DFW, TX Listing Agents: Choosing the best DFW listing agent with experience is critical for selling your home in DFW TX sold these days. Listing homes for sale is best when your Top DFW listing agent has the proven experience to assist you in getting your home or real estate sold. You will need DFW's Best Listing Agent! Anyone can list a home, but we live in different times, and time in this market equals money when you need to sell it! Getting the home sold is what counts!
DFW, TX Home Sellers
Planning to Sell Your Home in the DFW area? Selling a home can be so stressful and there are some many questions that need answers! Is it a good time to sell it? What’s the best time to sell my home in DFW? Should I rent it out first and maybe the market will be better next year? What are the homes selling for in your neighborhood? At what price are homes really selling for after home seller concessions to buyers closing costs? How can I get the best price when selling my home in DWF? If you are planning to sell your home or real estate in DFW, you are going to need an DFW listing agent that has a track record of results! Yes, anyone can list a home, but if you want the right results, then you’ll need the best DFW real estate agents! You’ll need experienced DFW listing agents.
Welcome to DFW Texas best site for information on selling homes in DFW. If you are planning to sell homes, condos, townhomes, lofts, land, builder new homes, property or real estate in DFW, Fort Worth, Grapevine, Keller, Colleyville, Irving, Southlake, Lakewood, Dallas, University Park, Argyle, Roanoke, Hurst, Euless, Bedford, Flower Mound, & Trophy Club TX.
How to Sell my House (Fast) in DFW (with a Listing Agent)?
So you might ask, what are some of the ways that you and your listing agent can work together to sell your DFW home fast? Here a few of the most important steps:
Walk through the home with a Realtor. Realtors are experienced in working with buyers, so they know what buyers will like and also what they will object to in your home. Spending some time identifying areas that should be improved before going on the market can make a huge difference when the house is finally ready for the market.
Study the comparable sales. Every listing agent should offer an opinion your list price, and they should be able to back it up with comparable sales from the market. Some houses are harder to price correctly than others, but at the very least your agent should be able to recommend a range based on sold properties.
Price it right from the start. This is so important. New listings can generate a lot of showings and even multiple offers with the first week or two if priced correctly. But overpricing the home can cool the market’s initial enthusiasm and cause your home to languish on the market until the price is corrected. And by then, many of your potential buyers may have found another home to buy.
Get the house in show-ready condition. If your home is a fixer-upper and will be sold as-is, you may not need or want to spend much time getting it ready for sale. But if you have a home in good condition that just needs a few improvements to make sure it sells for the price you want, you should definitely do those things. Sometimes a home just needs some touch-up paint inside, new mulch in the flowerbeds, professionally cleaned carpets, and a weekend of decluttering to make it impress potential buyers.
Provide great photography! Your home is your most valuable asset, so why would you sell it with dark or blurry photos? Even a $100 pair of shoes you buy online has been photographed by a professional. Why would your home be any different? For us this is a no-brainer, and we hire a professional photographer for the homes we list for sale. For many houses, drone photography or a 3-D video of the home’s interior can also be beneficial.
Provide lots of information about your home. You should never assume (and neither should your listing agent) that buyers (or buyers’ agents) will know everything they should about your home. Professionally prepared marketing material should be available at your home and in MLS. If your neighborhood has unique amenities or you’ve made lots of updates to your home, then a detailed list of these items should be shared with every buyer and buyer’s agent that inquires about your home.
Market the home aggressively on multiple websites. MLS is a powerful tool, but there are a lot of other websites where buyers find homes, including Zillow, Realtor.com, and local real estate brokerage websites. Be sure your agent is experienced with these websites and knows how to make your home look great online!
Make your home available for showings. This seems like a given, but many sellers put too many restrictions on when their home can be viewed. It can be an inconvenience to show your home when you live there or if you work from home. But buyers can (and should) be pre-qualified prior to a showing, so that the buyers that come to your home are serious about making a purchase.
What Should I Look for When Hiring a Realtor?
So now that you’ve done a little homework, you’re ready to start interviewing agents to put your home on the market. But how do you choose the right listing agent? It makes sense to hire an agent that not only has experience and a proven track record, but also one that you relate well to on a personal level.
Experience is Important
Experience in real estate means the listing broker is familiar with the market in DFW and the type of property being marketed. This experience will prove invaluable if a hurdle comes up, and one likely will at some point. A home inspection may reveal a significant defect, an appraisal might come in below the selling price, or a buyer might threaten to back out of the sale. All of these things can be overwhelming if the agent doesn’t know how to deal with them. Even the most experienced agents will run into things on occasion that they have never encountered before. These agents need to be creative in finding ways to overcome such obstacles.
Relationships are More Important
On the personal level, keep in mind that listing and selling a home takes a lot of effort, and it should be collaborative between the homeowners and the listing agent. Over the years, we’ve had the pleasure to work with some amazing sellers. We got along well and truly enjoyed working with each other. Many of these clients we now call our friends. These relationships made it a lot of fun to put together a strategy to sell the property, and when we had to figure out a solution to problems that arose, we were able to work through them effectively.
Of course, there are situations that aren’t so blissful. Any Realtor that has been in the business for very long has had a few clients that they just didn’t mesh with. This may not have been anyone’s fault, but the chemistry just wasn’t there. When the sellers and the listing agent aren’t on the same page, the selling process will be stressful. So it’s important that the sellers and the agent are able to work together as a team.
How do I Choose the Right Listing Agent in DFW?
If you’ve done a fair amount of research and have interviewed an agent that you feel comfortable with, it’s likely smart to go with your gut. Most sellers can’t and don’t spend countless hours interviewing multiple agents, and if they do, it’s usually to get a second opinion on the list price. The NAR report that we keep referring to says that
75% of recent sellers contacted only one agent before finding the right agent they worked with to sell their home.
And as mentioned before, these sellers were typically very satisfied with their choice, as they were likely to recommend their agent to friends and family.
While there are many ways to get to know your potential listing agent, there is no better substitute than to speak with them in person. Our favorite part of our job is getting to talk with people. We often meet in our office over coffee with prospective clients, and the whole point of the conversation is simply to understand their situation. Sometimes it’s helpful for the property owner to be able to bounce their ideas off someone who is in the market every day. They may decide not to sell their home or land, and we may not get the listing. But we’ve gained a relationship. So much of the real estate business is simply listening to people, and offering a bit of input if they need it, even if no real estate transaction ever takes place.
What is the Average Real Estate Commission to Sell a House in Frisco?
We often have potential clients ask us what the “going commission rate” is in DFW. The short answer is there is no going rate, and to say otherwise would be price fixing and illegal. Real estate commissions are negotiable. Now, most firms do have a set commission policy, but this does not mean the entire DFW real estate market adheres to one rate.
That said, it’s important to remember that in almost every case, the commission for both agents (buyer’s agent and seller’s agent) is paid by the seller. So if a house is listed for 6% commission, and a cooperating firm represents the buyer, the listing agent and buyer’s agent will share in the commission. This is usually an equal split (3% per firm), but even that can be negotiated.
Best Time/Top Months to Sell a House in DFW?
The DFW, TX real estate market has long been known as a market that has seasonal highs and lows (view our Frisco Real Estate Trends & Statistics page for more detail). But over the years, we’ve seen our market’s peaks and valleys become less pronounced. We still see busier times of the year, but what used to be the slow seasons are still pretty active. We still consider the summer to be the hot selling time, but we now see a good amount of sales volume all year round. However, many homeowners still assume they can only sell their home in the summer.
January & February
Listing inventory is pretty low, but there is active demand among first-time home buyers and people that live and work in the DFW area. So the more affordable price ranges still sell relatively quickly. Areas that are very desirable for young homeowners, such as DFW due to exemplary schools of the North Texas Area, may still see a lot of multiple offer situations. This is sometimes because there are fewer homes to choose from. This is also an opportunity for homeowners who may have struggled to sell their home during the previous summer and fall, as there is much less competition with other listings at this time.
March & April
This is the listing season. Inventory will increase significantly during this time of year, as homeowners are getting their homes ready to sell. Many listings that hit the market earlier in the spring will be sold before the rest of the listing inventory ever comes on the market. If you’re considering selling in the spring, it might make sense to do so earlier in the spring to take advantage of the lack of competition.
May & June
It’s go time! May is another busy month of listing properties for sale. By June, the floodgates have opened and the buyers are here. Schools are out in many parts of the country, Memorial Day is over, and people are visiting DFW suburbs during summer vacation to look for homes. This includes families and retirees. Retirees are a huge segment of our market in DFW and these are typically families moving from either more expensive parts of the country like California, New York and Florida or these are families moving from the colder parts of the country like Minnesota & Illinois, and they often drive the upper price segments. June is a prime time to be on the market if your property is priced for affluent buyers.
Another large group of out-of-state buyers is the parents with young kids who are looking for great education for their kids in North Texas schools. But keep in mind that these buyers start their property search online or with their buyer’s agent well before they come to town. If these buyers are visiting DFW in June, they may start looking at homes online in March. So while listing a home in March in DFW might not generate immediate showings, it will mean that out-of-town (and even out-of-the-country) buyers can start gathering information about homes for sale that they’ll want to see when they come to DFW.
July & August
This is contract-to-closing season. Homes that went under contract are now going to closing. More homes are coming on the market, but not at the rate they came on the market in May and June. There is a lot of buyer activity in July, and this will continue until about early August when families get ready to go back to school.
September & October
September brings a bit of a market lull. Summers are busy for most people, as they plan vacations and take trips. September brings a return to the normal routine of work and school. September also represents an opportunity for real estate buyers. Buyer activity has slowed down, but there are still homes on the market. Much of the existing inventory that did not sell during the busy summer selling season may now be poised for a price reduction.
November & December
Our market stays surprisingly busy through Thanksgiving and often into mid-December. This is mostly buyer activity, with not much new inventory coming on the market. This is yet another opportunity to list a home with minimal inventory to compete against. In a strong seller’s market, this is also an opportunity to price a home at the upper range of what it might be worth, especially in the lower price ranges. Buyers that want or need to buy now will have fewer options and will be more inclined to meet the seller’s terms.
So there are different opportunities throughout the year for sellers to capitalize on high buyer activity or low listing competition. But when choosing the best time to sell a home in the Frisco market, it’s more important to consider your motivation for selling. If you’re ready to sell or you really need to sell quickly, then put your property on the market. While putting your property on the market in the slower times of the year may not result in an immediate sell, it is guaranteed that your home will not sell if it’s not even on the market.
Best Price to Sell a House in Frisco
It’s simple supply and demand that tells us that the lower the home price, the more demand there will be. Homes in the DFW area in the more affordable price ranges are purchased by first-time homebuyers and investors. The price ranges for higher end luxury homes in DFW are obviously only affordable for wealthier buyers. But DFW market is active in all price ranges, and our higher end inventory draws buyers from all over the world. Texas is one of top 5 states in the country for foreign investors. So there is money being spent even in the highest price ranges. The key is to price the listing correctly at the outset (when it first goes on the market). So the best price to sell a house in DFW is actually the correct price to sell a house.
DFW listing agents who tell their clients that their home is worth more than it actually is are doing the seller no favors. This strategy may win the listing for the agent, but it will cause the home to languish on the market, become a stale listing, and eventually likely sell for less than it would have had it been listed at the right price from the beginning.
As an aside, many homeowners make the mistake of accepting their listing agent’s advice on a recommended listing price, but then adding to it to compensate for negotiating room and closing costs (including real estate commission). This is a flawed approach and will result in an overpriced listing. Remember, the comparable sales’ listing prices already had these factors included. A Frisco listing agent should recommend a listing price and also predict the likely sale price. The difference between these two prices is the negotiating room, and the sale price should already include closing costs.
Which Real Estate Company Sells the Most in DFW?
This is a common question that home sellers ask, but it’s not really relevant. When hiring an agent, you’re hiring one person. The listing agreement you sign will have the company’s name on it, but the only person at that firm that cares about your house selling is the agent that has the listing (and maybe the agent’s broker-in-charge). The larger firms have more agents, and so it stands to reason that the larger firms sell the most real estate. But larger firms tend to have a small percentage of top-producing agents, and then a plethora of agents that just do a few sales per year for their friends or for their own real estate investments.
Can a Boutique Agency Market my Home Effectively?
There is also a misconception that larger firms have more marketing tools available to them to advertise your property for sale. This is simply not true. The interesting thing about most real estate marketing tools is that they are scalable. For example, if a large national franchise wanted to buy advertising space for 300 agents in a real estate magazine, it may cost them $50,000. But what if a smaller firm wanted to buy space in the same magazine for only 5 agents? They could certainly do it, and it may only cost $1000. That’s slightly more expensive per agent, but it’s still affordable. And keep in mind that the absolute most powerful marketing tool is the MLS (Multiple Listing Service). Every agent at every firm in Frisco has access to North Texas MLS (NTREIS), and we all pay the same to access it.
So instead of asking which firm sells the most real estate, a more relevant question might be “What will my listing agent do to sell my home?” When we list a home for sale, we prefer to customize our approach. Each property is different, and there are different features of the home that need to be highlighted. Marketing strategies can also change depending on the likely buyer (investors vs. luxury home buyers, for example).
What to Do if you Can’t Sell Your DFW House?
If you’ve tried to sell your home yourself and haven’t been successful, it’s time to speak with a Top DFW Realtor. But if you’ve been on the market with a Realtor and the home still hasn’t sold, it’s smart to look back at what has transpired during the listing period.
Any good DFW listing agent should be constantly following up with agents that have shown your home to ask questions about any feedback that was provided by the buyers. If there are consistent comments about deterrents that could be overcome, then it’s likely a good strategy to take steps to remove those obstacle. This could be cleaning up the landscaping, installing new carpet, or re-painting. It could also mean adjusting the price. There may be other situations that can’t be addressed, such as nearby interstate noise or an unusual floor plan. In this case, it may be a matter of lowering the price to attract more buyers or trying another strategy until the right buyer comes along. But if your agent isn’t able or willing to adjust the strategy to sell your house, maybe it’s time to consider a different agent.
Can I use two Realtors to Sell my DFW House?
In the DFW real estate market, most real estate listing contracts are “Exclusive Right to Sell Listing Agreements.” This means only one agent will act as the listing agent. But this same agreement gives the listing agent permission to cooperate with other Realtors, so there’s a very good likelihood that another real estate agent will represent the buyer. So actually, in most cases two Realtors will be selling your house.
What’s the Next Step to Put my DFW House on the Market?
If you’re considering listing your property for sale, you probably have a lot of questions about the state of the market, how to price your home, and how we might market your property. We would love nothing more than to answer your questions so you can make an informed decision. Contact us to get started. We look forward to working with you.
