Selling Your Home To Move To A New Job: 10 Reasons Why You Absolutely Need A Real Estate Agent
Moving away to a new job may be a time to celebrate, but it's not the time to think of selling your home the old-fashioned, DIY way. Because you need to focus on getting to the new area and settling in with the great new career opportunity, don't even consider sticking a "For Sale" sign up on your front lawn. Selling a home by yourself is far more difficult, time-consuming, and unpredictable than you may think, even if your home is awesome and priced ridiculously low.
Here are 10 important reasons why you really do need to solicit the help of a real estate agent like those found at Century 21 New Millenium Inc.
1. There Is A Lot Of Stress
As if the packing and planning isn't enough for you to absorb, how are you going to survive if you add selling your home yourself to the mix? All the research, phone calls, travel, and everything else involved in a successful home sale will leave you exhausted in and of itself. Getting yourself to the new home in time and well-prepared is going to take a lot of energy, consuming most of your time and resources. You need to devote yourself to that.
2. An Agent Has The Experience To Get The Job Done
Even if you know a little bit about home selling, you likely don't have the expertise needed to push the process through in a timely, yet proper manner. Because you're facing a deadline, you need to leverage the experience of a professional seller.
3. Agents Are Well Connected
They know everyone in the immediate area and many more people all over the place, which will really work to your advantage. Whereas you may need to spend a few hours on the phone finding people and supplies, an agent already has that info in their Rolodex.
4. They Know The Markets And How To Set A Price For Your Home
Are you prepared to start the market research needed to find out what your home's best selling price is? You want to move it fast, without shorting yourself, which means you have to be able to correctly crunch the numbers. An agent, though, can probably figure all that out just by meandering through your house.
5. Real Estate Agents Shield You From The Chaos Of Buyers
Buyers are very excitable people, hopping from house to house in hopes of finding their perfect home. In the midst of your moving to a new town and starting a new job, having buyers ringing the doorbell at all hours on any given day could very well drive you bonkers, but worse still, the constant interruptions will prevent you from being prepared for your transition to a better place and career.
6. They Can Negotiate Like You've Probably Never Done
Especially because you'll be pressed for time and your resources may be stretched while you try to pack up and get ready, your mind will likely not be in the best condition to negotiate. In fact, between the craziness of a DIY home sale and everything else on your to-do list, you could even take the first offer made to you, just to get it all over with. An agent knows how to negotiate to your advantage.
7. Realtors Can Cut Through Red Tape And Piles Of Paperwork
Even with an agent, you're going to have some work to do putting the papers for your home sale together, such as the deed, liens, tax records, and so forth. Add to that a sales contract, inspections, bank paperwork, mortgage data, financial disclosures, and even county records—you can see how having that experienced professional working for you is going to make this process bearable.
8. They Abide By Rules And Ethics You May Not Even Know About
Selling a home involves many twists and turns where the right thing has to be done in order for the sale to be completely legal and ethical. To agents, this means just another day at the office, but to a novice, it could be some very tricky territory. While your mistake(s) may be unintentional, you'd still be held accountable.
9. A Real Estate Agent Can Close The Deal
Imagine going through the DIY process and finally reaching the end of the line, where your buyer signs on the dotted line...then something comes up that could potentially cancel the whole deal. You'd have to start over if you couldn't solve the problems, but again, this is a situation where a real estate agent swoops in to save the day, based on their experience, education, and connections.
10. They Can Also Help You Find Another Home In Your New City
All the while you're trying to sell your existing home, you're going to need to find a new one, right? Well, if you're working with an agent to sell, you can also work with them to buy, rent, or lease, even if it's in another town or city. They are that well connected and knowledgeable, and just think of how much time that will save you.