor:
- knows your market, what similar properties to yours are selling for.
- can advise you as to pricing your home to sell for the highest dollar.
- is aware of current governmental actions, local zoning laws and applicable issues and regulations that may impact your sale.
- has local vendors and service people to inspect and/or repair your property to prepare it for sale.
- has an established relationship with other local realtors who trust and respect her/him and want to work with her/him.
2. Frequently, online agent sources don’t live in the community they attempt to serve, don’t know the current trends, issues and regulations of that community.
All they know about prices is what they can find on one of the online sites making them no more informed than you are if you use Zillow, Redfin etc.
A local realtor knows what the comparable sales actually looked like inside and out. They’ve toured the homes, heard remarks about them from the listing agents first hand and know what’s happening in the neighborhoods.
Was it impacted by fire, earthquake, flooding? Is a new subdivision going on nearby? How are the schools for the neighborhood? Very little of this essential information is available online. It takes a local who:
- is out showing property in the neighborhoods on a regular basis
- has a relationship with other agents to discuss comparables
- reads the local paper for up-to-date local information, receives local newsletters, chat room info, and even attends civic meetings to stay up to date.
3. A local realtor focuses on the area in which he/she lives, knows it, loves it and brings that first-hand knowledge, expertise and enthusiasm to your listing to help your buyer quickly learn everything they need to know about your home and surroundings so that they make the right decision.
An online sale site and the agents they provide are often driving from long distances or worse just dealing with you online, and bring no local knowledge of your community, let alone your property, to the table.
Rather than provide you with every possible service and expertise available, you are treated as a number and they get paid whether you get what your home deserves or not.
Jim Fite, CENTURY 21 Judge Fite Company
Let me count the ways! Knowledge, Skills and Attitude!
- Knowledge — It has been said that 15% of any sale is made up of the real estate professional’s knowledge. However, they must know 100% of the information to pick and choose the knowledge that is needed for any particular transaction. A study was done several years ago and it was determined that a real estate professional must know over 40,000 different items to truly be a master at their profession. We must put “Market Knowledge” way up at the top. Being able to wade through the tire-kickers from the qualified ready, willing and able buyers and sellers is a must!
- Skills — People skills are #1; Communication skills are #2; Negotiating skills are #3; Problem Solving Skills are #4; Marketing skills are #5; from there are technology, tools, systems, networks of other professionals, knowing the road blocks, knowing how to overcome obstacles, and so much more.
- Attitude — If you think you can or you think you can’t, you will be right either way! An agent must have a can-do attitude that utilizes the skills and knowledge above.As we dig into the above list — we must not discount “Negotiating Skills” — this is where a true professional’s abilities shine through for their clients.
An unemotional approach to a very large sale or purchase will save the real estate professional’s clients time and make them money while accomplishing the client’s goals!
I believe in what we do and I believe a true real estate professional is worth every penny they are paid by their clients!
Why Use a Realtor When Buying a New Home?
Home buyers ask themselves “should I use a realtor to buy a house?” mostly because they believe they will have to pay the buyer’s agent commission. In the U.S., both the buyer’s and seller’s agent fees are normally paid by the seller.
However, the seller may count these fees into their asking price, so it’s a matter of negotiations. Here are several advantages of working with a realtor to buy a house.
Dan Ihara – Keller Williams Honolulu
- It’s free to the buyer. And you could have the experience of someone who has done it many times before you.
- Technical knowledge. Understanding the provisions in a legal, binding document could help save you tens of thousands of dollars. Understanding your rights in the transaction as well as ways to get out of the contract legally without any liability could be very important to you.
- Physical properties. Understanding the major items in a home, such as roof, foundation, electrical, plumbing, ceilings, floors, windows, and HVAC will allow you to understand value and future costs associated with the purchase.
- Local market knowledge. Working with an experienced agent who understands potential long-term capital appreciation opportunities, as well as short term cash flow options could help you to make wise decisions with the biggest investment of your life.
- Advocacy. An experienced agent will negotiate for you in all of the above areas so that you can self-discover the best options for you and your family.
Where to Find the Best Realtor?
If by now you’ve already decided that your answer to the question “should I get a realtor?” is “yes”, you can easily find one of the best realtors in your area in our national real estate directory who would be thrilled to help you sell your house fast.
We at Real Estate Bees researched and rated top professionals throughout the U.S. to help home buyers and sellers get the best service for their real estate needs.
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About the Author
Kristina Morales is a REALTOR® with over 20 years of professional experience. She actively practices real estate in Ohio but also has practiced real estate in California and Texas. Conducting her real estate business in three states has allowed her to gain unique experiences that make her a well-rounded realtor. She obtained her Bachelor of Arts in Business Management and her MBA with a concentration in Banking and Finance. Prior to real estate, Kristina had an extensive corporate career in banking and treasury. She ended her finance career as an Assistant Treasurer at a publicly traded oil & gas company in Houston, TX.