Why it’s smart to work with a top real estate agent

An investment in real estate can be a balancing act, especially for a person who has invested in a rental property and needs to figure out if it’s worth the continued investment or whether it’s time to offload the property. In the Triangle, where resale homes continue to be a need, it’s a great time to sell a home. But what happens if a home isn’t selling in an area where homes are desperately in need?

When Kim Myers, a real estate agent with The Jim Allen Group, learned a former rental property across the street from her home was going to be listed on the market, she wanted to get involved. The property owner lived out of state, she explained, and they planned on doing minimal work to get it ready to list.

“They had their tenants move out, and then they did your standard stuff that investors do: paint, replace carpet,” Myers said. “He decided to put it on the market and list with me. I started with the I did everything that I normally do as far as marketing goes, providing all of the photography. And the house was very basic, so I added virtual staging to dress it up as much as I possibly could. I had two showings, and the feedback was very neutral.”

However, Myers saw a diamond in the rough with the home and approached the seller with ideas she saw from her professional perspective to help the home sell. “I started telling him everything that I felt needed to be done, and he was very open to the suggestions,” she said. The result has been game-changing.

Myers said the first thing she did was find the right contractor. “I took it back off the market and found my contractor, who has done quite a bit of work for me,” she said. “I always bring very specific people in to do that. He and I went through the home and made a list of everything that needed to be done.”

She sent videos to the homeowner to show what needed work and then made sure the contractor was readily available to discuss timing, pricing, and potential work that could be done.

“At The Jim Allen Group, we have a resource list that we recommend,” Myers explained. “We have every kind of business you could imagine — all the way from contractors to lawn maintenance. We work with these people consistently, and they work very hard to get on a Jim Allen Group referral list. It’s people that we have vetted, that we have worked with, that we know do a very good job.”

She said that list is one of the benefits of working with a JAG agent. “A lot of a lot of agents are pretty much on their own, finding somebody reputable, finding somebody that they trust. And, you know, you hear stories all the time: ‘I called a contractor and gave him a deposit, and I never saw him again.’ Or ‘he did half the work, and he hasn’t been back for 6 months.’ You really need to work with people that you trust and that you know they’re going to do the work correctly the first time.”

Once the contractor was on board, Myers said they made a list of work that needed to be done and presented it to the seller.

“One of the first things that I noticed about the house was the kitchen island was in the wrong place, and the island included the kitchen sink and the gas range,” she said. That meant moving the island, taking granite countertops off the island, moving the gas and water lines, and repairing flooring. “Luckily, we had leftover flooring from when the house was first remodeled, so there is flooring to put around the island to finish all of that.”

Myers said another major need was removing a deck from the front of the house. “The deck on the front was more of an eyesore than anything else,” she said. “It was a backyard deck. So we ripped it off. Luckily, there were there was still the original brick stairs under the deck. It made a world of difference.”

From there, the team painted the home black instead of tan and added gray accents with a cedar banister and railing on the black brick porch. “And then we also put in a stained-glass window above the door that ties all the colors in: the black, the cedar. The front door is going to be kind of a honey mustard color to match that cedar. It’s very modern-looking. It went from very drab, just no curb appeal, and now it’s completely a different house.”

Myers said most of the rest of the home was getting subtle upgrades, including flower beds around the perimeter of the home, new handrails on the interior, brushed chrome hardware throughout the home, and new light switches and electrical outlets. To stay on budget, they reused a lot of things that were already in the home, including cabinets. “We made another cabinet area in the kitchen with a big double pantry, three cabinets down the side, two floating shelves above it, and a butcher block countertop that matches all the rest of the cabinets in the kitchen. The kitchen is twice the size now as what it was.”

Myers said one of the reasons the seller was so agreeable to the remodel was because of the current Triangle market. “People want move-in ready homes. They don’t want to move into a house that they have got to do a lot of work on before they’re able to enjoy it.”

The biggest selling point was the cost that Myers pitched to the seller. “We’ve only put $17,000 into it, and it is a completely different house,” she said. “This is one of the advantages of working with a good REALTOR®.”

In addition to hiring a great contractor, Myers said she had other tricks up her sleeve to make sure they stayed on budget. For example, she saved the homeowner between $2,000 to $3,000 alone by advertising a free deck on Facebook Marketplace. “People came and dismantled it — they were thrilled to death — and they took it and put it up on their property,” she said. “Didn’t cost us a dime.”

And while the home isn’t yet listed on the market, Myers is confident the home will sell easily. “The same amount that we put in, I am going to be able to get back,” she said. “It’s going to be like a zero investment for him. But this is something you have to be very smart about. You have to keep in mind the comps in the neighborhood. You have to keep in mind your overall outcome, what you’re doing, why you’re doing it.”

In addition, Myers managed the process with her contractor for over just four weeks, all because she believes in giving her clients the best experience possible. “This is not anything I charged for,” she said. “It’s part of my normal seller commission. I want to make sure that my sellers get white glove service, making sure everything is exactly the way they want it. We’ve got to get it sold.”

Myers also said it’s critical to work with the right people who are concerned about your needs as a buyer or seller.

“A big concern for a lot of sellers is how much commission you are going to charge,” she said. She said to ask what an agent provides for their commission. “Are you getting a sign in your yard, and you’re being told, ‘Call me when the house is ready’? Are you getting somebody who’s going to put it in the MLS and say, ‘I hope we sell this house’? You get what you pay for.”

In Myers’ case, she believes acting as a project manager and real estate agent will pay off more in the long run for her sellers. “You’ve got to take that into consideration because it’s very important,” she said.