Get answers to your questions about selling a home in Florida.
Selling your home can be easy- we help make it happen. If you’re ready to sell one of your first decisions is to select a real estate team who’ll join you in the process. Eric Slifkin and his group of local real estate experts are committed to personal, professional, and courteous service to help you understand and feel at ease throughout the home selling process. We know the local real estate markets and are ready to sell your home to the right buyer, for the best price, and in the quickest time possible. Learn More
In the Real Estate business, this is one of the most asked questions. The answer is as essential to the home seller as it is to the listing agent. An important consideration when establishing a commission is to find out what level of marketing your agent is willing to provide. Is it going on the MLS, or will it be exclusive? Your home must be listed at a competitive rate of commission so that it is attractive to the agents that may bring in the buyer. Instead of asking what the commission will be, ask yourself, “How much do I want to ‘net’ from the sale of my home?” If you receive the money that you need from the sale of your home at a competitive rate of commission, everyone will be happy.
The MLS (Multiple Listing Service) is a service provided to real estate professionals whereby they can market your home to agents everywhere. The information on your home will be available on the MLS database and syndicated to subscribers via the Internet. If your home is not going on the MLS, then a buyer may not find out about it until after they’ve purchased another.
This question is one that your agent can never answer. There are many factors involved in the length of time it will take for a home to sell — the most important being price. Most people have an idea as to what their home is worth to them, and it can be tough to decide on pricing. Often people look at what they paid for their home, or what they have spent on the house while they’ve lived there. Pricing your home must be consistent with sold prices of homes that are comparable to yours and is where the comparative market analysis becomes the most accurate way to determine the value. Your Real Estate agent will provide you with the information necessary to price your home according to the current marketplace. The best way to see that sold sign go up quickly is to make sure that your home can compete with the other homes on the market as far as appearance and price.
Surprisingly, many people don’t know that usually, any agent can show any home that is currently on the market. Often people will jump from one agent to the next during their home search, not realizing that they can look at all of those homes with only one agent. Once you have your home listed on the MLS, you are allowing every agent the opportunity to bring their clients. When people choose to have their home listed on an exclusive listing agreement, their agent can co-operate with the other agents in the area so that they may bring their homebuyers to see your home as well. There are cases where a seller wishes to deal with only one agent during the sale of their home, but more often, all agents can show all homes. Realtors have a moral obligation to their purchasers to show them every home currently on the market that may suit their needs, including the listings of other agents.
It is important to remember that the seller, the buyer, and both the listing and selling agents all have one common goal, and that is to have the sales transaction proceed as quickly and as smoothly as possible.
There are several ways to determine the value of a home:
The appraised value of a house is a certified appraiser’s opinion of the worth of a home at a given point in time. Lenders require appraisals as part of the loan application process; fees range from $200 to $300.
Market value is what price the house will bring at a given point in time. A comparative market analysis is an informal estimate of market value, based on sales of comparable properties, performed by a real estate agent or broker. Either an appraisal or a comparative market analysis is the most accurate way to determine what your home is worth.
Appraisers use several factors when estimating a home’s value, including the home’s size and square footage, the condition of the home and neighborhood, comparable local sales, any pertinent historical information, sales performance and indices that forecast future value.
A home ultimately is worth what someone will pay for it. Everything else is an estimate of value. To determine a property’s value, most people turn to either an appraisal or a comparative market analysis.
An appraisal is an estimate of the value of a home at a given point in time. Appraisers consider square footage, construction quality, design, floor plan, neighborhood and availability of transportation, shopping, and schools. Appraisers also take lot size, topography, view, and landscaping into account. Most appraisals cost about $300.
A comparative market analysis is a real estate broker’s informal estimate of a home’s market value based on sales of comparable homes in a neighborhood. Most agents will give you a CMA for free.
You can create a cost comparison by looking up recent sales of comparable properties online at the county property appraiser's Website, Zillow, Trulia, and other real estate venues or submit the form below to get an instant home value estimate (we will also send you a detailed report).
Get your home's accurate value. Instead of a robot and an algorithm, we use our experience and up-to-date MLS data. A human being will prepare your report, and due to that, it won't be "instant," but it will be accurate.