3 BIG Reasons to Hire a Local Agent

If you’re considering buying or selling a home in 2021, you probably know it’s a hot seller’s market that takes skill to navigate successfully. Don’t let this discourage you. With the right agent to prepare and guide you, you will be able to buy that perfect home or sell your home seamlessly, at the right price.

For buyers, inventory is low, so you are likely to run into multiple-bid scenarios. How do you get that freshly renovated house that you adore (think sleek, white, open-concept kitchen — oohlala!) without overpaying? For sellers, even though the real estate gods are smiling down on you, it’s important to keep it real. Buyers are educated, discerning, and still willing to wait it out if they’re not getting what’s on their wish list at a price they feel good about. That means price still matters, as do staging and effective marketing.

I’m going to be blunt. When buying or selling a home (yes home sellers, this is for you too), choosing an agent who knows the local market saves you money. 

Here are the 3 BIG reasons:

The Power of Proximity

It’s a very simple but powerful truth. Being close to something — literally — inspires intimacy and knowledge (kind of like knowing the fun, fabulous, and quirky details of each of your family members).

For buyers:

Local agents know every nook and cranny of your dream town — the neighborhoods and what they offer (bigger, flatter yards, closer to town or school, or not-so-great stuff like if it’s in a flood zone), have access to insider school info, and have already been inside most of the properties available and know their backstory.

Once you move into your new home, a local real estate agent will continue to be there for you. She may even live around the corner! This is particularly helpful if you are a first-time home buyer or new to the area. You can get advice on home maintenance and have access to a wealth of knowledge on the best landscapers, plumbers, and decorators near you.

For sellers:

Too often, I have seen homes listed by non-local agents who do not turn on and off the lights for every showing, ensure that there are fresh flowers, or that the staging is just so. If you have a local agent, she will be there, literally. Let me give you an example of a new listing I got for exactly this reason.

A friend of mine, let's call her Avory, called me in desperation because her gorgeous yet vacant co-op was on the market for months and not selling. As it turned out, the listing broker was a busy and successful agent in a neighboring town, too busy to spend much time focusing on marketing my friend’s apartment. Mail and delivery boxes piled up (including a 50 lb. bag of dog food, which the racoons thought was awesome), staging was nonexistent, open houses were few and hosted by other agents who didn’t put much thoughtful preparation into it (drawing blinds, turning on lights, citrus aromatherapy, yummy snacks — you get the picture). I eventually got the listing and obsessed over my friend’s co-op, staged it as the luxury apartment  it was, personally held open houses every weekend, and ensured everything sparkled. The apartment had an accepted offer within a couple of weeks, despite it being in the middle of the holidays.

Proximity helps to make sure that your home is properly tended to and looks its best when it comes to showings and open houses. If you want a bespoke level of comfort about showing your home, and who wouldn’t, you can even ask a local agent to be present for every showing, personally letting potential buyers in herself. These details matter not only for your peace of mind, but in selling your home for its maximum fair market value.

Relationships Rule

In today’s digital age, it might sound old-fashioned, but nothing replaces relationships to get the job done seamlessly and with top-notch results. This isn’t to say that having a technologically savvy and forward-thinking agent doesn’t matter. It does. Home-buying and -selling research is done online more than ever, and smart agents need to fully embrace this. But technology does not replace the value of relationships. Here’s why:

For buyers:

Your agent’s relationships with other agents in the field means that she’ll know what’s coming on the market before it goes live on MLS, increasing your chances of getting you in there first. If you fall in love with a house online and for whatever reason your local Realtor hasn’t seen the inside recently (broker open houses have been cut back since COVID), she has a network of agents and friends on speed dial to get the inside scoop on any home in question.

If you're looking for a new home, you need to get your mortgage preapproved so that you have an accurate handle on your budget and are ready to make an offer when the right house becomes available. A local agent has relationships with local mortgage officers who will go the extra mile to get you approved, providing sage advice to guide you in securing your mortgage. When you make an offer on a house, the local mortgage officer will provide any needed assurances to the listing agent who represents the sellers. This will increase your chances of having your offer accepted for your dream home, especially if there are multiple offers.

In a seller’s market with multiple offers, it helps if your Realtor is known, trusted, and yes, liked, by the Realtor on the other side of the negotiating table. She will assure her clients — the sellers — that your Realtor does her homework in vetting buyers and gets the job done.

Putting together a deal requires excellent communication and collaboration skills — always with your best interests in mind. When the agents on both sides of the table have established a reputation of professionalism in their community, they want to make sure you are thrilled with the end result.

For sellers:

No matter who you hire to sell your home, your agent gets a lot of her local knowledge from her fellow agents. Who is the best and most cost-efficient stager? Need to paint the bathrooms? Who is available to get it done without breaking the bank? A local agent network is an excellent source of information to your agent and will help you get your home ready for market.

Access to a local agent network can also provide other insights. For example, a pricing committee of seasoned agents to weigh in on pricing your home can be helpful when your home is unique, with few or no comparable properties. An on-point pricing strategy is crucial in successfully selling your home, and a pricing committee of local experts can often help you get it right. 

When it comes to marketing your home, it’s important that you hire an agent who is an adept, modern marketer but also works her magic by leveraging more traditional sales avenues, like sales meetings, impromptu discussions with her peers, and broker open houses. These  conversations sell houses, and you want your agent to be fully in the mix of these local and social tête a têtes.

Market Mastery

Local knowledge means not overpaying for your dream home, selling your home for the maximum fair market value, and helping you feel confident that you are making the right decisions at important points in your journey. 

This is pretty simple and true whether you are buying or selling a home. A local agent will have her finger on the pulse on the value of local comparative properties; how much they sold for; whether or not the kitchen was newly renovated, open concept, or traditional; or if there were any underlying issues that would be undetectable in a cursory online search. Having the inside scoop on all of the houses that have sold in the area will arm you with information you need to assess what’s a fair price for buying or selling your home.