Why You Should Use A Real Estate Agent To Sell Your Home

Despite never having done so before, many people decide to sell their homes by themselves on a whim, without considering just how detrimental this may be to the price they eventually fetch on their property.

If you are still not convinced that using a real estate agent you can trust will help you sell your property faster – and at the highest possible price – here are nine reasons why you’ll regret that exact decision.

1. You don’t know what you don’t know

If you have never seen through the sale of a property, the fact of the matter is that you simply don’t have the experience, nor do you have the knowledge to confidently undertake the task of selling a home. Keep in mind that there are many aspects related to selling a house.

First off, as you do not regularly operate in the property market, you don’t know the legal ins and outs of what exactly is required when it comes to transferring the ownership of a property to someone else. Also, you probably do not know or understand the complex workings of the property market at large, nor do you know the factors influencing your local property market.

Real estate agents have been operating in the property realm for years, and have a good understanding of the ebbs and flows of the property market in your city or suburb specifically, as well as the wider influences at play in the national property market. Put simply, you don’t know what you don’t know – but a qualified and experienced real estate agent does.

2. Real estate training takes years

To become a registered real estate agent necessitates that these professionals of the property sphere to first gain the qualifications required by their specific state. After becoming qualified, real estate agents then have to undergo hours of in-house training before they are able to obtain a license that is relevant in their state.

This entire process can take years, and don’t only enable the real estate agent to legally do business in their city or suburb, but also keeps the agent (and, by implication the buyer or seller) accountable by law.

When initially deciding on an agent to help you sell, make sure to enquire about their qualifications during their initial interviews, and to check these qualifications online – this can be done in New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia, Tasmania, the Northern Territory and in Queensland.  

A real estate agent who is qualified and licensed to do business in their state is invaluable to the average property seller, who hasn’t spent a significant portion of their adult life learning about and working in the property market.

3. There’s a lesson in every home sold

Years of experience mean that any given real estate agent has also made their fair share of mistakes along the road. Every sale an agent is tasked with comes with its own set of unique challenges, and some are certainly more difficult than others. It goes without saying that not every home seller walks away with the profit they were looking for, and the market conditions at play at any given time definitely also influences the difficulty of a sale.

This is another reason that might see you regretting the decision to not enlist the services of a trustworthy real estate agent to help you sell. They know what it’s like to see a sale fall through the roof, and can consequently recognise the pitfalls that may arise during the sale of a property before the fact, and avoid them by altering their sales or marketing approach.

For example, a real estate agent who has been in the business for the past few years knows exactly why disclosing certain faults of the property upfront may actually benefit the seller in the long run. While any good agent will admit that losing a sale is tough, this is an experience you may have to acquire just like they did: through trial and error. Do you really want to risk one of the biggest financial transactions of your life by going it alone?

4. Fast changes in the real estate market might confuse you

The real estate market is constantly in flux, and the legislation governing property sales often changes at the drop of the hat. As real estate professionals, agents are informed of any legal changes pertaining to buying and selling property as they are implemented – this is information that Joe Public may not readily have at hand as he pursues the sale of his property by himself.

Economic and legislative changes, along with fluctuations in other factors like the population density of an area, or political changes may have a hand in the outcome of property sales at a given time. If you are not well acquainted with how exactly all these changes will influence the property market, you will not be able to keep them in mind when marketing your property to prospective buyers.

However, a real estate agent that knows their stuff will not be thrown by the things that affect the property market, and will be able to easily adjust their approach to a sale, based on the factors affecting the property market at a specific time.

5. The legal complexities of selling a home

As you would expect, the Australian property market is governed by a number of rules and regulations. These complex legislative requirements come with a good amount of paperwork. Starting with how your property is marketed to potential sellers, there are numerous legal consequences for property sellers if the procedures and requirements are not adhered to.

Once someone has decided that they want to buy your property, a sales agreement, which is a contract between the buyer and the seller, must be drawn up. This contract is likely to contain a number of contingency clauses, meant to allow the buyer or seller to withdraw from a sale if certain requirements aren’t met by either of the parties. This agreement alone holds the potential to derail a sale, and ensuring to include contingency clauses that also protect the home seller is key to avoiding having to relist the property.

Real estate agents work with these kinds of documents all the time, and know exactly how best to protect the home seller and ensure the ultimate sale of the property.

6. Negotiating isn’t easy

One of the most important roles the real estate agent plays is that of the impartial and objective bystander and assistant on the home-selling journey. Negotiating about the price of the property is difficult when a person is emotionally attached to the property in some way. This can be off-putting to potential buyers, who are looking to get the best bang for their buck – not listening to the seller’s subjective feeling about the price of the property.

Allowing your real estate agent to assume this role isn’t just beneficial insofar as it helps you to get the best possible price (albeit one that is fair and realistic) for your property, but also because it takes the pressure of having to engage with potential buyers off of you.

7. You need a team of professionals

Real estate agents do not work in isolation. Very often, real estate agencies have access to a team of marketers, property photographers and other professionals of the industry. This helps them to put your property in the best possible light when it is listed online, and to make sure the home is marketed as widely as possible.

When trying to sell your property by yourself, you will need to take all these marketing efforts upon yourself – and, let’s be honest, you probably won’t be able to create an expert listing without having to rope in some help, anyway.

8. You’d lose the commission savings

One of the main reasons people decide to sell their property themselves is that they’re hoping to save on the commission they’d be required to pay a real estate agent after the property has been sold. What they don’t realise is that there are many hidden costs associated with the sale of a property, which they may not have thought of before.

Trained and experienced real estate agents have access to marketing and photography experts, and know how to make a listing stand out among the rest. Their sole purpose is to get a property to fetch the highest possible price, and seeing as it also affects the amount of commission they receive post-sale, this could also mean significant financial gain for you, without having to fork out extra amounts of money to take care of things already included in the real estate agent’s offering.  

9. You can’t predict market trends

Depending on economic and other factors, the real estate market routinely favours either buyers or sellers. This means that a person who is trying to sell their property in a buyer’s market may be faced with significant challenges.

Real estate agents know how to predict marketing trends, and also know how to navigate the different types of markets with a profit in tow. If you are not familiar with the market trends associated with buying and selling property, you simply can’t go without a property expert to help you.

Conclusion

The property market can prove to be a jungle that should not be traversed without the help of a qualified and experienced guide. Still looking for someone you can trust to help you sell fast? Let Perfect Agent recommend the best agents out there today.