Experience/expertise

A real estate agent maintains expertise with working with real estate transactions through continuing education and working with clients on a day to day basis. An experienced agent knows what to say and what do to get things in order. As an expert at selling and buying homes they know how to maneuver around negotiations in order to get their client to the closing finish line.

Agent keep up on market trends and are familiar with the types of neighborhoods that are of interest to their clients.  Most agents have access to the local multiple listing service (MLS) and they are able to setup searches for their clients so they can see what properties are currently on the market and that meet the needs of their home buyers.  That MLS access also means real estate agents have access to important sales data which allows them to accurately price homes for sale for their home selling clients.

Marketing Skill

Marketing is one of the critical aspects of selling a home and the post it online and pray technique or put a sign in the yard and pray technique is not a strategy the successful real estate agent relies on.  Agents need to be coordinating photographs and videos of the property as well as working on making sure the marketing remarks further draw buyers into the home so that they want to visit in person.  Homes need a great marketing strategy to help them get sold and the expert listing agent is there to help with that.

Ability To Negotiate/Help With Getting The Best Deals

In real estate there is quite a bit of negotiating involved.  From the very start of the offer process the home buyer and home seller are negotiating over the price and time frames for inspecting and buying a home.  By having an experienced real estate agent in the process the buyers and sellers can rest assured their best interests are being represented.  Real estate agents know the time frames involved and know about the pricing strategies for selling a home.  Buyers who think they may be able to get a better deal by buying without an agent may find themselves under water after surprises and delays get the best of them.

Additionally by having a real estate agent act as a buffer between the home buyer and home seller the amount of stress each side will experience will be reduced.  After all most expert agents will not be sharing that the seller thought the buyers offer was pure and utter garbage, but instead will convey the real underlying message that the offer was low in the eyes of the home seller.  This can allow the buyer to think more tactically about where they really want to price their offer and how badly do they want the home.

Saves Time and Money

One of the misconceptions of real estate is that by cutting out a listing agent or a buying agent each side will save money.  More often that is not the case as over 70% of homes are sold with the help of a real estate agent.  Those agents are getting paid by the buyer or the seller and both sides are getting the benefit of the experienced agent.  Especially when it comes to real estate listed on the market by an agent the buyer will not save any money by not coming with their own agent since the commission is generally set in the listing agreement.

Where time is money then the real estate agent’s ability to handle things much quicker and more directly than an unexperienced buyer or seller could handle on their own means buyers or sellers have more time to do other things.  As noted above with all the negotiation that goes on with the buying and selling of real estate the time (and stress) saved by having an agent is invaluable.  Money is also save when the real estate agents make sure timelines are adhered to as missed timelines can mean being forced to buy a house with issues not being repaired or completely missing the house because they could not close on time.

The Power Of The Network

Agents who have been active for a while have built up a large database of reliable home inspectors, reliable contractors, reliable stagers, reliable contractors and more.  When the real estate market is in the swing of things during the peak times of the year great inspectors and contractors can be hard to come by and when the buyer or seller must close at a certain time having to hunt for contractors can be challenging.  Even during down times of the real estate market having a trustworthy contractor who is not out to make a quick buck on a shoddy job can make the difference between closing on a good home or getting a lemon.

Assists With The Paperwork

With some real estate contracts reaching more than five or six pages in length understanding each and every provision can take hours for the average person and that is even with using internet search.  A real estate agent on the other hand who has been preparing and reviewing real estate offer contracts, property disclosure forms, inspection reports, appraisal reports and more has a pretty good understanding of what terms in the contract mean.  If some custom language is required for a particular contract the agent probably can draw from a library maintained by their broker or has quick access to legal advice to make sure the language is written correctly.  Bad contract language can quickly become expensive.

The Benefits Outweigh The Costs

While some home buyers and sellers may be comfortable proceeding on their own with a real estate purchase or sale most are not very familiar with how buying or selling a home should work.  Sometimes there are local real estate attorneys who can help with contract review and maybe even contract negotiation but for the most part they will not be experts in knowing about homes in and around certain areas that buyers may be interested in.  Real estate agents are usually always using contracts that have been reviewed by an attorney at some point in time and they know how to write or review a real estate offer.

The time spent for the inexperienced buyer or seller to learn up on what may be a once in a lifetime transaction is probably not justified in the end.  Usually the for sale by owner also ends up leaving money on the table by not properly pricing their home, by not negotiating properly or some other issue where an agent would have proceeded different.  As a result working with an agent makes financial sense.

Final Thoughts

By working with a real estate agent both buyers and sellers can make sure their best interests are being represented.  Real estates have the knowledge and experience to help their clients experience a quick and stress-free transaction.  By working with an agent home buyers and home sellers could end up saving as well on money they otherwise leave on the table due to inexperience.