Pros and cons of hiring a real estate agent

If you decided to sell your property, you now have to consider how you will go about doing it. In most cases hiring a real estate agent will absolutely be in your best interest. Especially if you never sold a property before, you will require guidance and marketing skills to get the preferred buyers come knocking on your door. Although hiring a real estate agent has a lot of perks, it is important you understand all of your options. Because every property and situation is different, you have to ask yourself, if it’s in your best interest to hire a real estate agent to help you with the sale of your home. Learn the advantages and disadvantages and weigh the pros and cons of hiring a real estate agent. Continue reading below, our list of the pros and cons of hiring a real estate agent.

Pros:

One of the biggest pros of hiring a real estate agent to help you sell your home is their ability to get your home maximum exposure to a large number of preferred buyers. Hiring a real estate agent will get your home listed on a MLS (Multiple Listings Service) database. MLS is used to widely share information about properties with other brokers who may represent potential buyers. This type of exposure can lead to a quick sale of your property.
They will know how to properly market your house to set it apart from the competition and will quickly come up with a strategy plan to get your home sold quickly. They are up to date with the ever-changing real estate market and will help you price your home accurately. They have access to marketing publications that you know nothing about it. As a result, an agent’s multi-media marketing approach will be hard to match when trying to do it on your own.
A good real estate agent will help you accentuate the details of your home that buyers will love. He/she will also be able to put you in touch with a reputable professional contact if your home requires repairs before selling. You will also have great help when it comes to staging your home and making it more appealing. This is a crucial step when preparing you home for a sale. For more tips on how to stage your home and prepare it for sale.
When you hire a real estate agent, you will be glad to hear that you are free of all responsibilities when it’s time to show your home to potential buyers. Not only is it extremely time consuming, but also knowing a professional is giving tours of your property will give you a peace of mind.
You will have the much-needed guidance of a professional when going through countless legal documents to prepare and sign. Your risk of making a detrimental paperwork error is greatly reduced.
Having a great real estate agent on your side can help you maximize on your profit. They are great at negotiating and encouraging buyers to give a reasonable offer.

Cons:

One of the biggest cons of hiring a real estate agent is choosing to work with the wrong one. Not all real estate agents are the same or necessarily an expert on your specific home and neighborhood. You may have conflicting ideas on how to better market and price your home. Ultimately, you will want to hire an agent that is not only experienced but is also a good fit for you and your specific needs. Be sure to interview a few before coming to a decision.
When you hire a real estate agent you will have to pay commission and although this price tag can be negotiated, consider paying upwards of 6% of the home’s total sale price when hiring an especially experienced, full-service agent. You will get what you pay for, therefore if you hire an agent with minimal commission, do not expect to get all of the perks mentioned above.
If you hire an agent with many years of experience and clientele, be prepared to compete with other buyers and sellers for your real estate agent’s time and attention. A big time agent can be juggling an upwards of 15 homes at a time and will have to focus on all of them simultaneously. You may have to conform to your real estate agent’s time because your ideal timeline may interfere with their busy schedule. This can be extremely frustrating, especially when you wish to address something urgent. However, you should always be able to reach his/her assistant, who should be capable of assisting your needs.