When it comes to selling a home, there are three important questions that all sellers want to know. So I’m going to see and let you know in this video what those three questions are on what the three things are, for the seller. 

And also, if you’re a buyer, you may want to watch this video as well because you as a buyer want to know what the seller is thinking about. You want to know what the seller is thinking to the real estate agent because he or she is going to sell the home. So you need to get behind the psychology of what the seller wants from the agents because the ultimate goal is to sell the home. So let us analyze those three questions that most every seller wants. 

When they want to sell the home and they want to sell it via a Realtor, 90% of all the homes are sold through realtors and real estate agents. 

1.) So the first question that most of the sellers ask their Realtors when they’re interviewing a Realtor to sell their home, or when they’re thinking about selling their home, that question is how much money can you get me when you sell this home? And that’s a very, very valid question and a valid concern. If I was selling my home, I would want to know from the agent, hey, how much can you get me? 

Of course, if you look at the last two years, the market has been going up and up and up, and I’m talking about 2020-2022, the market has been crazy. So the sellers did not think much of the price because if you put a home for sale for a million dollars, for example, it probably ended up selling for a million and fifty. But come 2023 January market is totally different. Market has turned. It’s no longer a seller’s hot market, it’s becoming a neutral market. And homes are taking longer to sell. And prices are not selling on multiple bids. Homes are not selling at multiple bids, they’re actually selling less than the asking price. 

So the question is, from every seller to the agent is how much can you get me for the house? And what the agents respond would be it all depends on the market value. You have to understand that the agents realtors like myself don’t get you the price. The price is what the buyers offer you on the home. And then the sellers look at the offer, the terms and conditions, the condition of the home, the motivation of the seller, and they come to an agreement on a price, a mutual agreement. That’s the price of the home. 

As realtors we can suggest, based on the local trends of the market, based on the local neighborhood, based on the condition of the home, based on the motivation of the seller, we can recommend a price, but the exact price will be determined by what the buyer and the seller agree on. So the question number one, again, to repeat on every seller’s mind is how much money can you get us? Keep that in mind if you’re a buyer. 

2.) Question number two sellers ask their agent is how long will it take to sell my home? That’s another very valid question. The last thing you want to do is have a home sit on the market and selling a home in today’s market, not a hot market where they’re sold within a week. Today it takes anywhere from 17-30 days for a well priced, well marketed, well staged home to sell. That’s still a lot of time. But if it’s not priced right, if it’s not marketed right, if it’s not stage right, if it’s not photographed and exposed to the buyers, homes may take 60-100 days to sell. 

And that’s very, very high tension and stress for the sellers because every day you have to have the home prepared. If you have kids in the home, elderly parents in the home, if you have pets in the home, if you’re working from home, that’s very inconvenient for 100 days to have the home ready to sell. Because in this market, when it has slowed down, when the buyer is ready to see the home, you and your agent have to be ready to sell a home.

So the big question “how soon can you sell my home” is a valid question. In a normal market, as we are coming to, it typically takes 17 to 30 days to sell a home, what we call 17 days on the market to get into escrow. Then it takes additional 30 to 45 days to close that escrow process. So it’s very stressful. So the sooner the agent sells the home, the better it is for the seller. It’s also better for the agent because for 30-60 days, the agents talk to the seller almost on a daily basis or every two or three days. And sometimes it can get very stressful. So the sooner the agent sells the home, the better it is for the agent not interacting too much with the sellers and the buyers. It’s also better for the sellers because they can sell it, pack up and move on to the next journey. 

So days on the market is very important. If you look at the multiple listing surveys. A lot of the agents look at the homes. There are days on the market. How long have they been on the market? If the home has been on the market for one to four days, a lot of the agents want to show the home. If the home is on the market for 60-180 days, a lot of the agents and the buyers may think, what’s wrong with this house? 

Why is it not selling? 

Is it overpriced? 

Is it in a bad location? 

Is it a fixer? 

Does it stink? 

A lot of questions come up and the longer it stays on the market, the less chance of you selling and the lower your price is you will get, the longer it sells. So the rule of thumb is when you list your home price it right, have your agent market it right, sell it within 17 to 30 days, that’s when you can get the maximum price and the least hassle and you get a very motivated buyer. So, number two, what sellers want the most from their agents is a time frame on how fast they can sell their home. 

3.) So the third thing most sellers, when they sell, want to know from the agent is, what will you do to sell my home so I can get my price and I can sell it fast? Again, very valid question, very important question, and very timely question to ask your agent because you want to know what are they going to do to sell the home? Because pricing matters a lot when you sell a home. But the marketing, the exposure, the negotiating, all that matters as well. So what are the some of the things that the agent should do or a typical agent can do when they sell the home, or what the seller, like yourself, if you’re a seller, should expect from your agent? 

I’m going to give you three or four pointers summaries of what we can expect. 

The number one thing is what kind of marketing and exposure is your agent going to do and how fast, which is very important. And the marketing has two scenarios or two sides to it. 

One is marketing to the right buyers, because if you have a luxury home you cannot market a luxury home to regular buyers. And if you have a regular home, let’s say a million dollar home in Orange County, you cannot market it to high end luxury buyers that are looking for five or $6 million. If you have a townhouse or a condo, you want to market it to those kind of buyers, maybe renters, who are looking for first time buyers. So those are some of the marketing things that are very important, how they market and target market your listing, your home that you’ve worked so hard and improve the value of your home. 

The other thing the sellers look for as far as marketing goes and selling your home is what is the agent doing to make sure that the house is looking at the top shape, looking when it comes to marketing, of course, as you know, photography is very important today. Videos are very important today. So that leads to staging. Is the house staged? We all know that when a house is staged, you can get up to 17% more price versus a non staged home and you can sell it much faster than a non staged home. So is marketing, photography, video, staging, all in picture. 

4.) The other thing that the sellers want to ask their agent is when an offer comes in, and luckily the offer comes in, how strong of a negotiator and what kind of negotiating he or she is going to do to close this transaction, because anything can come up. There are so many contingencies when selling a home. You have the repair contingencies, you have disclosures, you have rent controls, you have neighborhood noise. What if the buyer has to sell their home to buy your home and close their transaction? So all that gets into negotiating. Small things make a big difference. 

So you want to make sure that your agent is going to be able to negotiate a top price and top terms and conditions when selling your home. The other thing that you want your agent to know is to make sure that they are going to help you fill out all the right disclosures, especially in California. I’m from California, Orange County. We have a lot of disclosures and these disclosures must be provided. We cannot close an escrow. 

As an agent, our brokers requires to sign all these disclosures signed by the buyers, the sellers, and the agents for the buyer’s agent and the seller’s agent. All these disclosures has to be filled out correctly and signed by all four parties before we can close an Escrow. So is the agent current on all the trends currenton all the disclosures current on all the codes? Because each city and each county have their own codes, fire codes, earthquake codes, rezoning codes, smoke detector codes, carbon monoxide codes. Is that agent familiar with all these codes so he or she can let you know to fillout the forms correctly and guide you so you want to pick an agent that knows the trends, local market and local fire codes and other codes. 

Hope this helps. If you have any questions, if you’re looking for a realtor in your neighborhood, direct message me and I can refer you to a great agent in your neighborhood.