Most people who are looking to sell their property enlist the help of a real estate broker. Why exactly is this an advisable decision? Here are some of the benefits you can expect to receive if you choose to employ the services of a Meier Real Estate agent.
Higher Selling Price – Utilizing a Meier Real Estate agent will help you earn more revenue from the sale of your property.
Faster Selling Period – A Meier Real Estate agent will help shorten the period of time it takes to find a buyer and close on a sale.
Reduced Stress – Working with an expert will keep you informed so that you can make educated decisions with confidence.
Saved Time – Being available each and every day to field calls and schedule viewings at a moment’s notice is a time-consuming commitment.
Maintenance of Personal and Business Separation – Selling property as quickly as possible and for the highest price may be a clear objective, but when your best friend or colleague is looking to buy from you, it might not be easy to say, “I want more.”
Avoidance Of Costly Mistakes – Selling is complicated; there will certainly be a string of minor and major decisions you will need to make along the way. As such, a Meier Real Estate agent will help you navigate through the process and shield you from possible harm.
Gained Resources – Introductions to the most capable professionals is something that every Meier Real Estate agent facilitates to give you the greatest perspective. These professionals include, but are not limited to:
-Real estate attorneys
-Mortgage brokers to finance the purchase of your property for a buyer
-Stagers to help prepare your home for a potential sale
-Contractors to take care of major or minor repairs
-Accountants to advise you on all the financial aspects of selling
Acquired Market Feedback – Don’t be in the dark when selling your home. A broker can share with you what buyers and other brokers are saying about your property behind closed doors. This type of feedback will rarely be shared with you directly by a buyer or a broker considering the nature of the negotiation process.
Sales Assistance – By helping you to solicit offers from a range of potential buyers and overcome buyer objections, you will find yourself on a straight path to a successful sale.
The Liabilities Of Selling Without A Selling Broker
Without knowing what buyers are saying about your home, you will find yourself at a stark disadvantage.
While it may be obvious, is it important to consider that the interests of a buyer and/or buyer’s broker are directly opposite of yours. As a result, they will refrain from openly sharing with you personal thoughts and general feedback regarding your home. Not only will they be fearful to insult you by pointing out things that they don’t like about your home, they also view you as being on an opposing team and see no value in sharing their opinions. As a result, it will be impossible to handle any of their objections.
Buyers often have a hard time envisioning their lives in homes that are not furnished or designed to their liking. Simple changes are often what can make all the difference, but buyers usually can’t come to this revelation on their own. Even the simplest action, like taking out a measuring tape and confirming a length or width, can instantly work to build confidence. Despite this, you will rarely find a buyer that will tell a homeowner that, “the space feels too small,” nor will you probably say, “Sorry, my furniture is probably too bulky for this room.” By asking questions and listening intently, a broker can uncover such concerns and address them appropriately. Your agent won’t be able to solve every objection, but they will share with you the concerns of buyers and their brokers to help you make necessary changes and to avoid similar situations in the future.
For example, if buyers repeatedly mention noise from a nearby construction site or public school, your broker might schedule future showings at times where there is less noise pollution. If multiple buyers complain about the lack of light in the apartment, your broker might only schedule showings during the times of day when natural light is highest or recommend that you install more lighting throughout the apartment. Buyers might complain that your apartment feels small; a concern that can be alleviated by simply removing some pieces of furniture and taking a minimalistic approach to staging.
Qualified, motivated buyers prefer properties listed by real estate brokers.
Considering that determined buyers desire a smooth sales process, they undoubtedly appreciate the expertise that a broker brings to any given transaction. Buyers and sellers alike are aware of the difficulties in solidifying a deal without a professional agent in the midst of the complex world of real estate. Motivated buyers will also want to see properties listed by brokers because of the implication that the involved seller is serious about selling.
While many are influenced by a desire for help, most buyers use a real estate broker because the service is free for them. In a clear ripple effect, these selected buyer brokers also prefer to interact with professionals who are dedicated to selling properties. With a selling broker, a buyer’s broker will feel more comfortable about the likelihood of being paid and will put forth a more significant effort into the sale. A buyer’s broker will also be fearful about showing an unrepresented property to their buyer due to the possibility of the sale falling through and the ensuing disappointment. I remember a time during my early career when I brought a buyer to a “For Sale By Owner” listing. My buyer made a really great offer on the property and the seller did not respond for three days. By the time the seller replied with his counteroffer, I had already gotten an offer accepted on another property. When informing the seller that the counter-offer came too late, I asked him why it had taken him so long to respond, to which he responded, “I did not want to seem too eager.” I understood his logic, and in some situations, waiting three days is not the worst strategy, but it depends on the market’s tempo. Without the experience of brokering deals day after day, it is very hard to just jump in to do one sale.
On the other hand, there are a group of buyers who specifically search for “off market” or “unlisted” properties. These individuals are referred to as “vulture buyers” by real estate professionals. Vulture buyers look for sellers who are less informed in an attempt to take advantage of steep discounts due to a lack of market understanding. The assumption is that since a seller won’t be paying a broker, or have the advice of a professional, they won’t know what the property is worth and will settle for low-ball offers. Since vultures are looking for opportunities to get a deal, you do not want to sell to these buyers!
Without being “on-call” and available all day, every day, your sales potential will diminish.
There will be times when a buyer asks to see your home within an hour’s notice, or you will have to show your property several times each day over a span of consecutive days. And yes, this includes those aggravating times where a potential buyer will be late or simply not show up at all. Therefore, you will need a flexible schedule, the ability to roll with immediate changes without getting upset, and also the energy to attend weekly open houses, photography appointments, appraisal and inspection appointments, broker previews, staging appointments, and final walk-throughs.
A major characteristic of a successful real estate agent is a strong work ethic. While the schedule of a real estate agent’s job can at times be flexible, these periods are typically between very busy periods. Successful agents work significantly more than most other professions due to the need to attend showings and constantly be available for phone and email inquiries, as well as immediate requests for information. The time and effort put into handling the inundation of activities requires skill and dedication, and if you are not 100% up to the challenge, you will miss out on the serious buyers needed to obtain the highest price. Unsurprisingly, Meier Real Estate agents make themselves available for calls, previews, and showings whenever needed. We structure our company in a way so that if an agent is unavailable, there is always a backup to take control. The reason for our tenacity is that we can’t predict when the right buyer is going to call, or when a particular buyer’s broker is in town for just a day with their client. Only those agents who are available to show that afternoon will have the chance to make a sale.
You need a skilled professional to negotiate the biggest sale of your life.
At Meier Real Estate, our agents are continuously trained, mentored, and encouraged to study the art of negotiation. These skills are so vital to our profession that the importance of proficiency cannot be overstated. On top of this, negotiating the sale of a property is significantly more complicated than the vast majority of other negotiations. A major reason for this is the fact that many parties are involved in a property transaction, such as the buyer, buyer’s attorney, seller, seller’s attorney, real estate agents, managing agents, and mortgage brokers. As a product that carries a high degree of emotion, buying and selling a home carries a fair amount of stress with it. In New York, despite the high stakes and importance of the decision, once you have come to an agreement, it is often no more enforceable than a handshake during the two week period in which a contract is being drawn up. This type of instability often continues until financing has been secured and building boards have approved the buyer. If the buyer gets cold feet for any reason whatsoever, you won’t know about it until it’s too late.
Experienced brokers will not only negotiate great prices and terms for sellers, but they will also make sure the agreements stick. A real estate professional is well aware of the importance of communication, and will thus maintain constant contact between the buyer, the buyer’s broker, and the attorneys. Oftentimes, a lack of communication for as little as three hours means the sale is in jeopardy and that something drastic needs to be done to get it back on track. Based on consistent and continuous supervision of multiple transactions, a selling broker develops an intuition for when a sale is in jeopardy. Without this assistance, you may find yourself in a very difficult situation, considering that, as a seller, you will be dealing directly with a buyer or their broker. This straightforward contact will create an immediate feeling of distrust between the two sides since you have opposing interests, and without an agent, you have no one focusing on facilitating the transaction. A selling agent acts as a vital buffer between you and the buyer and will often change the dynamics in your favor. The buyer will not only view your agent as the seller’s representative, but also as a professional who might one day represent them as well. Selling brokers are good at building and bringing transactions to a successful close. Therefore, they are familiar with the various negotiating strategies to employ when you have multiple bids.
Not being able to fully vet your buyer will oftentimes cost you the sale.
Before you negotiate and accept a buyer’s offer, you will want to know that they can, and will, complete the sale. If they are paying in cash you will want to see proof of their liquid assets. In the event that a buyer is obtaining financing, you will want to speak with their mortgage broker and be prepared with the complicated questions that you will have to ask.
Should you be selling a cooperative apartment, the buyer will need to be evaluated and approved by the board. This process involves, at the very least, analyzing a completed financial statement with verification of funds, employment history, tax returns from the previous two years, and a discussion regarding personal and professional references. You will then also need to know the types of details and ratio boards to consider when evaluating a potential buying candidate. When the buyer assembles a board package, your review and critique before its submission can be the difference between approval and rejection. A buyer will never show the seller a detailed board package for an opinion since, by nature, it is highly personal. A seller also won’t have the experience to adequately evaluate the package; even the most experienced brokers get a second opinion when working on a board package. Without having a broker look at your buyer’s package, your chances of a board rejection are significantly higher.
13 Jan Q. Why hire a selling broker?
Most people who are looking to sell their property enlist the help of a real estate broker. Why exactly is this an advisable decision? Here are some of the benefits you can expect to receive if you choose to employ the services of a Meier Real Estate agent.
Higher Selling Price – Utilizing a Meier Real Estate agent will help you earn more revenue from the sale of your property.
Faster Selling Period – A Meier Real Estate agent will help shorten the period of time it takes to find a buyer and close on a sale.
Reduced Stress – Working with an expert will keep you informed so that you can make educated decisions with confidence.
Saved Time – Being available each and every day to field calls and schedule viewings at a moment’s notice is a time-consuming commitment.
Maintenance of Personal and Business Separation – Selling property as quickly as possible and for the highest price may be a clear objective, but when your best friend or colleague is looking to buy from you, it might not be easy to say, “I want more.”
Avoidance Of Costly Mistakes – Selling is complicated; there will certainly be a string of minor and major decisions you will need to make along the way. As such, a Meier Real Estate agent will help you navigate through the process and shield you from possible harm.
Gained Resources – Introductions to the most capable professionals is something that every Meier Real Estate agent facilitates to give you the greatest perspective. These professionals include, but are not limited to:
-Real estate attorneys
-Mortgage brokers to finance the purchase of your property for a buyer
-Stagers to help prepare your home for a potential sale
-Contractors to take care of major or minor repairs
-Accountants to advise you on all the financial aspects of selling
Acquired Market Feedback – Don’t be in the dark when selling your home. A broker can share with you what buyers and other brokers are saying about your property behind closed doors. This type of feedback will rarely be shared with you directly by a buyer or a broker considering the nature of the negotiation process.
Sales Assistance – By helping you to solicit offers from a range of potential buyers and overcome buyer objections, you will find yourself on a straight path to a successful sale.
The Liabilities Of Selling Without A Selling Broker
Without knowing what buyers are saying about your home, you will find yourself at a stark disadvantage.
While it may be obvious, is it important to consider that the interests of a buyer and/or buyer’s broker are directly opposite of yours. As a result, they will refrain from openly sharing with you personal thoughts and general feedback regarding your home. Not only will they be fearful to insult you by pointing out things that they don’t like about your home, they also view you as being on an opposing team and see no value in sharing their opinions. As a result, it will be impossible to handle any of their objections.
Buyers often have a hard time envisioning their lives in homes that are not furnished or designed to their liking. Simple changes are often what can make all the difference, but buyers usually can’t come to this revelation on their own. Even the simplest action, like taking out a measuring tape and confirming a length or width, can instantly work to build confidence. Despite this, you will rarely find a buyer that will tell a homeowner that, “the space feels too small,” nor will you probably say, “Sorry, my furniture is probably too bulky for this room.” By asking questions and listening intently, a broker can uncover such concerns and address them appropriately. Your agent won’t be able to solve every objection, but they will share with you the concerns of buyers and their brokers to help you make necessary changes and to avoid similar situations in the future.
For example, if buyers repeatedly mention noise from a nearby construction site or public school, your broker might schedule future showings at times where there is less noise pollution. If multiple buyers complain about the lack of light in the apartment, your broker might only schedule showings during the times of day when natural light is highest or recommend that you install more lighting throughout the apartment. Buyers might complain that your apartment feels small; a concern that can be alleviated by simply removing some pieces of furniture and taking a minimalistic approach to staging.
Qualified, motivated buyers prefer properties listed by real estate brokers.
Considering that determined buyers desire a smooth sales process, they undoubtedly appreciate the expertise that a broker brings to any given transaction. Buyers and sellers alike are aware of the difficulties in solidifying a deal without a professional agent in the midst of the complex world of real estate. Motivated buyers will also want to see properties listed by brokers because of the implication that the involved seller is serious about selling.
While many are influenced by a desire for help, most buyers use a real estate broker because the service is free for them. In a clear ripple effect, these selected buyer brokers also prefer to interact with professionals who are dedicated to selling properties. With a selling broker, a buyer’s broker will feel more comfortable about the likelihood of being paid and will put forth a more significant effort into the sale. A buyer’s broker will also be fearful about showing an unrepresented property to their buyer due to the possibility of the sale falling through and the ensuing disappointment. I remember a time during my early career when I brought a buyer to a “For Sale By Owner” listing. My buyer made a really great offer on the property and the seller did not respond for three days. By the time the seller replied with his counteroffer, I had already gotten an offer accepted on another property. When informing the seller that the counter-offer came too late, I asked him why it had taken him so long to respond, to which he responded, “I did not want to seem too eager.” I understood his logic, and in some situations, waiting three days is not the worst strategy, but it depends on the market’s tempo. Without the experience of brokering deals day after day, it is very hard to just jump in to do one sale.
On the other hand, there are a group of buyers who specifically search for “off market” or “unlisted” properties. These individuals are referred to as “vulture buyers” by real estate professionals. Vulture buyers look for sellers who are less informed in an attempt to take advantage of steep discounts due to a lack of market understanding. The assumption is that since a seller won’t be paying a broker, or have the advice of a professional, they won’t know what the property is worth and will settle for low-ball offers. Since vultures are looking for opportunities to get a deal, you do not want to sell to these buyers!
Without being “on-call” and available all day, every day, your sales potential will diminish.
There will be times when a buyer asks to see your home within an hour’s notice, or you will have to show your property several times each day over a span of consecutive days. And yes, this includes those aggravating times where a potential buyer will be late or simply not show up at all. Therefore, you will need a flexible schedule, the ability to roll with immediate changes without getting upset, and also the energy to attend weekly open houses, photography appointments, appraisal and inspection appointments, broker previews, staging appointments, and final walk-throughs.
A major characteristic of a successful real estate agent is a strong work ethic. While the schedule of a real estate agent’s job can at times be flexible, these periods are typically between very busy periods. Successful agents work significantly more than most other professions due to the need to attend showings and constantly be available for phone and email inquiries, as well as immediate requests for information. The time and effort put into handling the inundation of activities requires skill and dedication, and if you are not 100% up to the challenge, you will miss out on the serious buyers needed to obtain the highest price. Unsurprisingly, Meier Real Estate agents make themselves available for calls, previews, and showings whenever needed. We structure our company in a way so that if an agent is unavailable, there is always a backup to take control. The reason for our tenacity is that we can’t predict when the right buyer is going to call, or when a particular buyer’s broker is in town for just a day with their client. Only those agents who are available to show that afternoon will have the chance to make a sale.
You need a skilled professional to negotiate the biggest sale of your life.
At Meier Real Estate, our agents are continuously trained, mentored, and encouraged to study the art of negotiation. These skills are so vital to our profession that the importance of proficiency cannot be overstated. On top of this, negotiating the sale of a property is significantly more complicated than the vast majority of other negotiations. A major reason for this is the fact that many parties are involved in a property transaction, such as the buyer, buyer’s attorney, seller, seller’s attorney, real estate agents, managing agents, and mortgage brokers. As a product that carries a high degree of emotion, buying and selling a home carries a fair amount of stress with it. In New York, despite the high stakes and importance of the decision, once you have come to an agreement, it is often no more enforceable than a handshake during the two week period in which a contract is being drawn up. This type of instability often continues until financing has been secured and building boards have approved the buyer. If the buyer gets cold feet for any reason whatsoever, you won’t know about it until it’s too late.
Experienced brokers will not only negotiate great prices and terms for sellers, but they will also make sure the agreements stick. A real estate professional is well aware of the importance of communication, and will thus maintain constant contact between the buyer, the buyer’s broker, and the attorneys. Oftentimes, a lack of communication for as little as three hours means the sale is in jeopardy and that something drastic needs to be done to get it back on track. Based on consistent and continuous supervision of multiple transactions, a selling broker develops an intuition for when a sale is in jeopardy. Without this assistance, you may find yourself in a very difficult situation, considering that, as a seller, you will be dealing directly with a buyer or their broker. This straightforward contact will create an immediate feeling of distrust between the two sides since you have opposing interests, and without an agent, you have no one focusing on facilitating the transaction. A selling agent acts as a vital buffer between you and the buyer and will often change the dynamics in your favor. The buyer will not only view your agent as the seller’s representative, but also as a professional who might one day represent them as well. Selling brokers are good at building and bringing transactions to a successful close. Therefore, they are familiar with the various negotiating strategies to employ when you have multiple bids.
Not being able to fully vet your buyer will oftentimes cost you the sale.
Before you negotiate and accept a buyer’s offer, you will want to know that they can, and will, complete the sale. If they are paying in cash you will want to see proof of their liquid assets. In the event that a buyer is obtaining financing, you will want to speak with their mortgage broker and be prepared with the complicated questions that you will have to ask.
Should you be selling a cooperative apartment, the buyer will need to be evaluated and approved by the board. This process involves, at the very least, analyzing a completed financial statement with verification of funds, employment history, tax returns from the previous two years, and a discussion regarding personal and professional references. You will then also need to know the types of details and ratio boards to consider when evaluating a potential buying candidate. When the buyer assembles a board package, your review and critique before its submission can be the difference between approval and rejection. A buyer will never show the seller a detailed board package for an opinion since, by nature, it is highly personal. A seller also won’t have the experience to adequately evaluate the package; even the most experienced brokers get a second opinion when working on a board package. Without having a broker look at your buyer’s package, your chances of a board rejection are significantly higher.
In order to ensure that there aren’t any surprises, you will need to look over all information, including bank statements. For example, if you look into the bank statements that the buyer supplies and notice any major debits or credits in the account, the buyer should be advised to provide a letter of explanation for context. You will want to request that the package be edited as many times as it takes to alleviate all concerns that a board might have. Since the buyer and seller don’t work together on these packages, it is common practice for a buyer to work on the board package with a professional real estate broker due to the experience and level of expertise. Though you will never be afforded the luxury of asking for it to be edited numerous times, we here at Meier Real Estate have multiple agents and staff to review board packages and request edits. Considering how important it is to complete this paperwork correctly, we don’t ever feel comfortable with having just one agent review it.
The exposure needed to sell homes cannot be attained by one person.
The more exposure a property receives, the more buyers will see it, and thus, the higher the price that you will ultimately obtain. Here at Meier Real Estate, we are market makers. This means we provide the maximum exposure for our properties by marketing across a variety of channels, both online and offline. Our properties are nationally and internationally syndicated, leading to a vast network of buyers and agents used to facilitate a competitive bidding environment and achieve higher prices. A seller who does not have a broker is severely limited in their ability to market and expose their property. Even if the seller does have multiple parties that are interested in their home, buyers will question the validity of the seller’s claims of numerous bidders.
Real estate brokers view “For Sale By Owner” properties as leads.
Brokers often view FSBO listings as leads because they see many owners try to sell without a broker, only to hire one shortly thereafter. It is for this reason that when someone does list without a broker, they are subsequently engulfed with broker inquiries trying to solicit their business.
At Meier Real Estate, we not only recognize the value of a seller’s agent, but also the increased value of hiring the right agent. The Meier Real Estate Mission is to give people the freedom they need to buy, sell and rent homes with confidence. With exceptional values, proven strategies, and an unrivaled team of agents, we aim to provide our clients with the best possible outcome in every home decision they make.