When selling your home, it’s not what you know… …but who you know.

A lot of the time, achieving a good sale price on your home comes down to one thing: having access to the biggest possible pool of interested buyers.

It’s simple supply and demand – the more competing bidders there are, the better you’re going to do. Advertising can get you going in the right direction, but in the end nothing beats having great connections.

This week, we’re going to show you why these connections are so important.

The key to selling your home? It’s not what you know – it’s who you know.

One of the biggest pieces of the puzzle when selling a home is finding a good agent to represent you – but not for the reason you may think.

Of the many responsibilities they might cover, your real estate agent’s biggest contribution to the sale won’t be the paperwork they file or the advertisements they place. It’ll be the personal and professional networks they give you access to.

Many home sellers make the mistake of only thinking of their agent as a conduit for negotiation, or as a source of handy advice. While they do fill these shoes, their connections are their most valuable resource.

The bottom line: when selling, it’s not what you know, but who you know.

Let’s go over some of the ways in which your agent’s connections are going to help you get more for your home.

1. They’ll give you better access to buyers

Without a buyer, you have no sale. Without several buyers, you might have a chance at a sale, but you mightn’t get the price you’re looking for.

A well-connected real estate agent will have an address book full of contacts, from one-time buyers and sellers to long-term investors and repeat customers. They’ll know who’s looking to buy, what their budget is, what they like and dislike, and so on.

In a best-case scenario, you won’t even need to go through the process of listing the house publicly, paying for advertising, waiting for leads, working around open houses, or any of the other hassles involved in selling. Your agent will find you a buyer who is willing to pay what you want, if they exist.

What’s more, if your agent is particularly focused in one local area, they’ll have a lot more suburb-specific info when addressing potential buyers, which should help you to secure a better price.

2. They’ll stimulate competition between buyers

Everyone who’s sold a home (or at least considered it) has daydreamed about the possibility of an auction running away and netting them a massive profit. Unfortunately, this doesn’t happen very often – but a well-networked agent should be able to kick buyers into gear.

An agent with good connections and local knowledge will have the tools to find buyers who are truly interested, and who aren’t going to back away from some friendly negotiation.

This is one of the biggest benefits of using an agent instead of listing privately; intimate knowledge of a local area, market conditions and buyer psychology are your best friend when selling.

3. They’ll offer inside knowledge of the local market

By ‘inside knowledge’ we don’t mean anti-competitive insider trading – we mean in-depth knowledge of all the factors affecting the local market (and buyers in particular).

If your agent has a strong professional network of fellow real estate professionals as well as previous customers, they’ll be able to glean information about your area that would be otherwise unattainable.

They’ll know how much the house across the street sold for (and why), they’ll find out what kind of people bought it, and they’ll cross-reference this intelligence with their own data, giving you the knowledge you need to price your home as advantageously as possible.

4. They’ll help find you reputable tradespeople and related professionals

If you or your home need any extra help during the sale process, knowing the right agent will help, as they’ll know the right tradespeople or other professionals for the job.

All in all, your real estate agent shouldn’t just be a go-between who helps administrate the sale or purchase of a home – they should be a single point of contact who puts you in touch with the right buyers and professional support at the right time, and at the right price.

Your agent’s job should be to make selling your home as pleasant (and profitable!) as possible, and a good way of identifying a suitable agent is to see what connections they have.

These connections could be past sellers who have kept in touch and left testimonials, they could be ongoing clients, or they could be industry-related professionals.

Real estate is a competitive industry for both agents and homeowners, and reputation means a lot. So make sure you do your research before engaging an agent to sell your home – it’ll give you the best chance at a good result.

If there’s anything we can help you with, give us a call and we’ll be glad to have a chat – you can reach us on 07 3355 6845 or drop into Hicks Real Estate at 2/6 Trouts Rd, Everton Park.