Choosing a real estate agent: One versus one hundred

When selling your home, should you stick with one real estate agent, or list your property through multiple agents? Both options have clear advantages and disadvantages that sellers may want to consider before deciding. 

Listing with multiple agents:

If you want to make a quick sale, listing your property with multiple agents would seem like a logical choice. And there’s a good reason for that. You get more exposure. These professionals can utilize different avenues such as the newspapers, buyer networks and internet property listings to spread awareness for your property. More exposure means a gathered interest from a larger audience.
 

The downside to using multiple agents is that you’re working with a range of people and various sales strategies that are often times totally different from each other. This also entails that there are different degrees of understanding as to what type of buyers are qualified for the sale. This may mean the information about your property becomes different than you first intended as it travels between agents and their networks – which will mean the buyers they present it to are not necessarily sold on the correct information.  
 

Hiring multiple agents also means that negotiations will be done in isolation. The ones competing won’t be the buyers but the actual agents. This hurts your cause because you might find out too late that someone else may have made a higher offer.
 

There is also the risk of running into “commission cowboys.” These are self-professed private agents who will do anything to make a sale. This doesn’t always get you the best buyers.
 

Read more...