The Home Selling Process Part 3 of 3: What to expect once your home goes on the market?

WORKING WITH A REALTOR/THE LISTING AGENT

Before listing a property, most realtors, myself included, will schedule and pay for a professional photographer to photograph the home for the purpose of highlighting the home's attributes. As the saying goes 'a picture is worth a thousand words'. Once the photography is complete, the agent or their assistant will select and upload/label the best images (typically 30) to the MLS (Multiple Listing Service), a private database that is created, maintained and paid for by real estate professionals to help clients buy and sell property. Meanwhile, if the home is not occupied or partially furnished, refer to blog number 1 in this 3 part series which includes some information on staging.

THE MLS 

For both real estate professionals and clients alike, a local MLS plays a critical role when it comes to marketing and selling a home. Each listing has mandatory fields (some are optional), such as the number of bedrooms, bathrooms, total square footage (pulled from the tax records), property description, tax information, price etc. It is important to note here that the MLS is an interactive communication and search tool for the purpose of connecting industry professionals with their clients. If you are listing a property on the MLS your representative/agent should expect to hear from other realtors who are working with potential buyers. 

Keep in mind that once the listing is activated it will automatically be pushed to all partner sites on the retail side (Zillow etc) and the all important 'days on the market' metric will be triggered. Of course, the longer a property sits on the market the more it gets relegated by new properties that come on and the more prone it becomes to a low-ball offer or no offer at all.   

SHOWINGS

A showing request can only be made via the MLS by way of a realtor. In my market (the DMV), most showings are scheduled through an online affiliate called 'Showing Time' via a link that is attached to the listing. If you are a realtor representing an occupied property it is important to encourage the seller to be as flexible as possible on the amount of notice required, as well as to ensure that they can vacate the home so as not to get in the way of a potential sale by saying or doing the wrong thing. Similarly, it benefits the agent to encourage their seller to keep their home in order so it shows well. Listing agents are not required or expected to accompany a buyer's agent on showings unless perhaps in the case of 'appointment only' scenarios which is more typical for very high priced homes. 

FEEBACK

When I am representing a seller I like to make sure I get some form of feedback following a showing since it can provide valuable information for both the seller and listing agent alike. Within 'Showing Time' there is an automatic feedback function that goes out to the showing agent but there are occasions when you don't get a response, at which point I will call the agent. 

OPEN HOUSE/S

At the very least an open house is expected on the first weekend. Ideally, a realtor will want to list a home on a Wednesday or a Thursday while also posting the open houses on the MLS which will give the would-be buyer enough notice to attend. For my part, I disagree with the notion that open houses are nothing but a brokerage and agent promotional tool. In fact there have been several occasions when I have met a would-be buyer who did not have their agent with them. Just recently I spent over thirty minutes with one and the agent wrote an offer based on that exchange. Also keep in mind that open houses will show up on Zillow and the like which can bring unrepresented would-be buyers on the retail side. 

PRICE ADJUSTMENT 

Because I am averse to 'puffery' in real estate, I prefer this term over price improvement, since while technically it might be an improvement it doesn't hide the fact that its not a price improvement for the seller which I find rather insulting. Depending on the market and the type of property (in my market larger more expensive homes typically take longer to sell due to a smaller buyer pool) I tend to recommend a price reduction after two weeks unless there have been a lot of showings with positive feedback. Unfortunately, one cannot always rely on a offerer low-balling with an intent to negotiate even in a buyers market, although for my part I'm never going to get in the way of it as an option. In fact, I encourage it if there have been no offers and if there are characteristics about the home that make it off-putting to most. This is where feedback and showings come in. If you are mostly getting lukewarm responses or not many showings then there's a big chance you have mispriced the property and you will need to have that difficult conversation with your seller. 

UNPACKING AN OFFER 

In the case of multiples (typically following a deadline of say 'all offers due by Monday at 6 PM'), the listing agent, along with the seller, will want to comb through all the details that are specific to each offer. It's important to keep in mind that the highest price doesn't or shouldn't always win, especially if there are other terms that are not so favorable, such as a troublesome contingency like a 'home sale' whereby the offerer would need to sell their home within a certain time frame. On the opposite side, non-contingent offers that involve cash or all cash are, of course, particularly attractive since there are no (or fewer) obstacles. 

SETTLEMENT

After an offer has been ratified (signed and agreed upon), the listing agent will need to keep tabs on the various contingencies to make sure they are met/cleared. The listing agent can expect to communicate with the seller, the buyers agent, the buyer's lender, and the title company. Every contract includes a settlement date which in my region averages around 30 days post ratification. The title company will provide instructions to the seller as to what they need to do before closing and what they will need to bring with them, such as ID and a checkbook to cover for any potential errors on the closing cost side, should they choose to close in person and not virtually. 

Once everything is signed it's time to hand over the keys and celebrate. Congratulations you have just made the biggest and most important purchase most of us make in our lives. 

Thank you for reading and as always feel free to like the post and or ask questions...

NEXT UP: A quick and timely overview on the new regulations re co-operative compensation that have been established by NAR (National Association of Realtors) in conjunction with the MLS.