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Financial Calculators

GettingAhead Association Home » Housing » Selling

When selling your home, you may choose to hire a real estate agent to help. To help in your decision, here are a list of advantages and disadvantages to hiring out. One of the advantages to using an agent to sell your home is that a good agent can sell your home much faster than you can using their large list of contacts who are looking to buy. A second advantage is that they are educated in the specific strategies to selling a home, often offering furnishing or improvement ideas and tips to help make your home more desirable to potential buyers. The agent can also tell you how much you can likely get when you sell your home, offering advice as to how to list the home to best give you the negotiating buffer you need to still make the profit you want.

Using an agent to sell your home also has its disadvantages too. The main disadvantage is that you must pay a commission to the agent once the house sells. A second disadvantage is that depending on the agent, they might not have your best interest in mind. If they have a number of homes to sell, they might request that you to lower your asking price so they can sell the house faster. It is recommended that you not share with the agent the lowest price you will settle on so the can’t tell the buyer this and make a quick sale.