Sellers Beware – 2020 brought forth more agents! What it means for you!

2020. 2020 has every been a year, but here is what it means for you as a buyer or seller. 2020 has produced more real estate agents than any other year, and naturally, this can impact you buying or selling real estate in the future. And here’s how. When buying or selling real estate, you are opening up giant escrows, sometimes holding millions of dollars. And with that liability, you are opening yourself up for lawsuits, which is why we have a real estate transaction coordinator and a real estate agent in play to make sure that you are most protected at all times. So this is what the job really entails, is more legal protection. Now, let’s dove into some of that real quick. My name is Janine Sasso. I am a local real estate agent in the northwest suburbs of Chicago. And my job is to make sure that your interest is best protected. If you’re buying, if you’re selling, if you’re investing, and even if you’re renting, here are some crazy numbers. The Chicago Association of Realtors increased by 14.4% overall with an annual increase of 43% over 2019. And let’s be honest, we can really be surprised with everything that happened in 2020 that so many people are considering to get their real estate license. Housing is booming. Job loss occurred due to the virus. There’s a lot of things that happen. But what does it mean for you as a buyer or seller? There really has never been a better time to vet your real estate professional with questions, and I prepared a few of them for you. So you can rent them in 50 minutes or less to know if you have a great agent in front of you or somebody that just jumped ship quickly and is now trying to figure out a real estate transaction. Question number one, flat out ask, how long have you been in business? Now it doesn’t mean that that person has to be in business for 30 years to be a great agent.

But simply asking the length of time and business is helping you make a decision that you’re most comfortable with in the. And he’s just gotten her license and you have all the trust in the world. And, you know, she has a mentor behind her. By all means. Go give her a shot. Right. This is what family is for. But if you’re just not quite sure or she’s on our own and you might be a little bit of help and hesitation inside of you letting her handle a three, four or 500,000 or more transaction. Maybe consider interviewing some other agents. Let’s talk about The Age real quick to you. As you may see, I am an agent. I am not a new agent. However, I’m also not an old agent by age. So when you look at who is an agent, really, you have a lot of people that are in the 40 to 55 plus range going through a career change, job change, and they are starting over brand new. Now they might look very seasoned and experienced to you, but you might actually be brand new. So don’t get fooled by age. Some of the more interesting questions to ask What should we do to get our house ready for sale?

Now here’s the thing. A knowledgeable agent will actually point out things based on market trends and knowing what buyers want. So this one is simple. You get clear directions and you know that this agent has done it a few times. Another great question to ask is Who do you think will be our buyer? And this has nothing to do with discrimination questions we’re not asking. It’s going to be a, you know, a family with three children. This is simply knowing who the applicant is, knowing who the buyer is. It primarily buys into a certain area, helps you in your marketing from an agent perspective to really drill down on, let me find that person. Now, if you have a 55 plus community, wouldn’t you mention all the awesome activities and community related things that are happening on the daily to appeal to people? Why can’t we do the same thing from an agent perspective? Right. And this is where you as a buyer and the seller really want to make sure you have an agent that understands the market dynamics and who the ideal buyer or seller and the targets. What obstacles do you think we would face when selling?

This is one of my favorite questions because I’m not there to simply tell you all the good things. My job is to make sure we are very proactive, we are very honest when it comes to talking to our sellers, telling them, okay, this is something that might be a little bit of a concern to a buyer. And simply having an honest relationship is huge when it comes to a real estate transaction. What kind of marketing do you do? This has to be one of my favorite questions because me and my team. All about marketing our property to that team. You are getting a marketing plan served up that is tailored to you. Shows you all the ins and outs and best of all, you are in charge and you are in control. So marketing is definitely something you want to discuss. You want to know, how is my house promoted? What is your plan? You want to make sure that they have proven techniques as well as useful techniques. And combining everything together is simply the best strategy. As you see, I totally get excited talking about all of this. I would love to talk in detail more with you about this, but we’re not quite finished years, so let’s go and dove into the next one. The very last tip for you is trust your instincts. You want to trust your gut. And honestly, there is an instinct in a still for a reason.

You don’t want to be falling for a sales pitch. You do not want to fall for somebody that is just trying to sell you. You don’t want to fall for somebody that’s overpromising you. And you know, in your heart, they just are telling you what you want to hear. Get a professional because you want to get somebody that has a backbone. Really, when it comes down to negotiation, get somebody that will stand up. And you need as a seller. You need somebody that stands up for you in negotiation and not get pummeled over by the buyer agent. You want a strong partner in your corner representing you in your best interests. Now, those were five questions to get to the bottom line. Fast. You can rent an agent very quickly based on response rate, quality of the response, and you can figure out what kind of agent do you have in front of you. So ready to put me and my team to the test. We would love an opportunity to talk with you if you’re not quite ready. We did go ahead and prepare an instant on value report which you can claim right here above. www.homeworthcalculator.com. My name is Janine Sasso. I’m a local real estate agent in the northwest suburbs of Chicago, and I can’t wait to meet with you.

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