First Post!

Hello everyone!

Welcome to my first blog post of The Fox Valley Realtor as Sandi Sells Homes! Every week I will bring you local real estate updates, neighborhood profiles, local events, tips for selling and buying, other helpful tidbits and some peeks into my personal life as a Realtor, wife, mother, and volunteer.

This week I thought we would cover on what Real Estate Professionals really do.

First, each day is different for each Real Estate Professional.

Business Owner and Manager

They manage a business and do many administrative type tasks. For Example:

• Research local homes. Check the local MLS (Multiple Listing Service) for active, pending, sold, new, and any changes on real estate in the towns they are working in.
• Paperwork and more paperwork (albeit most is on a computer nowadays). Put together real estate documents, agreements, submit completed work and proper documents to coordinating group of people working on the transaction.
• Spend time keeping up with the local and regional market activity and industry news.
• Schedules appointments, showings, open houses, listing appointments, and meetings with clients and other professionals in the Real Estate industry.
• Manages social media profiles, websites, and blogs.
• Replies to emails, text messages, and responds to phone calls.
• Creates marketing plans for listings, newsletters, promotional material, fliers, collaborates with other marketing outlets.
• Marketing themselves: Creating a niche in the local real estate market. Using a lot of the same techniques used to market homes they are selling.
• Lead Generation: There are many avenues to generate leads. Contacting their own Sphere of Influence, such as friends, family, business associates, clubs, and organizations where they already know others. As well as using an outside service that provides basically a list of names and contact information to do what is known as “cold-calling” along with good old fashion feet on the street, “door knocking” in the neighborhoods they are focusing on. Basically, everyone is prospect. Everyone rents, buys, or sells a home at some point.
• Meeting with and following up with potential sellers and buyers.

Works with Buyers

You may have heard the term “Buyers Agent”. Basically, the Real Estate Professional works with the Buyer.

• Learns the buyers needs and wants.
• Helps the buyer connect with a financial institution for qualifying to purchase a property.
• Researches the listing services that fits the needs and wants of the client.
• Sets up property showing appointments.
• Shows the properties and informs the client about the home of any facts the learned during researching the property.
• Helps the buyer put together an offer to purchase and negotiates with the seller’s agent and client.
• A successful agent continues to guide the buyer thru the process after the accepted offer with coordinating the home inspection, communicates with the Real Estate Attorney, Loan officers and others involved in the sales process. And most of the time is at the closing for their client.
• Some agents even check in with them after their move into their new home.

Works with sellers

Just like a Buyer’s Agent, they work with sellers. Many agents do both.

• Meets with sellers and learns their needs and about the home.
• Researches the current market to establish an asking price, similar to properties currently sold or listed.
• Marketing the properties with various outlets.
• Lists the property with a Listing Service.
• Takes or hires a professional to take digital photos inside and outside the home. Many agents are adding aerial views and interactive floor plans to the marketing.
• Helps the owner with staging the home so it shows well and holds open houses.
• When an offer comes in, they assist in the negotiation and explains the terms of the offer.
• Alerts the seller of schedule inspections and deadlines before the closing.
• Most agents are at the closing for their client.
• Some agents will follow up with the seller after they have moved into their new home as well.

Most agents work in an office, usually a franchise or privately held company, where there is usually some type of weekly meetings to discuss new listings, get updates, and use the tools provided to them at the office. As well as, continuing education and training on relevant topics which is important in the long-term success of agent’s career.

The next time you meet with a Real Estate agent and they go over their fee, you’ll know that it’s more than sticking a sign in the yard and driving you around looking at houses.

I’m excited to use this blog as a platform to discuss more topics every week! Please subscribe to the blog or any of my social media pages listed at the top of the website to stay connected for each update!

~Sandi Patterson