Choosing to use a realtor to sell your home is a very common decision for homeowners to make. There is quite honestly a lot to selling a home and a whole lot of liability that comes with it.

But ensuring you choose a realtor that is going to fully represent you, keep you out of legal issues, ensure you net the most money possible for the sale of the home and make sure you do not feel you were lost at sea for weeks in the middle of the process is what you should be getting when you pay a professional to broker the sale of your home.

It is easy to lump real estate professionals or realtors into the same group because quite honestly you probably know one in every direction. They are literally everywhere.

What you may not realize is selling a home does not have to be chaos nor do you get the same results from everyone who is licensed.

Making sure you have hired someone with all of your interests in mind and the resources to do so is crucial.

Does your realtor have proven sales results they can provide you over the last 3 years?

If they know right away what their list to sold averages are you are likely sitting with a pro!

List to Sold averages are what the agent has listed homes for and what they have sold the home for.

 If you have an agent who sells at 98-99% of the list price you can assume you are working with an agent who does not have a firm grasp on market values or how to negotiate offers up to their highest potential.

If you have an agent in front of you that sells 100%+ now you are starting to work with the real pros. These guys are the ones that likely know how to calculate your home value and how to negotiate offers better than the guys who are sub 100%. The higher this average OVER 3 years is the better the agent is.

If the agent is newer please do not mistake that for a reason to discount them. If they do not have 3 years ask them to provide the list of sold listings and the list to sold averages. You might find a newer agent is really quite advanced.

Does your realtor have a system and structure or are they a one man team?

Does the agent work with a transaction coordinator?

This may seem like it is not necessary at first glance however, the timeliness and communication of your transaction matters more than most portions of the transaction. You will find agents who are working both listings, buyers and doing all paperwork for transactions are often scattered, forgetful and can make the process feel quite chaotic.

You will find yourself check in with them for updates more often than you feel informed. An agent who has invested in a team even if just a transaction coordinator.

Does your listing agent have a marketing plan of action?

Within the last few years we have seen so much buyer demand many agents have put this on the back burner. They have not been investing money into a marketing plan let alone having one to put money into.

With the changing market, interest rate increases, unemployment on the rise there will be more challenges homeowners will face to sell their home. Leveraging your home with marketing is going to matter more and more.

If your agent plans to “post it on social media” but does not have any marketing experience beyond that you may want to consider a different agent. Agents who list the home on the mls and social media are doing the basic level marketing available to us today usually reaching under 5% of the total market.

Is it enough to bring you a buyer? Yes, but we don’t want any old buyer we want a great buyer!

On a daily basis you will see listing agents refuse to work with buyer’s agents to get their seller more money, better terms and a much more solid well rounded offer likely to close and make the seller’s life far easier.

Listing agents will often use this as a way of “protecting” the seller however, it can work against them far more often than for them.

When we represent the buyer, we will find more often than not the listing agent is non-communicative.

Sometimes you will even find the agent requests any other agents to “not call them for any questions.”

 This can work against the seller in many ways and often the seller will just be presented what came in. Not what has been negotiated on the seller’s behalf.

This “strategy” forces buyers to guess what is best and leaves the deal far too opened ended for them to know what the seller truly wants or needs.

Many calls can come in and it’s overwhelming however, this points back to your agent having a team. The more time freed up to do the job of making you the most money possible and the best terms the better positioned you are to get the best offer possible that actually lands you at the closing table.

It is important to understand whether your loved one's is subject to probate and court approval for sale or if the the home was in a trust and the trustee has permission to sell the home on behalf of the trust. Most of the time the terms are used interchangeably however the in fact both require different processes to sell a home after the owner has passed. 

In short for those who want a quick answer. When buying a home property tax can increase dramatically in price. The calculation used to determine property taxes after purchasing can be based on up to 50% of the sales price. Being prepared for this will ensure you are still happy with the monthly payment you are committing to when purchasing the home. This adjustment will happen in the second year of homeownership, so unless you are aware of it you will not even know this is going to happen until you are slapped with a rather large bill or increase in your monthly payment to compensate for the shortage in your tax bill after the first year of owning it. It is the job of the agent you hired to prepare you for this adjustment. If they aren’t preparing you for this when considering purchasing a home you may want to consider interviewing a different option for representation when buying a home.

Homes in Michigan can be assessed up to 50% of the estimated value of the home. When you purchase a home, this becomes the new “possible cash value” of the home so it is important to know how this will affect the property taxes you are charged on a home after the first year you own the home.

The city/township will calculate taxes on your state equalized value (SEV) which is half the possible cash value of the home. While it is not legal for them to use the purchase price as the true value of the home, they are able to use the surrounding sales in that neighborhood to support the SEV on your newly purchased home. Which in most cases homes that have been selling within the last year will likely be similar in value to the one you are purchasing.

It becomes critical for your real estate agent, who is responsible for representing your interests in the purchase of a home, to help you determine how the taxes will adjust after the purchase.

When purchasing a home, most buyers, look to buy a home with a monthly payment they are comfortable making. The payment, in most cases, is comprised of the following:

Principle: The total amount borrowed from financial institution.

Interest: The amount agreed to pay on the principle borrowed.

Escrow: Taxes and homeowners’ insurance.

The tax bill is a part of that monthly payment for many buyers, unless they choose to pay it separately (you would have to qualify with the lender to do this.) Therefore, the tax payment is a crucial part of making sure you are buying a home with a payment you are comfortable with and do not risk any huge jumps in payment in the second year of owning the home.

Especially when purchasing a person who has owned the home for a very long time and has taxes that are “capped.”

Capped Taxes: occur after a new homeowner has received their first year adjusted taxes increase due to the new SEV the taxes can only go up 5%, or the inflation rate, from there.

Not being aware of this can make a property you are considering buying look very desirable because of a very low tax bill from its neighboring properties that have become uncapped in recent.

If not properly accounted for could be the difference of hundreds of dollars a month in the monthly payment a buyer is not expecting or a large lump sum to put into the escrow account so it is not negative for the year.

Either way, if you aren’t ready or accounting for it this is usually a very undesirable situation to be in. And for some could be a payment they cannot keep up with or do not want to keep up with.

Uncapped Property Taxes: this happens after a transfer of ownership and a new SEV, city/township assessments and anything else that had been “capped” from the previous owner are accounted for the calculation of the new tax bill.

Therefore, when looking to estimate what your tax bill will be in the second year of owning a home, we always suggest doing the worst-case scenario (which would be using half of the purchase price of the home as the estimated SEV) using the highest possible amount you will pay in property taxes.

If you are comfortable with that number, then you should feel confident in purchasing the home!

Here is a link to from Michigan State Treasury to estimate property taxes: Calculate My Taxes Now

Typically, this is a conversation the lender should be having with you as the homebuyer as well, but it is the agents responsibility to make sure that information is given to you as the buyer.

At The Moving Factory, we attempt to promote lenders who are reliable and forthright with taxes and all other adjustments that can come with the purchase of buying a home.

Many lenders or agents may leave this information out because for many this may “kill the deal” meaning you will opt to keep looking and not buy that home. Or they are simple just not educated on the process of tax adjustments. Either way probably a good time to look for better representation.

One of our biggest values we can offer as a buyers agent to a home buyer is to help them truly understand the basic construction of a home, determine age of the mechanics and keep a buyer from pursuing a home with major issues. The trouble with a poorly educated buyers agent on home construction is they can often miss very basic things about a home that a buyer could have avoided $500+ in home inspection had the buyers agent pointed out the condition of the home's construction they are viewing. Especially in a multiple offer situation this is crucial because there is often times very little negotiation room for a buyer once they are under contract as there are many buyers behind them waiting for the deal to fall through. 

To request access to our full service provider list click here!