5 steps to picking the right agent to sell your home!

If you're selling a home, a good real-estate agent will help you set the right price, market the home professionally, qualify the buyers and expertly negotiate and finalize the deal.


A great agent has long experience with recent sales and can walk a tightrope, balancing optimism with realism and diplomacy with brutal honesty. You'll pay big bucks for an agent's service — an average of 5.3% of the sale price in 2011, according to Real Trends, a real-estate consulting company. So you owe it to yourself to interview more than one agent.

1. Round up good prospects
To identify prospective agents, you can ask for referrals from neighbors or friends or use the search tools on the websites of the National Association of Realtors or the Council of Residential Specialists.

Try to limit your search to agents with credentials that match your needs. For example, on the CRS website, you can search for agents who specialize in the sale of single-family houses, condos and luxury or resort homes, as well as short sales (selling a home for less than the owner owes on a mortgage) and assisting seniors.

Leigh Brown, an agent with Re/Max in Charlotte, N.C., says you want someone who is on his game. Although many half-hearted agents left the business after the housing bust, she says some of those who remain live under a black cloud, having lost a lot of income and confidence. Not only will you feel that lack of passion, but it may alienate prospective buyers. You want someone who will work assertively on your behalf but won't come on too aggressively, like a used-car salesman. That will turn off the buyers' agents, too.

2. Ask tough questions
You want an agent who is "intimately and passionately" familiar with your neighborhood, says agent Cotty Lowry of Keller Williams in Minneapolis. But, Lowry says, the agent with a lot of signs in your neighborhood may not be your best choice, either. "If a prospective agent has little constructive input about price and condition for you, be curious: Do they want to help you sell your house or do they just want to put a sign in your yard to bring in buyers?" he says.
Each agent you interview should offer a comparative market analysis (a comparison of recent and pending sales of homes similar to yours) and know enough about the neighborhood and recent sales to explain why you should list your home for more or less than the neighbor down the street who sold last season. Don't fall for the agent who glibly promises the quickest sale for the highest price.

3. Find out who the agent is working for
Most states require agents to disclose their "agency" relationships to you early on. But you'll benefit if you ask prospective agents whose financial interest they will serve throughout the sales process — and hire an agent who will serve as your agent only. If an agent insists on dual agency (meaning that the agent lists your home for sale but may also bring in the buyer, thus pocketing the entire commission instead of splitting it with the buyer's agent) or designated agency (your agent and the buyer's agent work for the same brokerage firm), feel free to negotiate the commission down by a point or two.
A lot of money is at stake. And the situation is an inherent conflict of interest, Brown says, because "the buyer wants the lowest price and the seller wants the highest price." She points out that an agent in that boat could "browbeat" sellers into taking a deal that's not best for them, or the agent may fail to present multiple offers equally to protect a buyer client.

4. Make sure your agent has backup
Lowry says that it's important for an agent to have at least one assistant; many agents have a team of specialists to help them. Advertising a home is "not just the Sunday paper anymore," he says. "All the various outlets — many online — require feeding and nurturing, collecting quantifiable analytics and forwarding the info to sellers." At the same time, you don't want to communicate through the assistants all the time; you want an agent with whom you can talk directly. To quell your inevitable anxiety, find out how frequently you'll receive updates from the agent.

5. Sign the right contract
Ask each agent how long the listing contract would last. The slower the market, the longer the contract an agent is likely to demand. However, three to six months is typical. For slower-selling high-end homes (say, those over $1 million), agents may want a year, says Francie House, an agent with Windermere in Seattle. Agents don't want to risk losing the listing after they've spent a few thousand dollars on marketing and staging.

Information reposted from  LinkedIN - Courtesy of Pat Mertz Esswein of Kiplingers. Retrieved on May 25 2012 from this LINK.

Realty Times - Five Musts Before You List Your Home

Deciding to list your home for sale is a momentous time. It means you will be moving on to a new stage of life, no matter if you’re moving up or sizing down. Take a moment to look over these tips for what every seller should do before they put their home on the market.

Organize Your Paperwork: Every homeowner should have a detailed list of all past repairs, updates, and upgrades they’ve made. This will help your agent know what should be mentioned on the MLS. Did you put on a new roof in 2010 or a install a new water heater in 2009? These are great selling features because they mean less work in the future for the prospective buyer.
Also included in this list should be any home warranty information. These warranties will most likely transfer with title of the home.

Get Ready to Declutter: Even before you’ve officially listed your home for sale, you should start getting rid of things you don’t need. Starting now will mean a more thorough and less rushed job of clearing things out.
Start with one closet and work your way through the entire home. Sort items to toss, keep, sell, and donate.

Having a yard sale is a wonderful way of making a little extra pocket change while reducing the amount of things you’ll have in your home during showings and that you’ll need to pack up and move. It’s a win-win!

Clean, Clean, and Clean Some More: Dirty homes are a real buyer turnoff. Now is a great time wash down walls, spruce up paint, and give your entire home a thorough cleaning. Do your carpets need refreshing? Consider renting a carpet shampoo machine or hiring a professional carpet cleaning company to come in and revamp your carpets.
Chances are buyers will ask for this anyway come closing time. You’ll beat them to the punch and have a shiny, sparkling home to show for it.

Get an Inspection: Did you think inspections were only for buyers? Having a pre-sale inspection can mean identifying problem areas. Perhaps you’re unaware that your foundation needs repaired. This will severely affect your listing price. It’s best to be prepared and realistic in today’s market.
Make Repairs or Get Estimates: Your inspection will likely leave you with a list of repairs, large and small, that need made. Keep in mind that prospective buyers will also get an inspection of your home and will find these same issues. Head them off at the pass and do some fixing up. You may wish to go ahead with large repairs. If not, be sure to at least get estimates so you are fully prepared for negotiations (you’ll know what the real cost should be) or so you can provide the estimates for buyers.
Start Staging: Staging is like prepping your home for its first date. You want to have it clean and well-dressed. This means amping up curb appeal with neat landscaping, fresh paint, and flowers. It means rearranging furniture and removing clutter.
Congratulations on deciding to list your home for sale. Be proactive about making a good first step by following these tried and true tips.

Published: May 10, 2012 By Carla Hill (Carla Hill, M.A., works on the Realty Times staff as Managing Editor for our online publication. She also is Producer for the real estate news channel, seen daily on RealtyTimes.com and on video newsletters nationwide. Retrieved from this website - click here!

Bernanke: Mortgages Still too Difficult to Get

       Even creditworthy borrowers are finding it difficult to get a mortgage nowadays and it’s unlikely banks will ease their standards anytime soon, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told a banking conference in Chicago Thursday.
     While banks have made huge strides in improving their balance sheets and overall lending (such as for credit cards and auto loans), banks continue to be extra cautious when it comes to issuing new mortgages, he said. Even borrowers coming with a 20 percent down payment on a home purchase may face hurdles unless they have stellar credit, he said.
     "A return to pre-crisis lending standards wouldn't be appropriate," Bernanke said in referencing how banks prior to the housing crisis were issuing mortgages with little or no documentation for jobs or incomes. "However, current standards may be limiting or preventing lending to many creditworthy borrowers."
     The challenges of getting a mortgage have been cited by real estate professionals and economists as one of the biggest obstacles standing in the way of a full housing recovery.
     An estimated 10 to 20 percent of creditworthy home buyers are being locked out of the housing market because of tightened credit conditions, U.S. Housing Secretary Shaun Donovan told Reuters.

REPOSTED from Daily Real Estate News on May 11, 2012 from this link: Click Here
Source: “Credit Easing in U.S., Fed Chairman Says,” The New York Times (May 10, 2012) and “Bernanke: Even Worthy Borrowers Can’t get Mortgages,” Reuters News (May 10, 2012)