Many people living in the Mooresville and Lake Norman area don’t realize the importance of getting a professional to properly price and market their home when they are ready to sell it. There are many reasons to have a Realtor price and market your Mooresville or Lake Norman home. I will touch on a few here in this post.
First, lets address proper pricing of your home. There are lots of people out there who will go to commercial tools like Zillow or some other free evaluation tool. These simply aren’t usually accurate. In fact, Standard & Poor reports that only 20% of these AVM (Automated Valuation Model) results are accurate. Some people just want to put down whatever the tax man said it was worth. That’s a really bad idea. While in some cases it may be right, you could be off by a lot – and not in your favor. Then, there those that say “oh, well my neighbor’s house sold for $____ and my house is better/equal compared to theirs so my value should be at least $_____). That’s a hard one for most sellers to understand.
When a Realtor puts a home on the market they do a CMA (Comparative Market Analysis). This is not a science, but more of an art form that requires in depth knowledge of why certain properties sold for certain prices, what is going on in the community, the neighborhood and with a particular home. A lot of things have to be taken into consideration like square footage, upgrades, curb appeal, interior appeal, exterior construction materials, street location and views. It is important to understand that just because someone sold something 6-12 months ago doesn’t mean that’s what the market is doing right now. Markets change frequently, usually several times in a given year.
This is more than likely the biggest sale of your life (at least to this point). Do you really want to take the chance that you are wrong? Too high and it won’t move, too low and your giving your money away. Price it correctly and it will sell quickly and get you the most amount of money at the same time. This is where Alford Realty Group comes in. We are specialist at pricing correctly. In fact, as of right now, the average time on market for the Mooresville area is 68 days, ours is 34 days.
Then a seller has to consider marketing. To go it alone can be a scary process. How will you best get word out there that your home is for sale. Is a sign in the yard enough? Sure, there is a certain popular commercial site out there that will put your home on it but is that enough? Do you personally have the time to schedule showings? Do you personally know how to “interview” perspective buyers? How will you determine if they are qualified buyers? What about personal safety issues? Remember, you are letting perfect strangers into your home and you are behind closed doors.
A Realtor has all of the tools necessary to properly market, show and qualify perspective buyers. Of course, Realtors have access to the MLS and will list your property for sale on it. This reaches every single Realtor in that MLS (think all of greater Charlotte). We also syndicate out the listing to all of the major commercial sites and many of the not so major ones. This along with the sign they put in the yard is the greatest marketing tool we have in our marketing arsenal. Many agents stop there and that’s what they do for their clients. At Alford Realty Group, we follow a 20 step marketing plan that has been proven time and again to be very effective in getting homes sold fast and for the most amount of money possible.
I would also like to point out that this article doesn’t even touch on the legalities and liabilities of selling a home without an agent. There are certain procedures and things a seller must understand before deciding to “got it alone” or doing a for sale by owner (FSBO). North Carolina has real estate laws that must be followed in every real estate transaction, with or without a licensed agent.
If you are thinking of selling your Mooresville or Lake Norman area home, contact us today to see how we can help. Or, visit our seller’s page to find out more information.
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