Avoid Morons On Your Team When Selling Your Home

The fastest way to achieve your goals is to find experts who have already achieved what you are trying to achieve and let them mentor you. If you are selling your home, you will inevitably have to assemble a team of professionals to help you with the transaction. If you are following the easy route of hiring the first “#1 Agent” that shows up at your doorstep over the 20 others who are saying they are #1 as well, then you must pay close attention here.

Even you plan on cutting out the middleman and attempt to save the real estate commission, the duties that would have been performed by the real estate agent need to be done. This includes having a reliable title company and lender you can fall back on if the buyer happens to choose morons for their team. I’m not saying they will, I’m just saying it can happen.

So what are you looking for?

Well, most title companies are pretty good for the most part. I have yet to come across any morons in this industry so they are for the most part exempt from this blog post. You can however try to find a title company that will give you a discount if you can get the buyer to use the title company. Buyers choose the title company for the most part, but it is negotiable and you can negotiate with the buyer to pay what you would have saved with your title company if they so adamantly stick to theirs.

Lenders… OMG as in Oh My God… Talk about a low barrier of entry with high profit potential ineptitude-filled industry (Ha! they can righteously say the same thing about us real estate agents)… This special breed of humanity is notoriously known to be lazy… the rest of us just have a hard time doing extremely difficult stuff like showing up on time and answering our phones… but seriously 7 (or maybe 9) out of 10 lenders DO NOT pre-approve their buyers. When you get an offer you should verify that the lender has gathered the pertinent information from the buyer to determine their buying capability. I kid you not, but I have worked with lenders who never bothered to ask the buyer whether they had money for the down payment and closing costs! (and we found out in the middle of escrow… Jesus!)

Luckily I have found a lender that actually sits down with the buyers and pre-approves them before they go look for a home. You want a lender like that. They are hard working and get things done faster. It helps when you work with a lender who has in house underwriting. Don’t bother trying to figure out what that means if you don’t already, just know that it is a good thing and is something you should ask. You can and should get the lender to prepare financing options you can offer potential buyers. This is a little known trick I use to drive up demand for homes.

Last you need someone to network for you within the real estate industry. Even if you are a FSBO, it pays to develop a relationship with a real estate agent who is willing to do stuff for you (such as getting updated comps, bringing buyers, etc.) You should find a way to pay them for it, and it doesn’t have to be money. You can simply tell them you will refer to him all the buyers who have decided not to buy your home so they can find them one. Hey it’s win win. I have a full set of questions agents hate to be asked when being interviewed. Knowing these questions from my 9 step system will help you determine whether you are hiring the right agent or not if that’s the route you wanting to take.

Tags: get the most out of the sale of your home, hiring a real estate agent, mistakes home sellers make, selling your home, when selling your home