TIps for Selecting the Right Agency to Sell Your LBI Home

Advice on How to Select the Right Agent to Sell Your Home on Long Beach Island

Selling a Home on Long Beach Island

Many Long Beach Island home sellers get off on the wrong foot when listing their property for sale. According to the National Association of Realtors, almost 70% of sellers hire the first agent they speak with and base their decision on two factors: The real estate agent’s personality and the suggested price. Either of these factors can be dangerous by themselves but together, they can lead to a very costly mistake! There is an unfortunate process called “buying a listing” by which an agent will promise a very high sales price simply to get the listing and then reduce the price several times. The problem with this is, a home is most attractive to buyers when it is new on the market and by overpricing a listing from the start, many sellers miss out on their best window of opportunity (thereby causing the home to sell at a lower net price). There are a few tips for selecting the right agency to sell your LBI home that can help you avoid these mistakes and sell your property in the Long Beach Island real estate market!

Advice on How to Select the Right Agent to Sell Your Home on Long Beach Island

There are a few tips I can suggest to help you understand the current market and aid you in the selection process. They are:

Request information on how many listings the agent FAILED to sell
Ask for evidence of how the agent arrived at their suggested listing price
Review the marketing plan for the agent and don’t be afraid to make suggestions
Interview the prospective agent at his or her office rather than your house

While there are hundreds of real estate agents who are licensed to work on Long Beach Island, the vast majority of these agents only work in the real estate industry on a part time basis and only sell one or two homes each year. This inexperience can lead to a very costly experience. It is therefore best to ask for not only what the agent has sold in the past year, but also how many listings DID NOT sell. This will go a long way in telling you if they understand the LBI real estate market and home values in the area.

Asking for information about how the agent arrived at his or her suggested listing price may seem commonplace, but many home sellers neglect to see this data. Home sellers feel their house is unique (and it is) but so are all the other homes on the market. There is no such thing as an “exact” match for a home in the LBI real estate market so pricing a home to sell must be based on an evaluation of similar inventory. If similar homes are listed and selling for much less than an agent is claiming your property to be worth, be wary that they are buying the listing.

The marketing plan suggested by the potential listing agent should include a variety of advertising mediums however the internet should represent the majority of the plan. Above all else, the agent should HAVE a marketing plan (which many don’t)! Having a plan in place is essential to being able to advertise a home to both the public and the real estate community on Long Beach Island.

Interviewing an agent at his or her office will tell you a lot about the agent and the agency. By meeting the agent at their office, you can also “interview” the agency to make sure it is both professional and making a good impression. A good agency works together to make sure all agents are informed of the office inventory and new company listings. This way, when prospective buyers contact the listing office, the agents are able to intelligently discuss the property.

There are many agents and many agencies on Long Beach Island, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. It is important to examine all options available and select the agent who you feel comfortable with and can deliver what they promise!

By : Nathan Colmer | The Van Dyk Group

Cell: 609-290-4293 | Office: 800-222-0131 | ncolmer@vandykgroup.com

www.BuyLBI.com

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