You probably know that working with a real estate professional is an indispensable part of selling your home. For one thing, your real estate professional can list your property in the Multiple Listing Service (MLS), providing your home with incomparable exposure and ensuring you have as many real estate professionals as possible helping to find a buyer. But that's not all a real estate professional does to market your home. He or she knows how to specifically target advertising to reach buyers for your home, and uses all the marketing tools available to ensure that your home is sold expediently. Additionally, a real estate professional conducts a variety of other marketing efforts on your behalf, from holding open houses and handling phone inquiries to showing your home to the prospective buyers.

Plenty. A real estate professional provides information on local market conditions to help you price your property realistically and fairly, and keeps you abreast of changes in the market which may affect your property. And let's face it: buying or selling a home means paperwork, lots of it. When it comes to closing escrow, a real estate professional can be invaluable, leading you through the paper trail with a steady hand, and familiarizing you with escrow, insurance, property disclosures and inspection procedures, to name a few.

Like finding any good professional, the best way to locate a real estate professional is through recommendations from friends or those who have bought or sold homes recently. Ask for references and check each thoroughly. Also, interview several real estate professionals before you decide on one. It's important to find a professional who is a REALTOR®. Why? A REALTOR® is someone who, as a member of the local, state, and national trade associations, adheres to a strict code of ethics. Recently, the National Association of Realtors® commissioned a nationwide survey to determine whether REALTORS® were doing their job professionally. The results were impressive: 97 percent of respondents indicated they received "excellent" or "very good" service from their REALTOR®.