You may be tempted to stick a "For Sale" sign in your front yard, but before you do, at least carry out due diligence and look at the advantages of having a professional listing agent sell your home for you. Remember – selling your home is one of the largest, most complicated and most important financial transactions in your lifetime. There are definite benefits to partnering with a professional to get the job done.

Selling your own home may be harder than you think. Here are some things you may not have considered:

• Selling a home means inviting strangers into it. A professional real estate agent can help you make sure this is a safe experience.
• Choosing a list price that is realistic for your market will make the difference in whether you get what you want out of it, and will make sure it hits the radar of the right prospective buyers. Setting the right list price also affects the speed of sale. Inaccurate pricing is one of the biggest pitfalls that home sellers face when they go it alone.
• Putting the sign in the ground is just one step that should occur as part of a comprehensive marketing plan. Effective home marketing takes financial resources, experience and marketing savvy. For instance, if you can't market your home on the Web, on a highly-trafficked Web site – then you're missing thousands of potential buyers. That also means you're losing a lot of great offers!
• The home selling experience includes numerous contracts and other important selling-related documents that require legal expertise. Experienced Real Living listing agents are fluent in handling such matters.
• The selling process involves a great deal of paperwork that will need to be arranged and shared with appropriate parties. Your Real Living listing agent is likely able to devote much more time and energy to the sale of your home than you might with your busy lifestyle.
• Negotiating the sale price requires a good understanding of the psyche of a buyer – to make sure they're not offended and rescind the offer, for one thing, but also to have them feel good about the sale price. Your agent understands reasonable leveraging and potential sticking points, so s/he can work through them to a mutually satisfying conclusion.
• Work. School. Family. Friends. You've got lots of other priorities. And to market your home well, you'll likely find it's a full time job! Working with a professional real estate agent will not only ensure you price your home correctly, and sell it quickly – but it will also mean that you'll have time to focus on the important things in your life.

Put your most valuable material asset in the hands of someone you can trust.

Let me be your next agent for your property. Please call Diane Hunter at (312) 446-8300 or contact me online!