Can Kalamazoo area Realtor really help you sell your house in Kalamazoo more quickly and for more money? 

If you decide to use a Realtor how do you decide on the best one for you?  Find out in this special report.


SPECIAL REPORT:

Joel Nelson Discuses Whether it is Necessary to Use a Realtor to Sell Your Kalamazoo Area Home?

Selling your home in SW Michigan can be one of the most profitable sales you ever make in your life.  But one of the most important decisions can be deciding whether to sell the house yourself or to use a Kalamazoo area Realtors to help sell it for you.

First let’s take a look the main benefit of selling your house in Kalamazoo Michigan yourself.  The main benefit is that you don’t have to pay a Realtor’s commission which is usually between 6-8% of the sale price. 

This can be a huge chunk of money.  On a $200,000 sale that comes out to $14,000 that will come out of your sale to the Realtor(s) in a sale with a 7% commission rate.  

In most home transactions with a Realtor you are actually splitting the commission between two Realtors.  Seller’s agents actually list the property and get a little more than half the commission for being the listing agent on the sale.

Buyer’s agents are Realtors that work directly with the home buyer in helping them to find homes for sale Kalamazoo and they will get about half of the Realtor commission for finding the buyer for the property and helping them through the purchase process.

The thing is that the seller of the property is actually paying both of these commissions out of the proceeds of the sale.

Now keep in mind that most home buyers in the Kalamazoo area are working with a buyers agent, so in a lot of cases you can still end up paying 3-4% of the sale price to the buyer’s Realtor even if you are selling the house yourself without a listing agent.

Decide how much free time you have to show the property, market the property and answer phone calls.  You may enjoy the home selling process and want to take care of the sale yourself.

But if you don’t have the time and energy to put into the sale of your Kalamazoo area home, and you aren’t particularly knowledgeable about selling houses you may want to consider listing the house for sale with a Kalamazoo area Realtor.

So while you are weighing your decision look over the pros and cons of selling the house yourself.

The main benefit that you get from listing your house with a Realtor is that it goes straight into the multiple listing service.  The “multiple” is the resource that every Realtor in the nation uses to look at properties for sale that are listed.  You can see how the listings work online for the consumer at www.Realtor.com.

Once a property is listed in the multiple, every buyers agent in your town has access to it.  Most Buyers agents with clients are going to the multiple listings at least once a day or more to keep current on the latest properties that may fit their client’s needs.

Any Kalamazoo area Realtor can look up whatever specifics they want on a property search.  If they are looking for a 3 bedroom 2 bathroom house  with a fireplace in the Winchell neighborhood for example,  the computer will bring up every Winchell neighborhood property that is for sale that fit those criteria.

Another benefit that you may want to consider in whether to list your property or sell it yourself is that a good real estate agent may have much better negotiating skills when it comes to selling your house in Kalamazoo Michigan for you.

They can bring up points that you may not think up your self that will help to increase the desirability of your house in Kalamazoo Michigan or some easy ways to increase the value before you actually list it.

Now if you decide to use a Kalamazoo area Realtor there are some important questions to ask when interviewing them for the job.  Remember that although they are the real estate professional, you are still the one hiring them for the job.  So make sure you get all your questions answered to your satisfaction before signing on the dotted line.

Ask how many houses in SW Michigan they have sold in the past 12 months.  Right off the bat you will know how serious they are about their business.

Find out how long they have been an agent.  There are many agents that come in and out of the business.  Turn over can be pretty great in the real estate business.  You want to make sure you are working with a total professional, if you are going to sell your house in a timely manner.

Find out what they generally charge for commission.  Some agents go for a lower listing commission to try and get your business selling the fact that you will save money using them.  The fact is that a higher commission will many times gain the interest of other buyers agents and they will be more inclined to show these houses first to their prospective clients.

In weighing the decision to sell your Kalamazoo area home, you may want to consider putting the property up on the market by yourself for awhile.  You can always list it later if it does not sell initially.

Take into account that you could drop your price 3-8% for a quicker sale if you need to sell quickly.  Then you raise the price later if you list the property with a Realtor.  Many times the reason a house will not sell for sale by owner in Kalamazoo simply because they don’t have the marketing available that Realtors do.

The decision is up to you.  Weigh the pros and cons.  Decide on what outcome is most important to you in selling your property in Kalamazoo Michigan and how much time you have to devote to selling your house yourself as opposed to having a Realtor do the work for you.

If you are considering selling your Kalamazoo area home, one of the best first steps you can take is to ask me to send to you a FREE online market price evaluation.  Simply complete the form below and I will send to you via email a market value analysis using comparable homes in your neighborhood that are currently for sale and those that have recently sold.

Never a hassle.  Never an obligation.

Just complete the form below, provide your correct street address as well as your correct email address and I will provide the evaluation to you within a day or so.

If you or someone you know are in need of a competent and caring Kalamazoo real estate professional in or near Kalamazoo MI, I hope you will contact me.

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 Tags: Kalamazoo Real Estate, kalamazoo area realtor, kalamazoo homes, homes for sale kalamazoo, Joel Nelson

Article's Author

Joel Nelson
Keller Williams Realty - Kalamazoo
Kalamazoo, MI

Contact Joel Nelson