How to Find a Real Estate Agent

7 Tips for Finding the Best Real Estate Agent for Your Property

Real estate agents are a dime a dozen these days, but the good ones are few and far between. Before choosing an agent, do your research. It will pay off tenfold in terms of maximizing the selling price of your home, minimizing listing time and ensuring that the selling and closing process will go smoothly. Choosing the right real estate agent is a crucial part of the selling process. Here are seven tips to help you make the most intelligent decision for your property and your needs:

1. Don't hire a realtor just because a friend recommends them.

Many people hire someone based only on a friend's recommendation and wind up with poor representation.

2. Find an expert

To best serve your needs, find someone who demonstrates knowledge of your area, expertise in the process, and strong marketing skills.

3. Find out how the agent plans on marketing your property

Gone are the days when a home can just show up in MLS and be sold. Top real estate agents actually have a marketing process and their sales volumes speak for themselves. Realtors that are good at marketing and selling homes have strong track records, minimum listing periods and maximum selling prices.

4. Find out how many properties the real estate agent you are considering has actually listed and sold in the past year

How many properties similar to yours have they personally sold in the last year? (Beware real estate "team" statistics, as the lead agent might be taking credit for the production of several junior agents.)

5. What is the agent's market list time?

How long do similar properties stay on market with this agent compared to the market average?

6. Find an agent that knows how to use the internet and social media to market your home

Make sure your agent is active on the top online home shopping web sites and has experience using technology to market your home (e.g., Twitter, Facebook).

7. Get a first hand feel for the agents

Interview several agents in person and find one you feel you can trust and will enjoy working with, and that will best represent you as a seller before making a final decision.

Grace Frank is a million dollar/top 10% Chattanooga real estate producer, Accredited Buyer's Representative and certified Green Real Estate Agent specializing in Waterfront Property, Real Estate Investing and Chattanooga Green Real Estate in the Chattanooga region. She holds an MBA in marketing and puts her exceptional negotiating skills to work on behalf of her clients to exceed expectations. To learn more, visit Grace on Facebook.

How to choose a real estate agent

The decision to buy or sell a home is one of the most important financial decisions most people make, yet many give little thought to finding the real estate agent best suited to their needs.

Agents are often chosen solely on the recommendation of a friend or an ad in the newspaper. But choosing the right agent can save you time, effort and aggravation in finding the perfect home at a price you can afford or selling your home quickly for top dollar.

"Real estate has always been a mark of independence and freedom in this country," says Donald R. Brenner, professor emeritus at American University. "Owning property is very important, and when you deal with someone who is going to help you buy or sell a piece of property, you'd better find someone that knows what they're doing.

"If you pick up the phone book and choose from the yellow pages, you won't make a better decision than if you picked up the telephone book to choose a brain surgeon," says Brenner.

Realtor Grace Frank isn't interested in hearing the odds, only in beating them. For example, when she took her plan to build South side Village to the banks, they told her she was nuts. She showed them they were wrong.
"It took us a year to negotiate the land deals, and then we started building last May. We've sold nearly an entire street, and we did it when no one thought it was possible," she says.
The banks not only underestimated Frank's ability to build and sell the South side project, also her entrepreneurial spirit, Read More...

Secrets for Staging Your Home!

HGTV recently published an article detailing 15 tips you can observe in order to properly stage your home for sale.

Of course, the goal is not to lie about the condition of your home, there are certain steps you can take to ensure that the strengths of your home are highlighted while making sure that any faults are not the only thing prospective buyers see. Simple things like proper lighting and making use of vertical space can make all the difference to someone interested in buying your home.

Click here to go to the article and read all of the tips. If you're looking to sell your home anytime soon, check out these tips, and contact us if you have any specific questions of concerns!

Moving is Complicated and Difficult: Let's Make It Less So

After all the marketing, price reductions, paperwork, and meetings, you've finally sold your home. But now that the property is sold, you've got to get your stuff out of there! That can be another ordeal in itself, and might just tempt you to reconsider this whole selling-your-home business. What's the insurance like, are there things they won't touch, will they pack for you or would it be easier to just do it yourself, the list goes on.

This seems counterproductive, Sharon.

But it doesn't have to be such a pain! There are steps you can take to help relieve some of the uncertainty and confusion that goes along with moving, and cut through some of the tape holding up the process.

The article below comes from Melinda Duncan, a Re/Max agent based in Kentucky (check out her website). She's provided us with a checklist of things you can ask the movers or moving company before you decide to work with them. While not exhaustive, this list serves as a good guideline for what to ask and look for when it comes to movers.

Fees

• What is the charge for packing?
• Does it include boxes? If not, what do they cost and will you deliver them?
• Is there an additional charge to deliver some items to a storage unit?

Insurance

• How is a damage claim handled? 
• What insurance do you provide and is there a cost? 
• Does the insurance cover items packed by the owner? 
• Can additional insurance be purchased? 
• If items are covered by my Homeowner’s insurance, whose insurance pays first?

Unusual Items 

• Can you ship my car(s)? Will they be in the moving van or towed? 
• What are the charges for shipping cars, lawn tractors, etc? 
• What items cannot be shipped? 
• If a shuttle truck is needed because of the location of my house or size of the drive way, is there an additional charge? 
• If packing and loading are on different days, can you leave the beds and other basics out for us to use?

Dates 

• What dates are available for our move?
• What date will you pack and how long will this take? 
• What date will you load the van? 
• What date will the van arrive at my new location? 
• If my new home is not ready for delivery, how many days can it be delayed before there is a charge? 
• What is the charge for additional days or weeks?

Terms 

• Are there any additional fees that I’m responsible for that have not been discussed? 
• What are the terms of payment? 
• Is a down payment required? 
• When will the balance be due and who is authorized to accept it?

What Kind of Showing Was It?

Property showings can be confusing for sellers. How to prepare, what kinds of things are

potential buyers looking for, is it awkward to continue binge-watching Breaking Bad while it happens, etc.

But luckily for you, it doesn't have to be. The article below comes from Melinda Duncan, a Re/Max agent based in Kentucky (check out her website). Here she explains the different kinds of showings that can be given of your home, and some tips for preparing for each:

One of the most frequent calls from homeowners to their agents is about the listing’s inactivity due to the lack of showings.  The homeowner commonly believes that the home is shown only when a buyer walks through the house with an agent.

Today’s buyers are more sophisticated than in the past due to the abundance of information available to the public on the Internet.  There are seemingly inexhaustible sites with homes for sale, valuation estimates and virtual tours.  There are extensive mapping sites with satellite images, traffic conditions, entertainment, shopping and other points of interest.

There are actually three legitimate types of property showings.  A knowledgeable buyer can view a home for sale online and make a reasonable determination of whether the home will fit their needs.  Occasionally, buyers will drive by a home to get a feel for the home and also the neighborhood which might cause them to eliminate any further examination or consideration.

The third type, the physical showing, certainly gives the buyer the opportunity for the closest scrutiny but is generally reserved for properties that have passed the inspections of at least one other type of showing.

Sellers should be aware of the different types of showings and that a sales agent’s job is to help the buyer find the right home.  The listing agent’s job is to market the home so that the right buyer finds it either through their own efforts or that of the buyer’s agent.