- SellForSure University Home Page
- Module 1: Introduction
- Module 2: Sell By Owner, or With Agent?
- Why You Should Use a Real Estate Agent to Sell Your House
- Drawbacks to Using an Agent
- How to Choose a Real Estate Agent
- How NOT to Choose a Real Estate Agent
- How to Interview a Real Estate Agent
- Questions to Ask your Real Estate Agent
- Dual Agency
- Check an Agent's Work
- Communicating with your Real Estate Agent
- How a Real Estate Agent gets Paid
- Discount and Flat Fee Brokers
- Real Estate Listing Agreements
- Your Real Estate Agent's Job in a Nutshell
- Module 4: Valuing and Pricing your Home
- Today's Real Estate Buyers are Savvy and Empowered
- Real Estate Values and Pricing
- What Matters and What Doesn't in Pricing your Home
- Every Home is Unique
- Three Major Factors affecting Real Estate Values
- Online Real Estate Price Evaluations
- Real Estate CMA or Comparative Market Analysis
- Real Estate Appraisal
- Realtor Property Report (RPR)
- Which Real Estate Valuation should I Trust
- The Real Estate Auction Sales Model
- Overpricing Your Home for Sale
- How to Maximize your Home Sale Price
- The Virtue of Underpricing your Home
- Selling your home with little or no equity
- Module 5: Preparing Your Home for Sale
- Inspecting your Home Prior to Selling It
- Preparing a Full Disclosure Package for Home Buyers
- Contents of a Real Estate Disclosure Package
- Making Repairs to your Home prior to Selling It
- Required Retrofits of your Home
- As-Is Real Estate Sales
- Selling as a Certified Pre-Owned Home
- Preparing your Home for Sale
- Enhance your Home's Curb Appeal
- Home Staging
- The Cost of Preparing your Home for Sale
- Module 6: On the Market
- When to List your Home for Sale
- Living in a Home vs. Selling One
- Getting the Word out about your Home
- Showings and Open Houses
- When Buyers are In the House
- Make your home Available, but make Yourself Scarce for Showings
- Offers and Negotiations
- Selling a Home that is Tenant Occupied
- Selling your Home in a Tough Market
- Recognizing the Wrong Price for your Home
- Real Estate Price Adjustment Strategy
- How to Sell a Home and then Buy Another
- Moving after Selling your Home
- Module 7: Negotiating and Closing the Sale
- The Residential Purchase Agreement
- What Happens when you get an Offer on your Home
- Negotiating the Sale of your Home
- Top Negotiation Tactics to use when Selling your Home
- The Buyer's Due Diligence
- The Real Estate Closing Timeline
- Delays in the Home Sale Process
- The Buyer's Appraisal in the Purchase Process
- Real Estate Tax Information for Home Sellers
- 1031 Tax-Deferred Exchange
- How much it Costs to Sell a Home
- Module 8: SellForSure System Walkthrough
- Goals of the SellForSure System
- The SellForSure Home Sale System Guarantees
- Traditional Real Estate Marketing Methods
- Active Real Estate Marketing
- Free Home Inspection and Termite Inspection
- SellForSure Pre-Sale Services
- The SellForSure Web Portal Status System
- SellForSure Preparation Phase 1
- SellForSure Preparation Phase 2
- SellForSure Preparation Phase 3
- SellForSure Preparation Phase 4
- SellForSure Preparation Phase 5
- Launching your Home on the Market
- SellForSure System Listing Syndication
- How to Manage Showings on your Home
- Real Estate Open House Events
- The Perfect Home Sale Schedule
- While your Home is on the Market
- The Two Week Review Cycle
- What to Expect Once your Home is Under Contract
- Closing the Sale of your Home
- Module 9: The Realty World Advantage
You may have noticed that some agents have a bunch of letters after their name; these are their real estate agent designations. You might see it on their business card, e-mail signature, or on their web site, for example.
So what’s that all about? These are Realtor® designations, and they indicate that the agent has completed some level of training beyond what is required to simply hold a real estate license. There are too many designations to list here, but some good ones to look for include:
- CRS – Council of Residential Specialists
- e-PRO – has received specialized training in marketing real estate on-line and via social media
- GRI – Graduate of the Realtor Institute
- SRS – Seller’s Representative Specialist
- SRES – Senior Real Estate Specialist
Some designations are comparatively easy to get – requiring only a few hours of taking classes either on-line or in a classroom setting. Others, such as the CRS, GRI, and SRS, require multi-day classes and the CRS designation in particular requires that designees meet actual minimums of sales volume. Any agent holding the CRS designation is certified to have significant sales experience.
Also, you should know that many of these courses do qualify for state-mandated Consumer Protection continuing education credits. The fact that an agent has – or doesn’t have – these designations should not be a litmus test for choosing to work with a particular agent or not. However, when you are compiling information about potential agents to work with, you should look to see if the agent does have any of this additional training and certification. All other factors being equal, it may be the factor which tips you in favor of one agent versus the others.