 Posted 2/8/2007 3:05:54 PM
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My partner and I listed our house with 4 differenet realtors from four different agencies in 2006, Three out of the four gave very little effort if any to sell our house.
Agent 1. Hired in Oct. 2005 her husband whom I work with begged me to list with his wife because she was new to the job and wanted to get her feet "wet" boy was that a mistake. All she kept saying was lets wait until after the holidays to do something. Grant it, it is tough to sell anything during the holidays but geez at least make an effort for those people coming into town visiting that may want to look at moving here.
Agent 2. After about two weeks of being nice and stopping by to visit my partner at the house and check to see if anything has happened, then I guess he decided spending all his days on AOL was more fun then going out to make some money. He religiously signed on to AOL from 9 - 5 Monday thru Friday. How was this going to sell a house?
Agent 3. He was an arrogant pampas * (parden the language ladies) and had house listings from Washington DC. to Viginia Beach Va. so he was never going to give any of his clients any attention, I think he was in it just to make "big bucks".
Agent 4. THis agent was actually a little more active with the house and did open houses every other week, but every time I tried calling him at his office he was never there and I would find him at home. He and I decided November of 2006 to call it quits and cancel the contract.
The same week that I stopped dealing with the last realtor I went out to lowes and bought one of their cheap for sale by owner signs and actually put it at the entrance to the subdivision ( which none of the agents did) and had three callers that very week. Now I'm going to work with doing seller financing and see if we can't have some better luck.
So I'd definitely check an agent out if you plan to use a realtor and find out how many homes they've sold in the past year. This will tell something about the person.
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Posted 2/14/2007 1:53:11 PM
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Clyde's experience with agents is a lesson for all to learn.
Selling your most important asset can't be left to amateurs. Just as you would do due diligence buying anything expensive, you need to do the same with an agent.
1) Be sure to interview three agents.
2) Make sure the agents specialize in your local community.
3) Ask them specific questions on how they plan to market your home.
4) Check references. Talk with recent home sellers and ask them how hard the agent worked for them. How responsive was the agent etc.
5) Don't sign a contract for more than 90 days. In most areas, it still takes 60 - 70 days to sell a home.
6) IF all the agent is doing is having open houses, the agent isn't working hard for you. The point of using the agent is the connections and contacts with other agents who have buyers looking for a home.
The first agent Clyde worked with was wrong about the holiday season. While sales are slower, homes are still being sold. In fact, my niece and nephew each bought homes during the 2006 holidays.
FSBO Guru
Owners.com
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Posted 8/25/2007 10:10:19 AM
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| Clyde and FSBO Guru - So you called the office and the agent was never there. Well DUH! Have you heard of laptops, wireless, DSL and the latest new fangled gadget: CELL PHONE! This ain't the 1970s. Real estate is different now. An agent sitting in the office is a starving agent. Almost all agents work mobile now. Good agents are OUTSIDE looking for buyers and sellers. There's no justifiable reason for an agent to stay in the office all day. Why would you expect an agent to be in the office awaiting your beck and call? Really, why? 90 day listing. Sure, I might take one with a 365 day expired period so that when the seller whispers or calls the prospective buyer later that day and says, "The listing expires real soon. Why not wait until it expires, then
I can sell it to you cheaper." I had a thieving, no good, sorry and I hope his next born has green skin, purple nose and 3 eyes, pull that stunt on me on a $1,000,000 farm sale. Education is expensive. That one costs me and my family, for whom I work very hard to support, about $100,000. Happen once, shame on you. Happen twice, shame on me! GURU: Open houses usually benefit the agent, rarely the seller. Here's why: The subject open house home rarely sells from the open house, but IF anyone shows up, the agent gets names and phone numbers of buyers so they can show and sell them other homes. Sorry, but that's the way it works.
Marvin Shelley, Broker
Wesy Fork AR
(479)879-2989
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