What can a real estate agent do to sell my home that I can't do for myself?

Actually, the facts and experience show the difficulties of trying to sell your own home usually far outweigh the benefits. Here's what your agent does that a home seller can't do or finds hard to do:

- Places your property in the Multiple Listing Service (MLS), which exposes your home to all the buyers working with cooperating member brokers. This effectively puts every agent in town to work helping to get your home sold.

- Exposes your property to a large pool of qualified buyers the agents spends a career generating. Without that network, a for-sale-by-owner home seller is reduced to a yard sign, some classified ads and lots of luck.

- Provides solid up-to-date market information with recent sales and current listings, which helps you price your home realistically. Such pricing is crucial to the possibility of a quick sale at the best price obtainable.

- Shows your home whether you're in or not, saving you hours of "minding the store."

- Provides pre-qualified buyers who know what they want and how much they can afford. Screening prospects saves you from the hassle of keeping appointments with "sightseers" and protects you from the threat of "unwelcome visitors."

- Shows your home to its best advantage. Buyers often shy away from asking homeowners questions; homeowners are sometimes defensive about defects in their homes. An agent can answer necessary questions objectively and guide the buyer to a purchase.

- Helps you negotiate a satisfactory sale. Without an experienced mediator to act as a buffer between the parties, many situations bog down.

- Leads both you and the buyer through the puzzles of rates, points, fees and financing options, helping with loan placement and follow-up, including the provision of names and telephone numbers of specific loan officers. Without expert knowledge of alternative financial resources, many sales are lost - especially in tight money markets where knowledge of buy-downs, variable-rate mortgages, graduated-payment mortgages and various types of seller participation come into the picture.

- Protects your interests from contract to settlement or closing with an understanding of real estate procedures. An agent has the ability to smooth the way toward agreements and the experience to attend to all the details that must come together before settlement or closing can take place.