Pick The Right Agent To Sell Your Key West Home!

There are plenty of adequate real estate agents in the Key West area, but when it comes to selling your home on today’s tricky real estate market, you don’t want a good agent. You want a great one. The only way to ensure that your Key West real estate transaction goes smoothly and according-to-plan is to hire a professional with a lot of experience and a thorough knowledge of the area. As a Florida Keys real estate professional, I have come across agents who are both good and great, and I know what steps to take to find a superior one.

Even if I’m not the agent that you choose to work with, I still want to help you and the people in my community find the right person for the job. Selling your home on the Key West real estate market is no easy task, but if you do the necessary preliminary work to find the right agent, they will take care of the rest and get the job done right. Here are a few things to do to find the right real estate agent:

Find some potential prospects. Whether you choose to peruse agent databases like Trulia, Zillow and Realtor.com or get referrals from friends and neighbors, you need to come up with a list of options of people to interview for the chance to sell your home. Giving yourself options will ensure that you find the right person for the job, and it will allow you to measure whom would be the best fit for your transaction. Limit your search to agents with credentials that match your needs to further guarantee quality service.

Make sure you ask the tough questions. You are looking to hire someone to sell your home. This is a huge deal, and you need to be able to trust the professional who will take this on for you. Basically, now is not the time to be skimping on the difficult questions. Your Florida Keys real estate agent should be intimately involved with your neighborhood and know every nook and cranny. The right professional will also offer you constructive advice and guidance and a complete marketing plan.

Find out who the agent is working for. Many real estate agents attempt to utilize dual agency, or work on the behalf of both the buyer and the seller. This isn’t a bad thing, necessarily, but you might feel more at ease if the person you hire is working only on your behalf. Clarify their agency before you hire them so you understand what you’re getting yourself in to within the transaction.

Does your agent have any backup? Agents who work alone might be qualified to get the job done, but it’s hard for them to be great when they have to take care of everything themselves. It would be ideal if your real estate agent had some sort of assistant or marketing team helping them out with administrative tasks. This is a clear sign that they will have the time to work for you and on the major components of your transaction, as they will have people taking care of the more menial tasks on their behalf.

Make sure you sign the right contract. Different types of properties sell at different rates, so you want to make sure that you’re signing a contract that makes sense for your particular property. If you have a high-end home, it’s not uncommon for an agent to ask for a year to get your property off the market. For more moderately-priced homes, 3-6 months is normal. It’s important to discuss this with your agent early-on to have an understanding of what to expect during the process.

If you follow these five steps carefully, I’m confident that you will find a great real estate agent to assist you in buying your Key West home. My many years of experience living and working as a Key West real estate agent have taught me that these are the steps that sellers SHOULD be taking when they’re looking for someone to help them sell their home. It’s important to start your transaction off on the right foot, and this process can help you do that.

If you have any questions about selling your Key West home, don’t hesitate to contact me! I’d be happy to meet with you and give you some advice. I hope to hear from you soon!


Melva Wagner
Sellstate Island Properties
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Prepare Your Key West, FL Home For Sale This Spring!

Nationally, home buyer activity is at a high this spring, and that in turn has motivated sellers in the Key West area to put their homes on the market sooner. Despite the fact that activity is up, it is still a challenge to sell a home in this market. As a Key West real estate agent, I use my years of experience and skill in successfully closing many transactions to give my seller clients an edge. I let them know what they can do to prepare their home for showings in a way that will place it competitively among other homes for sale in the area. If they know how to make their home optimal to today’s buyer as they’re preparing to sell it, then my clients will find that their home will be sold quickly, successfully and for the best value possible.

There are a number of things that you can do to start preparing your Key West home for sale. Here are some suggestions that will not only whip your home into shape, but will make today’s choosiest of home buyers line up to make you an offer:

•    Amp up your landscaping. Curb appeal is a huge part of what initially reels a buyer in and makes them interested in a property. The more appealing your home is on the outside, the more likely people will want to go inside and have a look around. A large part of achieving a fantastic home exterior is clean, neat and aesthetically-pleasing landscaping, so make sure to make that a priority as you prep your Key West home for sale.

•    Clean up the outside. Clean your gutters and pressure-wash your home’s siding. A freshly cleaned exterior makes your property look well-maintained and newer. Having debris in the gutters will make things look sloppier and neglected, so don’t forget to focus on making the outside shine as much as the inside.

•    Make all repairs early. A Key West home buyer will catch what needs to be repaired, and that will affect your offer and even make some people a little bit nervous about bidding on your home. By addressing all the issues early-on, you’re putting a buyer’s mind at ease and keeping the value of your home intact.

•    Make the front door inviting. Adding a fresh coat of paint to your home’s entryway will add a cheerful element to the exterior and make it look more inviting to buyers. Add a fresh Welcome mat and make the pathway clear to the doorway in order to take your entrance to the next level.

•    Remove clutter and personal touches. When a Key West home buyer walks through a home for the first time, they’re not going to be tempted to make an offer unless they can envision themselves living in your home. This is difficult to do with your clutter and personal family items all over the house. Since you’re going to be moving out anyway, look at this as a great time to start putting things away and packing things up. That way, your home will look neat and inviting without looking too overpersonalized.

These quick suggestions are ones that are often overlooked by many sellers in the Key West area, so implementing them early-on will give you an edge on the competition. As a Key West real estate agent, I consider it my job to guide my clients through this process, and I always recommend these quick fixes in order to whip their homes into shape.

If you have any questions about preparing your Key West home for sale, don’t hesitate to contact me! I’m here to help guide you in any way that I can. I hope to hear from you soon!


Melva Wagner
Sellstate Island Properties
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View Florida Keys Homes for Sale
Search Florida Keys Homes
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