Should You Have A Buyers Agent Or A Listing Agent To Sell Your Dunedin or Palm Harbor Home

When you are getting ready to sell your Dunedin or Palm Harbor home, you probably do what most of our clients do, head on out to open houses and check out the competition! You meet a nice Realtor there who seems really knowledgeable about the house and you think, huh, this might be the guy or gal to sell our home!

Wait right there! We need to talk about something that most civilians don’t think about…there are two sides to every real estate transaction!

• The sellers side – this part of the transaction requires marketing skills, market knowledge, pricing recommendations, negotiating and a plan to get your home sold that may or may not include: online listings, open houses, brokers open houses, contacting buyers agents and other offices with your listing, staging, pre-sale inspections and recommendations plus about a million other things we do to get your home sold!
• The buyers side – this part of the transaction require people skills, negotiating, talking with your buyer and figuring out what they really want from their new home, sifting through the myriad of options like town, location, home style, price, and how to find a home that “feels” like home! These skills are why you liked that agent so much in the open house!

If you are considering selling your Palm Harbor or Dunedin home, you HAVE to find an agent or team with SELLER SIDE skills. These are built over time and involve a lot different talents and expenses that overwhelming if they are only listing a house or two a year.

Consider an agent with multiple homes listed for sale. They have to have an admin person to track the places the home has been sent to on the internet, who has requested a showing (so you can call later if there is a price reduction), sending buyer feedback etc. Also, they have spent time building a website that ranks for keywords related to the real estate industry in their area AND growing social networks because Google changed the rules and now “friends” come up in the results too! Most listing agents have a marketing company or at least a marketing coordinator on staff.

Next is knowing the area. Did you know that a neighborhood in Dunedin has oil tanks in most of the yards? We do! We also know that the cost to get rid of them is about $1,000 BEFORE you are under contract and top $10,000 AFTER you are under contract. Seriously.

Listing agents are paid to know the ins and outs of different neighborhoods, condo complexes and gated communities. We also know how to market them to people who are looking for amenities that you may not even know exist at your home. Non deed restricted community with a huge side yard? Could be a place to keep your boat or RV!

A word about teams! Some Realtors (like us) have a team of people working for them which can cover BOTH the buyer side and seller side of the transaction (Matt handles the Buyers and Julia works with the Sellers). We also have a marketing company and admin people to support us with our listing and buyers.

Trying to sell your Palm Harbor or Dunedin home right now is not fun, but having professionals in your corner sure does make it a little easier to bear! If you would like to find out more about the difference between Listing agents and Buyers agents, give us a call today! 727-366-0324