What Does a Seller’s Agent Do?
Many people want to know what a listing agent is and what they do for their clients.
As a real estate agent, you are obligated to your clients to do everything you can to smooth the selling process of their homes.
You are their advocate, the professional they are turning to for help.
Most people want an agent they can trust and will do all they can to get the most money for their home in the least amount of time with the fewest headaches.
Because some home sellers know so little about the sales process, it is easy enough to do the bare minimum and get by as an agent, but you will never build your business by doing the least possible.
When you do your best – cover all the bases of an innovative sales process – you will gain a reputation for outstanding work and enjoy the referrals that come with that reputation.
Smart home sellers understand there is a big difference between so many “post and pray” real estate agents who do not do much more than put a sign in the yard, place it in the MLS, and pray.
Sellers deserve a lot more than this. We will cover everything you need to know about a seller’s agency and the responsibilities of a listing agent.
Real Estate agents provide many services for both buyers and sellers. Here is a summary of what real estate agents do.
What is a Listing Agent or Seller’s Agent?
Let’s look at the definition of a listing agent.
A listing agent is a real estate professional who lists homes for sale. It is why they are called a “listing agent.” A listing agent is the exact opposite of a buyer’s agent.
They represent home sellers and work in their best interests to get the best possible terms and conditions. A listing agent is also called a “seller’s agent.”
Consumers need to understand the differences between listing and selling agents’ roles. They are not the same.
When selling your home, you’ll likely sign an exclusive right-to-sell contract. This agreement means the agent you choose becomes your listing agent for the agreed-upon contract period.
The exclusive right to sell allows an agent to list your home in the multiple listings service.
Seller’s agents have numerous responsibilities, which we will cover in-depth.
What is Seller’s Agency?
Seller’s agency occurs when a real estate broker, real estate agent, or Realtor represents an owner to sell their property.
When a home is listed, the real estate broker and the listing agent working under them act as fiduciaries for the seller.
Under the seller’s agency, a real estate agent agrees to promote the seller’s best interests exclusively. Agents must disclose all pertinent information to a seller when a buyer makes an offer.
Further, real estate agents must keep confidential any information about why an owner is selling their property.
For example, you could not tell a buyer or a buyer’s agent the owner is selling because of a divorce without their consent.
Agents must also disclose if they know another party would be willing to offer a higher price or better terms.
Under a seller’s agency relationship, a real estate agent must give sellers obedience, loyalty, disclosure, confidentiality, accountability, and reasonable care. Real Estate agents remember these seller agent responsibilities as OLDCAR.
How to Pick The Best Listing Agent For You
Many in the real estate industry feel there is room for a good clean-up – this Hopkinton real estate agent is one of them! It is far too easy to get a real estate license. The barriers to entering the industry are too small when a real estate agent typically handles someone’s most significant asset.
Home sellers reading this article should understand that, like every other industry, some are exceptional, and others are not.
Most businesses have an 80/20 rule where 80 percent of the business is done by 20 percent of the people. The real estate industry is skewed much more than that.
You might be amazed that 93% of all real estate transactions are completed by 7% of the members. That is staggering!
What this means is one thing – there is a lot of room for disappointment by picking the wrong real estate agent to represent your interests. When selling a home, it is effortless to choose the wrong agent; after all, the odds are stacked against you.
Understanding how to pick a real estate agent is something many sellers get all wrong.
How can you increase the chances you will make the right choice in picking a real estate agent? This is an easy question to answer.
You need to understand what things real estate agents should be doing for home sellers! When all of these tasks are completed correctly, the likelihood you will be a happy camper will increase exponentially.
Your job now is finding that agent. By understanding the most critical tasks a Realtor should be doing, you will be better equipped to make intelligent decisions.
1. Listing Agents Provide Home Staging Advice
One of the more essential tasks when selling a home is the presentation. Staging a house well will make it more straightforward for buyers to see themselves in the property.
An excellent listing agent will provide essential advice for preparing to sell correctly. It could be as simple as decluttering the home or more complex advice like recommending a top junk removal company or renting a storage unit.
Part of a real estate agent’s duties to a seller is providing the advice that nets the best results. You should expect a seller’s real estate agent to go out of their way to give you the tools to succeed.
2. Price The Home Correctly.
Pricing a home properly is, bar none, the most important thing you can do as a Realtor.
Exceptional Real Estate agents avoid giving in to the desire to say what will make sellers happy to attract business.
Top-notch Real Estate agents will price each home using their training, understanding of the market, and comparable sales.
Using these comps, listing agents will prepare a comparative market analysis and analyze the data to formulate an accurate list price.
Understanding how to price a home is an agent’s most valuable skill. Smart sellers should be looking for agents who sell homes for close to the original listing price.
The best listing agents have a reputation for pricing homes accurately and not telling a seller what they want to hear to get a listing.
Misrepresentation is one of the lowest things a listing agent can do and violates the code of ethics we are supposed to follow.
Pricing Correctly From Day One Makes a Difference
As a seller, you should know that pricing a home too high can cause significant sales issues. Buyers may avoid your home, and it will develop a bad reputation.
Eventually, you will be forced to drop the price to be competitive in the marketplace, but the bad rep will have stuck by that point.
Even with a competitive price, buyers will likely lowball you after some time. Ultimately, you may sell the house for less than what you would have if you had priced it correctly. The seller loses out, and the agent’s reputation suffers.
While some agents intentionally misrepresent a home’s value to get business, others lack the skill to price a home correctly.
The perfect example is the Realtor who takes shortcuts and uses price per square foot to determine value. Unless you want your home priced wrong, don’t ever listen to a price per square foot as an accurate way of pricing a property.
Price per square foot is only helpful if all the homes in your neighborhood are identical. Rarely is this ever the case.
3. A Listing Agent Should Market The Heck Out of The Property.
Marketing is one area where your Real Estate agent should shine. Your agent should take great pictures of the property and hire a professional photographer if necessary.
Photographing your home is one of the essential elements in selling homes today. I can tell you firsthand how appalling it can be to see some of the photos real estate agents post of their client’s homes.
What is probably even worse is the sellers who never bother to look!
The internet will be where home buyers discover your home. If the pictures of your home are lousy, you will lose out on a significant amount of traffic.
Your listing should be well-versed on how to get the word out using all available marketing channels, not just the Multiple Listing Service (MLS).
Ideally, your Realtor should have a website that draws traffic and showcases all their properties for sale. They should also use social media to spread the word, like Facebook, Linkedin, Pinterest, and other platforms.
These online options take time for an agent to develop, but they will ultimately strengthen their business and help their clients sell homes.
A listing agent’s marketing material should be top-notch, from photographs to videos to the brochures used to market the home.
Investing in a quality Real Estate agent who understands how crucial marketing is will reap substantial benefits.
4. Listing Agents Need to Communicate Properly.
A seller needs to know what is happening with their home’s sale. Too many listing agents get clients and only check in when they get an offer.
Real Estate agents should regularly update their customers on the feedback from showings and anything else that may concern them. Even if there are no offers, keeping in touch lets a seller know that you are doing something – and worth paying for.
Often, surveys are done, and the #1 complaint from consumers towards real estate agents is a lack of proper communication. Real Estate agents who don’t communicate get bad reputations among their peers and clients.
There are some clues as a home seller you can observe before you hire an agent that will give you a pretty good indication of how things will be moving forward.
Do they return your calls or emails promptly? All phone calls or emails should be returned within an hour unless you are already with another client. There is no excuse for poor communication. Staying in touch is something all sellers have a right to expect from their Realtor.
Want a good laugh? Please take a few minutes to watch this RE/MAX video making fun of listing agents who do not communicate with their clients. You will get a good laugh because it applies to many agents!
5. Listing Agents Make Sure The Buyer is Qualified.
Anybody can say they are interested in buying a house. Not everyone can get pre-approval for a home loan, though. A good listing agent will ensure buyers are pre-approved – not just pre-qualified.
There is a big difference between mortgage pre-qualification and pre-approval. Pre-qualification does not include an analysis of the buyer’s credit report, verification of income, or employment, which will be critical factors in whether they can get a mortgage.
In most instances, a pre-qualification is not worth the paper it is written on. You want buyers who have already submitted all information, including a credit report, and have been given the go-ahead for a loan.
As long as nothing changes with their financial situation or their credit, they should be able to get approval and buy your client’s home.
6. Listing Agents Negotiate The Best Terms.
The best agents will go out of their way to fight hard for their clients’ best terms and conditions. This, after all, is what they are paid to do.
A great Real Estate agent will never think about their pocketbook but what makes the most sense for their client.
It’s one of the reasons why you should never choose an agent who “needs” to make a sale.
When you hire an agent who isn’t worried about when their next sale takes place, you will get much better advice.
Real Estate agents who advocate for their clients always strive for the best possible terms for the transaction.
Everything in Real Estate contracts is negotiable. Excellent listing agents, when warranted, don’t hesitate to counteroffer with a more favorable price to their clients. They have the negotiation skills necessary to get the job done right.
These should be negotiated appropriately if clients want to adjust contingency dates or closing times.
A good agent will understand the actual value of each element to the customer. Pushing to get clients everything they possibly can is what the best of the best do regularly.
7. Listing Agents Attend The Home Inspection to Represent The Seller.
A seller client may or may not expect a real estate agent to attend the home inspection, but they should do it regardless. By being there for the inspection, the agent gets to hear all the feedback from the inspector firsthand.
So when I am asked if a listing agent should attend the home inspection, the answer is a resounding yes!
Your agent can keep track of everything said and keep things in perspective should the buyer ask for concessions based on the inspection. Some requests may be reasonable. Others may not. When a seller’s agent is there and can see everything in person, they can protect a seller from unreasonable requests.
Home Inspections Bring Further Negotiations
Here is the perfect example: A home inspector says during the inspection that the roof has 3 to 5 years left before it needs to be replaced.
After a home inspection from the buyer to the seller, the translation is that a new roof is needed immediately. Sometimes, what the home inspector says and what is written in his report differs.
When the listing agent is present, they can see and hear firsthand the issues. Some buyers will exaggerate everything to get a closing cost concession, or the seller making repairs. Home inspections often become the second place of negotiations.
Don’t be misled by the real estate agent telling you they shouldn’t go because “it creates too much liability.” That is complete nonsense! The only thing that creates liability at a home inspection is what you say and do as an agent, NOT your attendance.
Agents create their liability by speaking out of turn. A Realtor should not be attending a home inspection to be a 2nd inspector but to observe and listen. That’s it!
The real estate agent thinks they know more than everyone else, gets sued, and loses.
8. The Seller’s Agent Should Attend The Home Appraisal.
An excellent real estate agent will attend the home appraisal, so they can answer the appraiser’s questions and make sure they understand the facts about the home.
Appraisers may need feedback from someone who knows the house to do their job. Your listing agent should be there to help clarify any confusion. Often, your Realtor will be the best qualified to answer an appraiser’s questions.
For example, the appraiser could be looking for all the recent updates, among other things, that have been made in the home. Significant updates are certainly something that can influence the value of your home. This is something the agent should be there to point out.
Updates are the kind of thing that can have a significant bearing on the outcome of the appraisal.
9. Finalize Loose Ends For Closing.
Selling a house involves a lot of work. So many little details must be taken care of, which is one of the big selling points for your services.
As the closing draws near, you must handle your client’s loose ends.
Taking care of the smoke & carbon monoxide detector certificate, final water/sewer readings, and any other issues is part of the package you offer – or at least it should be.
The less work, your client, has to do, the more appealing you are as an agent.
Selling a home can be very stressful, but when you have a top-shelf listing agent in your corner taking care of the little details, the burden can be eased just a bit.
Hopefully, you now understand what to expect from your listing agent when selling a home!
Make Sure Your Listing Agent Does Not Practice Dual Agency
When selling your property, you want someone beholden to your best interests. That is precisely what happens -in seller’s agency, YOUR agent represents only you!
As we have discussed, a seller’s real estate agent cares about what’s best for you.
With dual agency, your listing agent, who only represented you, becomes a neutral party. When dual agency is allowed by a seller, the real estate agent is thrilled. They can make a double commission.
Never accept dual agency. Your real estate agent is no longer able to provide seller agent services. Doing so would conflict with the buyers.
Dual agency is illegal in some states because it does nothing to benefit consumers. It is a shady real estate agent trick that is rarely explained adequately.
Final Thoughts on What Listing Agents Do
In summary, the traits you should be looking for in a real estate agent consist of these attributes:
- Honesty above all else. The Realtor should put YOUR needs before their own.
- Professionalism. From the dress to manners, the agent you hire is the extension of yourself to everyone they encounter in the home sale journey.
- Excellent communication skills – does the agent stay in touch with their clients?
- Strong negotiator – You want a tiger, not a pussy cat.
- Creative marketer – remember you are not looking for a listing agent that does the bare minimum. Is there a comprehensive marketing plan?
- Exceptional company and personal reputation – Are the listing agents and the firms they work for looked up to as leaders?
- Experience and proven results – does the agent possess the knowledge and expertise to guide you in unforeseen circumstances? Do they sell in all types of markets? Are they successful in all kinds of markets and not just when homes sell like hotcakes?
When you take the time to look for these things in a listing agent, your success will skyrocket!
Do You Need a Listing Agent in Massachusetts?
Are you planning on selling a home in the Metrowest, Massachusetts area? If you want an outstanding listing agent, please reach out. I would welcome the opportunity to become your seller’s agent.
Additional Helpful Home Selling Resources
- What to expect from your Realtor -see what your agent should do for you via Rochester Real Estate Blog.
- Forty-one seller mistakes to avoid like the plague via Imagine Your House.
- Top home seller mistakes -see what to avoid when selling a house via Maximum Real Estate Exposure.
Use these additional helpful resources to make the right choices when selling your home and picking a listing agent to work with. The right agent can go a long way toward a successful and pleasant transaction.
About the Author: Bill Gassett, a nationally recognized leader in his field, provided the above real estate information on what a listing agent is and what they do for home sellers. He is an expert in mortgages, financing, moving, home improvement, and general real estate.
Learn more about Bill Gassett and the publications he has been featured in. Bill can be reached via email at billgassett@remaxexec.com or by phone at 508-625-0191. Bill has helped people move in and out of Metrowest towns for the last 38+ years.
Are you thinking of selling your home? I am passionate about real estate and love sharing my marketing expertise!
I service Real Estate Sales in the following Metrowest MA towns: Ashland, Bellingham, Douglas, Framingham, Franklin, Grafton, Holliston, Hopkinton, Hopedale, Medway, Mendon, Milford, Millbury, Millville, Natick, Northborough, Northbridge, Shrewsbury, Southborough, Sutton, Wayland, Westborough, Whitinsville, Worcester, Upton, and Uxbridge MA.
