Maria Morton

As Micharel says, your time is better spent by viewing homes with your buyer's agent who is obligated to give you their professional advice and opinion and act in your best interest.
Many buyers make the mistake of calling the number on the sign and dealing with the listing agent without even realizing the disadvantage this puts them at.
Or, the buyer will go looking at houses with several different realtors making it impossible for any of the realtors to get to know what you like and don't like.
Buying a home is a big investment; think about establishing a relationship with your realtor.
The average person in the US changes homes every 9.5 years; in Kansas City the average is 4.5 years; as in any business, things naturally go smoother when you are doing the same thing with the same person.
The better your realtor knows you, the better able they are to provide you with excellent service.
And it is really to your benefit to have your realtor know more than just which house you like the looks of this week.
Understanding how someone reacts to situations is very helpful after inspections when we are negotiating. Knowing that a buyer's immediate reaction to anything unexpected is to rant and rave and hang up the phone is easier to deal with when we know that reaction is coming. (just one example)
Good luck in your search. - Wed Jul 23 2008, 14:46

I think the optimum number of pics to show is between 5 & 9, depending on the home.
You want to entice the buyers to see more.
You want the home to look attractive in the pictures.
You want to save something for them to see in person.
I agree with you; some rooms won't show as well in a picture as they will in person. - Wed Jul 23 2008, 08:30

Price fixes everything Except exposure: only a full service realtor will get your home exposed the way it needs to be. - Wed Jul 23 2008, 08:26

Mike,
here's the thing many people who are not in the real estate business aren't understanding:
When I list a home for sale, here's what happens:
Not only do I put it on Heartland MLS (our professional Multiple Listing Service in Kansas City),
I also:
-announce it at our weekly sales meeting which alerts all 130 agents in my office to the new listing
-send out a listiing alert to all agents with buyers looking for a home like that in the area
-send out a listing alert to all buyers registered in our database
(we have ~2500 agents in our company so this is huge)
-send out emails to all other brokerages in the area notifying them of the new listing (~10,000 agents)
-put it on agent tour (last Tuesday there were ~200 homes on tour south of the river) All agents from all companies with buyers looking for homes like the one I'm showing will try to see as many as they can in 4 hours and then report back to their buyers).
We will probably have to see other homes beyond the tour (called Previewing) to make sure we have complete information on the comparables.

While on Tour, we talk to each other about what's on, what's coming on, and "I have a buyer looking for..." or "Do you know anyone looking for a great 3bedroom bungalow in Brookside?".

The other thing a realtor does is help you present the home to it's best advantage.
In our area, the top 10% of homes are selling in about 30 days.
These are the best of the best.
We see a lot of houses so when the really good ones come along, we get on the phone to our buyers and tell them about the best houses.
FSBO houses are not on our tour. Not on our emails. Not in MLS. Rarely do the owners have the correct paperwork started.
In KC, we have over 20,000 homes for sale on MLS, finding FSBO listings is time consuming and cumbersome to show as they are also not set up on Centralized Showing. With all the homes available, there is no reason for a buyer to go through the extra headaches of dealing with amateur listings who will not have the paperwork in order.
And when it comes to Inspections and negotiating after inspections, again inspections are difficult to arrange because the home isn't set up for safe, easy access.
The owners do not have a thorough knowledge of real estate contracts so are often remiss in meeting deadlines and submitting the correct documents.
Here's another tip for getting more agents to show your home: although there is no standard commission rate, suppose that many of the homes in your neighborhood are listed with 6 or 7% commisssion, if yours is at 8%, agents will definitely want to show your home to any buyer who is looking in the area. It's simple arithmetic; 4% is greater than 3.5& or 3%; 4% puts more food on the table.
After our broker takes his cut, we agents pay ~30% to Uncle Sam for taxes; ~30% for advertising budget; ~20% for licensing and other professional maintenance fees; leaving ~20% of each commission for food, shelter, health insurance, car payment, etc.
1% is not much more to the seller but it will definitely attract an agent's attention.

Other facts:
Only 10% of real estate transactions without realtor involvement make it through to a successful closing.
Sellers net an average 15% more on houses sold by realtors.
Houses sold by realtors sell faster than those sold by homeowners (don't recall the %) - Wed Jul 23 2008, 08:19

There is no such thing as a standard commission rate as that would be a violation of the Anti Trust Laws.
Interview 3 realtors in your area to see what they each offer you.
Look beyond the commission and judge the service; that's what's important. - Wed Jul 23 2008, 07:23