Working with Real Estate Sellers Involves Both Time and Money

As a real estate agent, you will quickly learn that working with sellers may seem ideal. You have the home listed, so once a buyer is found, you can almost sit back and imagine the commission check in hand. You don’t have to cart finicky buyers around from one house to another and then end up with them deciding to hold of purchasing a home. For the most part, working with clients ready to sell their homes is a more enviable position than working with real estate buyers. But that doesn’t mean that working with seller clients is a walk in the park.

Working with sellers will require time and money (unless you are in a dream market where homes are selling like hotcakes as soon as you list them…which is basically non-existent in the current real estate market). The time will depend on how much hand-holding you need to do with your real estate clients and what kind of marketing efforts you implement. Open houses, bus tours, creating flyers…they all take some time, some just take more time than others.

Money-wise, it may take you awhile to determine how much money you should expect to spend in order to market the home. A lot of marketing can take place with little money spent. From flyers to open houses to email campaigns, you can do a lot with a shoestring marketing budget.

But what if your client expects more and you promise to do more? Then you may find yourself spending more money trying to spread the word and get that house sold. Print ads, various online marketing methods…all those things start to add up and it’s all being paid out of your pocket. All on a gamble that you will earn that hefty commission in the end.

See how important it is to determine up front that your seller:

1. Wants to sell

2. Has the legal ability to sell

3. Will price the home to sell

4. Will create an atmosphere conducive to selling by

----Creating curb appeal

----Minimizing knick-knacks

----Keeping the home clean and picked up

----Perform any necessary maintenance on the home

Selling a home is definitely a partnership with the owner. If the owner isn’t fully invested in the process then you have an uphill battle and will find it hard to get that home sold and closed. Once you have some answers and get a better feel for what will be expected of you by your real estate client, you may decide whether you are up to the challenge. Because, while working with real estate sellers can translate into some hefty commission checks once the homes are sold, you need to keep in mind that there is definitely an investment of money and time that you will need to place in that client relationship.

Article Source: http://www.wahm-articles.com

Tina McAllister is a ghostwriter and author of The WAHM Agent, a book on work at home moms in the real estate industry. Tina also writes about business tips and more at WAHM Biz Tips.

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