How do you choose the Realtor to sell your home in the Iowa City area? I know you have two main goals when you list your home for sale.
1. You want the highest price for your house
2. You want to pay the lowest commission possible
That’s a perfectly good place to start. It’s what happens next that is the important part. When you meet with a Realtor you need to find out how those expectations will be met in today’s real estate market in Iowa City. Of course it would be great if the agent agrees with your price right off the bat, but would it really? Don’t you want to see some kind of data to support the price you have in your head? You might be right, but if you’re not then your house might sit on the market for a very long time.
When you choose a Realtor, you want someone who gives you the facts on the market and tells you up front what range you home is likely to sell in. Pricing is an Art. No Realtor can tell you what exactly your home will sell for. We don’t have crystal balls. All we have is data and experience in the Iowa City real estate market. A combination of the data and the experience to analyse it is what you need. With the right information you’ll know how to position your house correctly on the market to sell in the Iowa City area.
And about that commission. According to Iowa law, all real estate commissions are negotiable. That said, Brokers have the right to set the fee for their brokerage, which I know confuses sellers. At Cardinal Realty I want to be transparent about our services and want to make sure to include sellers on every part of the process. As a small company without the overhead of running a large office there is room to negotiate a lower commission! Call me for a free in home consultation and we can talk about how that works.
I could end the post here, but I have one more thing to say about how to choose a Realtor to list your home in Iowa City. Realtors don’t sell homes, we market them. When I list homes for sale I rarely show them to buyer clients. The Internet means that mostly they contact other agents, (that’s fine by me as I don’t like dual agency anyway). My point is that the Realtor you hire should have a comprehensive marketing plan with a lot of focus on the Internet as more than 90% of buyers are looking for homes online.
