Frequently Asked Questions

  • Real Estate Agents must complete certain licensing requirements and pass an exam in Texas which then allows them to represent clients who want to buy, sell, or rent a home. An Agent with a real estate license must find a Broker to sponsor and supervise them to be allowed to practice real estate.
  • Real Estate Brokers must have four (4) years or more of experience and they must complete additional education requirements beyond that of a Real Estate Agent. To become a Broker, you must prove to the state that you have transacted multiple transactions and pass a separate and more rigorous licensing exam.  According to the Texas Association of Realtors, approximately 13% of all Agents hold Broker’s licenses in the State of Texas.  Brokers also help clients buy, sell, or rent homes.
  • Nicole Andrews has been a Broker since 2011 and has helped people buy and sell over 300 homes in the DFW area. In 2021 she was in the top 1% of all agents in Dallas County.  She and her team continue to welcome individual buyers and sellers as clients.
  • The short answer is ‘No’, you do not need an Agent or Broker. As with any job you take on, however, you need to be prepared to understand the skills and tasks required to complete it successfully.  ‘Success’ in real estate is usually defined as getting the best price for your home.  Assuming this definition, the skills that are required to successfully sell your home include:
    • Pricing your home properly for the market (as homes that are under or overpriced can lose money for the seller)
    • Preparing your home properly for the market so it shows in its best and fullest potential
    • Extensively marketing your home through photos, signs, 3D tours, brochures, open houses, videos, emails, social media, and potentially print advertisingTaking calls to schedule showings for your home
    • Showing your home to all potential buyers
    • Negotiating to get the best price possible
    • Learning Texas Real Estate contracts so that you are properly, legally, and fairly completing these
  • FYI, according to the National Association of Realtors, statistically homes that are sold with a Real Estate Agent/Broker closed with a 22% higher price in 2021 compared to homes sold by the owner directly. To view the full report click here.
  • Great question! The homes that are best prepared for the market will get the best prices for the seller.  Your Real Estate Agent/Broker’s job is to ensure that you know what do to so that you can maximize your sales price.  Our clients at Nicole Andrews & Associates receive a detailed market analysis so they can understand the potential value of their home and who is their competition.  We also discuss whether you should complete a pre-inspection and we provide a free staging consultation to give you a specific list of items to complete to get the home ready for the market.  Finally, the marketing of your home is critical to bring forth the best buyers.  Our team pays for all professional photos, videos, 3D tours, and other marketing collateral to show your home in its best light and to its full potential. 
  • In the State of Texas, most buyers conduct a home inspection prior to purchasing a home. The standard Texas Real Estate contract allows the buyer to terminate the contract if they find something they do not like in the home inspection whether they choose to negotiate repairs with the seller or not.  If the home you are selling has not been inspected within the last several years, it can be a good idea to get a pre-inspection to see what issues may exist before putting it on the market.  Every year we see homes fall out of contract because something was found in the buyer’s home inspection that surprised the buyer and made them decide to look for another home.  In most of these cases, if the seller had been made aware of the issues ahead of time, they would have been able to fix or address the issues prior to going onto the market.
  • If the seller does choose to conduct an inspection prior to listing the house, they should also disclose the results of the inspection to potential buyers. The seller can provide a list of repairs with the inspection so that the buyers know what was fixed.  In our experience, buyers appreciate the fact that an inspection was done recently and feel more confident in making an offer on these homes.
  • It depends on a number of variables including the current inventory of similar homes in the market, listing price, availability of your home for showings, and whether it is in a good shape when it is shown. In the detailed market analysis that our team completes for your home, we can give you an estimate of how long it will take to sell and what the market will likely pay for your home.  What is statistically known, is that the first two (2) weeks on the market is when your home will garnish the most interest, so it is important to have everything ready for the first wave of buyers.  We will make sure you know what to do so that your home will make the best ‘first impression’ when it comes onto the market.
  • This is probably the most important question relative to selling your home. If the home is priced too low, the seller will ‘leave money on the table’ at closing. If the home is priced too high, the home will stay on the market longer than it should and usually develops a stigma that ‘something must be wrong’ with it because it has not sold yet.  Statistics show that even when the over-priced house is dropped to fair market value, this stigma can cause it to still not sell, resulting in the seller needing to drop it below market before it finally goes under contract.  So, whether you underprice OR overprice your home, it can lead to getting a suboptimal price for your home.
  • Your Real Estate Agent/Broker is your neighborhood expert. Their primary responsibility is to help you price your home correctly.   They should be able to tell you the value of your home in its current condition, as well as the value with any improvements, repairs, or staging suggestions you make.
  • Nicole Andrews & Associates use the Broker Price Opinion (BPO) method to value your home. This method requires a certification given by the National Association of Realtors to Agents/Brokers who have completed and passed rigorous training.  This method is different than the commonly known Comparative Market Analysis (CMA), as it is much more thorough and uses more details of your home when determining a price.  The result is a more accurate prediction of how the market will value your home.