Frequently Asked Questions about Selling Real Estate

Buying or selling real estate is probably one of the largest personal financial transactions you will ever undertake. Combine this fact with the emotion of a property that you are likely to live in or have lived in and developed memories around, and you have a recipe for an inability to be objective along with a very high stress level.

Our REALTOR(s)® will work with you to understand your needs and objectives, to market your home to the most likely buyers, will act as a buffer between you and the buyer / buyer's agent, and will temper the transaction with experience and access to resources that can handle bumps in the transaction process.

Ask yourself how much money you would invest in a stock, bond, or futures market without the advise of someone who did that on a regular basis? Is that amount smaller or larger than the price of your home?

Just like adjustments in the financial market, a variety of things can happen in a real estate transaction. It doesn't make sense to risk something this important to just anybody. Contact us today to work with an agent that will focus on your success.

The answer is that it goes to market your home. This is done through a variety of services - some of them require time of an agent, some time of a broker. Each of these have to pay professional organizations, listing services, marketing fees, and must generate marketing and promotional materials to promote your home. Their networks by relationship and professional association are what generate exposure for your home.

If you want to understand a general scenario of who gets to allocate the spend of a typical commission, read on. All of the money owed in conjunction with a listing agreement is due to the broker who has the listing agreement with the seller at the closing. This broker has probably agreed through a listing service to share that commission with a broker representing a buyer in the tranaction. So for the sale of a $100,000 home listed with a 6% commission, 6% is due to the listing broker at the time of the closing. If there was buyer representation, the buyer's broker would typically get 50% of the listing commission or 3%. Neither the buyer's broker nor the listing broker may have ever been met during the course of the transaction. They are represented by agents. Each of these agents have an agreed upon commission split (typically) with their broker. If their split if 50/50, then each of the brokers end up paying their agents 1.5% and retaining 1.5%. The pie gets split more when there is supporting staff or multiple agents working on any side of a deal.

This question has a number of variables. If you keep your home very clean, it is well decorated, and you have made good use of the space, it may be in your best interest to keep the home decorated and live in it while it is on the market.

If you are not interested in keeping the home in "show condition", it may be in your best interest to buy a new home, move, and then sell the old home. This option assumes that this is financially feasible.

Two sides of the argument to consider: 1) Many people have a hard time visualizing the possiblities of an empty space. 2) When there are a lot of homes on the market, many agents are lazy and will show empty homes first because they don't have to take the time to call and make sure it is ok to show.

Each situation is unique. Talk to an agent to discover the right solution for you.

This can be a make it or break it question. It is very important to understand where you are likely to get the best return before investing any money into a property you are consider selling. More important is to understand where you are financially in the property, and what a likely market sale would be - both with the mini renovation and without!

This is a very difficult task to take on without a real estate professional assisting you in the process. Many people have a good general idea of what housing is going for in an area, but they don't typically have the appropriate combination of data resources and experience to objectively analyze the situation.

Bottom line: You can win big or lose big on this option. Consult an agent to work through the most likely scenarios and make an educated decision to have the best opportunity for financial gain!

Pricing is a very sensitive subject for any homeowner. Not only because it represents a return on what is most likely their largest financial investment, but also because of the emotional attachment.

The answer is that it depends on your objective. For instance, you would price a home that you have to sell within 30 days different than a home you had 180 days to sell in a market where the average home was turning in about 120 days.

It is important to look at how many homes are for sale nearby - in the same neighborhood or building - what condition the home is in both in general and relative to other homes for sale, how much time is available relative to the current turn time, time of year, and other community, geographic, or financial factors that impact the situation.

The information gathered must be weighted with the time and financial objectives to arrive at the best number. Traffic is usually heaviest during the first couple of weeks after a listing is made, so it is important to be in the right price bracket early in the process.