Because of the cost, hiring the services of a Realtor® may not be feasible for everyone. For those who cannot spare the 6%, listing their homes as For Sale By Owner might be a more affordable option. Others, however, may hire the services of a listing agent to avoid the hassle, inconvenience, and uncertainty of selling their homes themselves. During the home-selling process, owners will need to be prepared to answer phone calls from potential buyers and agents, schedule times to show the house, deal with walk-ins and drop-bys, arrange to open their homes to inspectors, hire a contractor to make repairs, if necessary, and coordinate documents for closing.

As a licensed real estate agent, I provide comprehensive listing services to sellers who wish to avoid coordinating the sale of their homes themselves. Below is an outline of the services I typically provide to sellers as their listing agent:

Pricing Your Home. I use the many tools available to Realtors® to determine the right asking price for your home. Setting the right price is much less of a guessing game than you might think. Many concrete factors go into pricing the housing market and determining what sells quickly and what sits. The first step to settling on a price is conducting a Comparative Market Analysis.

The Comparative Market Analysis. Should you approach me about listing your home, I will arrange to view your property and then prepare a free-of-charge, free-of-obligation Comparative Market Analysis for you, a document that compares your home to others in your area, analyzes recent sales data, and recommends an asking price for your home. The following factors help determine my recommended asking price: your home's current assessed value, the square footage of your home and property, the number of bedrooms and bathrooms, recent updates or other attributes, and the sales prices of homes that have recently sold in your area.

The Listing Agreement. If you wish to select me to list your home, we would together sign a listing agreement, which guarantees that, as your exclusive listing agent, I would work with your best interests in mind to market your home to get top dollar.

Promotion. As your listing agent, I work quickly to expose your home to as many potential buyers as possible. As soon as the seller ratifies the listing agreement, I will take pictures of your property and post the listing with the Multiple Listing Service for the Roanoke Valley. Your listing will be made instantly available to all Realtors® within our MLS. Your home appears in the print book format and online within hours. Your online listing will also include a virtual tour with large photos of each room and graphical layouts of each floor. I will alert all Realtors® at MKB, REALTORS® of my new listing and call any buyers I know who might be interested in your house. I will feature your home, complete with a virtual tour, on my website here and on Realtor.com. For additional exposure, I will advertise your home in local newspapers and publications, such as the Roanoke Times Sunday Real Estate section, Homes Now, and The Real Estate Book. I will also arrange to feature your home on television on the Cox Cable MKB, REALTORS® Home Tour.

The Open House. Open houses can be very effective at pulling potential buyers in to view your property. On Sunday afternoons when it's convenient for you to vacate your home, I will host open houses to show and promote your property and to answer questions from potential buyers. I will collect names and contact information from visitors and follow up with interested parties for feedback. To reach as many people as possible, I will advertise each upcoming open house with the address, date, time, and a photo in the Roanoke Times on the Saturday and Sunday preceeding the open house.

Realtor® Feedback. Area Realtors® who preview your home can provide valuable feedback on the asking price and how well your home is showing to potential clients. I will collect the cards left by visiting Realtors®, call them to solicit their input, and pass along their comments and suggestions to you. We may wish to lower the price slightly or make a modification to the home or property to increase the chances of a sale.

Offers. Sometimes within hours, I will receive single or competing offers from buyers interested in purchasing your house. Offers come in written form only directly to me from buyers' agents. Within minutes of receiving a bid, I will call you to present the offer and to discuss your options. You may reject the offer, accept the offer, or have me present a written counteroffer, which I will draw up with you. Should you receive multiple offers, you may wish to counteroffer to each, a gambit which, if executed carefully so as not to lose all buyers, can result in receiving bids above your asking price.

The Contract. Once you receive an offer with the right combination of price and contingencies, you will ratify the contract and prepare for final inspections and closing. I will work with you and the buyer's agent to coordinate a suitable time to conduct the home inspections. As the seller, you are also required to hire a termite inspector to evaluate your house.

Repairs. Should issues arise from any or all inspections, the buyer will make a request in writing of the items they wish you, as the seller, to have repaired by a licensed contractor. The state of Virginia's purchase agreement requires sellers to pay for up to $500 in home repairs of a certain type prior to a sale. We will discuss which requests to comply with and which to reject. I can also help you select and schedule a suitable contractor to complete the repairs.

Closing. As the seller, you are not required to attend the closing. After the closing is complete, you will receive your payout from the sale from the real estate closing agent. You will receive either a check for the total sale price minus the 6% real estate commission, which is split evenly between the listing and buyer's agents, or a check for just the profit from the sale of your house, which is the total sale price minus the real estate commission and your final mortgage pay-off payment.

Ready to list your home? Read my tips for getting your house ready to sell.