6 Real Estate Professionals You Can Turn To When Selling Your Home
When you’re getting ready to sell your home, the first professional you’ll start with is a realtor. But it’s not just them that can help play a part in selling your home. There are many other professionals that can aid in making the process go much smoother and quicker. If you’ve never sold a property before, you may not be familiar with how many professionals, the real estate business has to offer.
Here are six real estate professionals that can help you in selling your home.
- Home Inspector. Before you put your home up for listing, you should get an inspection done by a professional home inspector. It’s their job to look over a property and find flaws that can influence the selling price. They provide a detailed report with recommendations on what areas need to be fixed or improved upon. This can be a problem with the water system, heating or structural problems. If problems like this go unnoticed and come up later in the selling process, they can seriously damage the value of the property. Knowing the exact state of your property, gives you more strength in negotiations.
- Appraiser. An appraiser is hired to determine the value of a property. They can tell you, if the asking price is above or below what the market value is. They possess an in-depth understanding of the housing market and what current prices are, allowing you to settle on a price in-line with the market. A major reason why it takes many homes so long to sell is that the asking price is way above what the market value is. A buyer may even ask for an appraisal to be sure that the house is actually worth the asking price. If you’ve already had one done, it puts you in a stronger negotiating position and allows you to move forward in the process more quickly.
- Mortgage Lender. If you currently have a mortgage on your property, you need to see if the sale can pay off that mortgage. If not, you’ll need to come up with the loan amount yourself if the sale isn’t enough to cover it. A mortgage lender can sort this out for you and let you know where things stand.
- Title Company. There will be quite a bit of paperwork to handle, before any transaction can be finalized. A title company is there to make sure that the property is clean, with no outstanding debts or loans. They also make sure that the title or deed is handled by the proper institutions. This ensures better protection for both the owner and lender, against any claims against the property.
- Realtor. In most cases, this will be the first person you go to when preparing to sell. Realtors have the networks and connections, to help you sell your property faster. They know what the current market is like and what the housing value in your area is worth, making it easier for you to set the right price and find the right people. They can also provide recommendations on how you can make a property look more presentable, so it attracts more buyers.
- Stager. If you’ll be doing an open house (which you should) a home stager can help you in preparing your home, so that it appeals to the most buyers possible. If you’ve been living in this property up until now, you’ll have a lot of personal items around, which will need to be removed for a successful open house. The point of staging is to create a neutral space, to allow buyers to imagine themselves living there. Home staging varies in price, depending on local demands and what package you choose. At the very least, you should have a consultation done to determine how you can improve the homes look and make it appealing to the widest market.
It’s a long process of selling a home. There will be a lot of preparation to be done, before you can even put up the listing. With these professionals behind you, the process should go much better and faster, than you ever could have imagined.