How to sell a house?

everylastbreath

DIS Veteran
Joined
Jul 26, 2007
I have never had to sell a house, only purchase one- Mom passed away and my sister and I need to sell her house- how do I find a real estate person, how much do they charge, is it negotiable? What exactly should we look for in a person or company- How long do we sign for, or do we sign? I have NO idea where to start- the property could also be considered commercial, is there another place to do this or would one real estate person take care residential & commercial? We are both at a complete loss as to where to even start. Thanks for any help you can give me.
 
Finding a Realtor; ask around.
How much: last I heard, 6%.
Negotiable: possibly.
Is to the house in the Boston area? I know someone.
 
Ask friends and neighbors for references. Speak to at least two before deciding on one. Three would be better.

Yes, commission is negotiable, within certain limits. Going rate in my area is either 6 or 6.5%. If it's a seller's market (meaning things sell quickly for at or near asking price), even more so. In slower markets, expect to pay more.

Realtors work almost exclusively on commission. But watch for "garbage" fees they try to tack onto the process. IMO, I'd ONLY pay the realtor the commission and no other fee that goes directly to the realtor. There WILL be other fees (deed transfer, title fees, etc) but those go to different people/places.

A good realtor will be able to guide you through the whole process, and let you know what, if anything, you need to do to the home in advance of the sale. Getting multiple opinions on the list price will be key. If you set the price too high, it's the kiss of death on getting a quick sale. Setting the price "too low" is much less of a risk, as the market will self correct that in terms of higher than asking offers.

I'd look for a realtor who has sold in YOUR area, and hopefully multiple properties in your area. Make sure to ask who you will be dealing with. Sometimes "busier" realtors shuffle you off to an associate, and that can be ok, but it's something you'd want to know in advance. Ask their theory on open houses (generally a waste of time....most homes do not sell because of open houses), and when you will know it's time to consider a price reduction. The last home I sold, I went with a realtor who said "13-15 showings with no offer means you've priced it wrong." And, sure enough, we got an offer within that number of showings.


When you get an offer, your first offer is often the BEST offer....meaning those are people motivated to work with you and get a deal done. Doesn't mean you "accept" it as written, but I always work hard to make that first offer into a sale. I've sold more than 10 houses. I've done this a bunch, and with one exception, our first offer was the one who ultimately bought the house.

ETA: I'd also want a realtor who gave me feedback on what other realtors are saying when they preview the property. What do they think about the condition? The price? Etc. And, do not take ANY of that personally. Once the decision has been made to sell, the property is no longer a "home" with memories, etc, but a commodity to be moved. Try to take all emotion out of it to the extent you can.
 
I'd look for a realtor who has sold in YOUR area, and hopefully multiple properties in your area.

This. When we met with different realtors, it became apparent that finding one familiar with my area and even my specific neighborhood was important. He knew how to price my house based on what the comparables were, what the going rates were, what kind of buyers were looking in my area and what their budgets were, etc etc.
 


how do I find a real estate person, Ask friends, look at who is selling in the area (not just who has listing but who has sold houses)

how much do they charge, is it negotiable? My realtor charges my 5%, most charge 6% VERY IMPORTANT: if you find a realtor who foes a 5% commission with a 50/50 split, walk away. You need the agent to split the commission where the buyers agent gets 3% or you will get fewer listing.


What exactly should we look for in a person or company Interview at least 3 agents and go with the one who you are most comfortable with and who has a clear and articulate marketing plan. Do not go with the one who suggest the highest listing price just because you think you will get more money. They will likely end up telling you to lower your price if the house does not sell right away.

- How long do we sign for, or do we sign? Standard in my area is a 6 months listing agreement but I think that is bull hockey. do not be afraid to ask for a 3 months listing and if you are happy with the realtor, renew the listing agreement. I only sign 3 month agreements now after a bad experience.

I have NO idea where to start- the property could also be considered commercial, is there another place to do this or would one real estate person take care residential & commercial? I have no experience with this but this would be an excellent question to ask the three realtors you interview.
 
Start looking at real estate listings in your area. Zillow.com or realtor.com
Compare houses and prices, features, etc.
 
Just to add. If you go on realtor.com and click "recently sold" you can get the realtor's name. you see a guy moving a lot of houses in your area, he might be someone to talk to.
 


If you can't get recommendations, call a few agencies and speak to them about what you're looking for and see if they have a recommendation.

When we sold our house last year, we told the agents we interviewed up front that we were interviewing 4 agents. We also told them we were ready to make a decision quickly, and would in turn let them know if we were not going to use them.

Come up with a short list of 10 questions to ask all the agents during the interview. We emailed them to the agents in advance, because we wanted full accurate answers, we did not want a bunch of - I don't know, I'll get back to you, etc.

A few questions could be how many houses have you sold?
How many current listings to do you have actively?
How many of your listings sell before the contract expires?
What would you list my house for? And how close to the asking price do they sell for?
Can you take me on as a client? When would you be ready to list?
What improvements "to-do" list would you recommend in order to get the listing ready for sale?


We interviewed one agent who came very highly recommended. He really wanted to list our house above what we were comfortable, really too high and it would just sit on the market, or get low-ball offers, because it was just too high. He had 25+ current listings and basically sourced every little task out to individial managers who did each part of the step, so in essence, you weren't really working with him at all, just a bunch of individual managers each step of the way. No, thanks, he was basically too busy.
On the contrast another gal that was a recommendation had only ever sold 2 houses and hadn't had a listing in 7 months.

We had some agents come prepared with thier ideal asking price, who were working off of inaccurate stats and were not actual comps to our home.
We had one agent with an interview who was a no call, no show, ever heard from him again
We had each agent walk the property and give us 4-5 items that should be to the top focus in order to get ready to sell, 3 of them gave the same 2 or 3 items, all the other iteams varied per agent.
We had already spent months purging our house, boxing things up, everything was staged, no clutter, all surfaces painted, ready to plunk the sign down in the yard, and one agent said it would be over a month until they could list it, because of their advertising plan would require X number print ad items and they needed a month.

All I can say is you will know when you know, as soon as our agent walked in our home, we knew she was the one. She did everything exactly as she said she would, worked quickly, was super personable, and all around everyone was very happy. In turn, she helped us sell another property, and just listed a family members home last Wed and had an offer in 48 hours.
 
Clean up the property to get the best price you can. If it doesn't have furniture, your agent should help you stage it. That will help in selling it. Get someone to inspect it so you know the problems and can decide which ones to fix and which ones to let the new homeowner fix. But first is clean it up the best you can.
 
Are you nearby to the home? Is it an area where real estate moves quickly? A relative had realtors look it over but balked at the commissions. They instead opted to sell it themselves, and it was sold for full asking price in a few weeks. But it is in an area where homes are in demand.
 
When I sold my parent's house, I interviewed agents whose names I recognized from For Sale signs in the area, and a couple of recommendations from friends.
I was surprised that a couple wanted ME to tell THEM what I thought the house should sell for. THAT is why I was looking to contract with them, to establish a fair price. When finally pinned down, their suggested sale price ranged from $495,000 to $695,000. Pretty big range. The agent I finally listed with was the only one who walked in and without hesitation state what she felt the listing price should be and used comps to show why that was the right price. Sold the house in 17 days.
The only thing they all agreed on, that I should not paint or make any changes to the house other than the one thing that was legally required to do. In California water heaters have to be strapped to a wall because of earthquakes. That $75 cost is the only thing I did to prepare the house for sale.
 
If you are a USAA member, we have had great experiences with their buying and selling program. When we sold our last house, they gave us names of 3 USAA partner realtors in our area, we interviewed all 3, and went with one to sell. We were given a rep who checked in on the process, made sure things were moving, etc - my realtor was awesome but it was nice knowing someone would have intervened if needed. In the end, you get a nice cash bonus for using the service.
 
I would never try to sell it on your own (trying to save the commission). Realtors makes sure people are pre-qualified so as not to waste everyone's time and handle a variety of details the typical person wouldn't be familiar with. Where you live will have a huge bearing on how well houses are selling and setting a reasonable price. Too high a price will mean the house will sit on the market for a long time and fewer people will want to look at it. Open houses can be helpful in generating additional interest. With most real estate things, there is no one size fits all answer to many of the questions you are asking.

Be careful of some of the internet house mapping sites where sales prices are just based on some arbitrary formula for neighborhoods. They typically don't comprehend actual value and can be very misleading when trying to set a reasonable selling price. Selling price should primarily be based on the comps of recent sales in the area of houses which are roughly similar to your property. Realtors can be very helpful in determining comps.

I also don't quite understand how a house could also be considered 'commercial'. Not sure what type of property this might be where this could be an issue.
 
We were on the other end of this, wanting to buy a couple of houses for investment after selling some other assets. Looked at a place with a realtor, didn't like the place, talked to her a few days later and asked if I could use her as a buyers agent, she said yes, best thing we did, she was great, knew a lot about both sides of the isle.

Start looking at real estate listings in your area. Zillow.com or realtor.com
Compare houses and prices, features, etc.

Have to watch these though, my DS and wife bought a house, $150,000 a few weeks later I was looking at Zillow and emailed them telling them I think they overpaid for the house....Zillow had it sold for $2.3 million.
 
Realtors are worth their commission if they are good. They are a job I rely 100% on referrals. If you have local friends and family that had good experiences with their realtors go with one of them. 1 or 2 percent can be a lot as far as the difference goes but I'd gladly pay a little higher commission to a Realtor that actually works the property and gets it shown as opposed to one that throws it up on MLS and a few sites and waits for showings.
 
We recently renovated and flipped a house. Sold it on our own. If you are in an area where the homes moved fairly quickly, you can do it on your own. Put a sign in the yard, take pictures and put it on Zillow, go to a title company you would like to use and they will give you a simple sales contract to use. My husband fielded the calls and we showed it ourselves. Granted we had a few realtors call us and want to show it. We had to sign paperwork regarding a commission if their client made an offer. Didn't set well with us since the realtor really was not working on our behalf. Ended up selling it on our own. Realized it really is not that difficult. Good luck.
 

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