Brandon Bee Once/Future Real Estate Agent, Currently an IT Consultant Author has 1.5K answers and 2.9M answer views
If that is all your agent does for you, then no. It isn’t worth it.
And, if all you want to do is get your house on the MLS, then there are discount agents who will do that for you, and literally nothing else, for less than 3%.
However, a full service agent should be doing much more than that.
They should have had an initial consultation with you to determine what your motivations are for selling. This is important information when it comes to pricing your house. Not everyone’s motivations are the same, and one size does not fit all.
They should have prepared a comparative market analysis (CMA) for you to give you a good idea of where your house should be priced in order to best achieve your goals.
They should have created net proceed estimates to help make sure that you can price your house to achieve your goals.
They should have have met with you, and reviewed the CMA and net sheets, helped you determine the listing price, and helped you establish a marketing plan.
They should have taken measurements on the rooms of your house to ensure that accurate information is listed on the MLS.
They should have had professional photographs made of your house to help entice buyers to come get a closer look. That is NOT the same as showing up and doing snapshots on their iphone.
They should have found out your preferences for showing availability, and ensured that showings are only allowed during those times.
They should be hosting open houses and other events, such as realtor open houses, to give your house the most possible exposure.
They should have promotional flyers printed to properly showcase your home. These should be professionally designed and printed.
Once the listing is made, they should be providing weekly marketing reports to you: How often the house has been shown, selected as a favorite, included in a list of recommended properties, etc.
They should gather feedback from agents and prospective buyers who have looked at your house.
Once an offer or multiple offers have been made, they should be reviewing those with you ASAP, and helping you understand the nuances of each offer so that you can make an informed decision.
After an offer is accepted, they should be helping you and the buyer schedule inspections, appraisals, etc.
They should be in continual contact with the buyer’s agent to ensure that the process remains on track, and should be alerting you to any potential hiccups in the process.
Oh and by the way, the agent usually isn’t getting 3%. They are splitting that commission with their brokerage, and their part is usually closer to 1.5%. There’s more that can be added here, but I hope you get the point. If you paid 3% to a listing agent, and all they did was put your house on the MLS, the problem is you chose the wrong agent. That can and does happen, but chances are your agent really is doing a lot of things you just aren’t seeing.
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