In the age of Zillow, Trulia and the internet at large, do you even really need a real estate agent anymore? And if you do, which one do you choose?
Let’s run through the numbers. Say you’re selling your beautiful $500,000 home. On the surface, the buyer’s agent and the seller’s agent split a 6% commission. That means listing with an agent costs you $30,000. If you don’t use a real estate agent, you’ll save yourself that amount of money. But let’s consider some important variables:
- What happens when an offer comes in $30,000 below ask? Will you feel confident negotiating that offer up to the full list price? How will you know whether the offer is fair or not?
- What happens when your inspection comes back and the buyer asks for concessions like $10,000 for a new roof and windows? How will you know whether to fix them both, or credit the buyer the difference?
- What happens when you don’t get an offer for one month? Two months? Three months? Do you drop your price?
All of the sudden your beautiful home is being sold for $460,000 with an additional few months of carrying costs. Add to that the nightmare of all the showings and constantly wondering if your price was too high. What you’ve saved in commission, you’ve more than paid for in a lower price and needless stress.
Now imagine this. You have confidence the day you list knowing that your $500,000 list price is what your home is worth. We’ve already worked together to determine a new roof is worth the investment, but the windows are fine and are not something worthy of anything but a very small concession. In addition, here’s what happens:
- Your home is beautifully marketed online, via a 9,000 person email list, and with glossy flyers canvassed across neighborhoods full of qualified buyers.
- Your home is staged with a selection from upward of $80,000 worth of modern, minimalist furniture that is guaranteed to get buyers thinking about what it would be like to live there.
- Full price offers or over list offers come in quickly, and offers over asking come in within a few days!
- I negotiate the best offer, take back up offers to keep the negotiating leverage high and we end up selling your home for 50k over ask in a few weeks.
In the first scenario, your net after commissions is $460,000 after a few months after being listed. In the second scenario, you net $517,000 a few days after being listed. That’s a difference of $57,000 after commissions. That’s the difference I can make for you.
