My house has been on the market with a realtor for 6 months. All she did was put a sign out in front of my door and list the property on the MLS. She didn’t even go the extra mile to list on additional sites or anything. After 4 months of no action I asked for an open house. I sent her an email saying that nothing had been done for 4 months except calling saying an agent called and wants to show the house. I asked what’s the next step and she had none. I reluctantly lowered the price twice to total $20,000 which I sort of now regret because she did nothing. Half the time I could not get her on the phone, so I wonder how many possible buyers couldn’t get in touch with her either. Her contract is up next week and I need advice on if I should give it a go myself for a few months. I have lots of experience in sales and marketing and I am not working right now. What do you think?
My house is in New Orleans, LA. It is in a very nice neighborhood on the city called Lakeview. One that is actually considered to be one of the best. It is also on a beautiful Blvd. that gets lots of exposure.
G, I understand your fustration and agree with you that maybe that agent didn’t do all she could have. But before you get your pants in a knot, what I would suggest is talking with 3 other Realtors, interview them in effect. Here is what you want to have them tell you – not what you ask them;
#1 MLS to Realtor.com
#2 Brochure booklet for the home and extra’s for potential buyer to take with them after showings
#3 Brokers Open House with first 2 weeks of listing
#4 Open House (Sat/Sun) within 30 days of listing
Most agents have access to various sites on the internet to advertise their listings, they should tell you up front what those are.
While advertsing in newspapers helps the agent, the only time I would ask for such advertising, is a week before your weekend Open House.
You can certainly go the FSBO route if you like, but I can tell you from personal experience, that most inquiries will be spam or scammers. Most buyers that approach by calling or coming to the door, may not be qualified and you want to be careful not to let anyone in when you are alone.
Last but not least, while today’s buyers do a great deal of research and looking online, most end up buying with a Realtor. Don’t miss the few buyers that are out there, because you decided you could do it on your own.
February 23rd, 2010 at 3:38 pm
I don’t know where you live, but the real estate market is really bad right now. In my small town which is usually prosperous, there are houses all over the place that have gone unsold for 12 and 18 months.
Since your broker is failing and unresponsive (perhaps she had to get another job to supplement!) and since you not only have sales experience but are not working, I say yes, give it a try yourself.
Be disciplined; set some goals. One goal should be a time limit for selling it yourself so that you are forced to reconsider whether you want to continue (if it doesn’t sell) or go back to a broker.
References :
February 23rd, 2010 at 4:05 pm
It sounds like you picked a bad real estate agent. Or at least you picked an agent that never communicated well with you- and I think that is a bad agent. An agent does not get a salary at all and normally gets no money at all unless they sell your house- it is designed that way to highly motivate the agent to work hard. Sometimes an agent takes a listing that they do not believe they can successfully sell- that is bad for the seller and bad for the agent and Broker.
I train my agents first to be honest as to our opinion of true market value. She may not have done that for your. If she had told you what she thought it would actually sell for and you listed it for that- she should have been very excited and worked very hard for you (and followed up telling you what she was doing).
I train my agents to try their best to obtain feedback from other agents that show the home. This is much more difficult than it first appears. We have come up with dozens and dozens of ideas over the years and so far we have only improved the ratio of feedback by a small amount.
We use information sheets in front of the home (that do NOT answer all the questions- they are designed to get calls) and we put up directional signs when allowed by the city (weekends).
Our MLS automatically downloads to dozens of public websites- I thought every MLS did.
I almost never hold an open house on an occupied house. It exposes my clients to starngers when we don’t even have a phone number and know nothing about the visitors motives. I do hold open houses on vacant houses- the most common result is I get buyers that want a very different house- it does not help the seller but it does help me.
I would not advise selling your house without representation. Every time you show your house or hold an open house you will wonder who these people are and why are they really here. You will also not be very experienced in qualifing them as serious buyers.
I recommend you find a competent, honest experienced agent. Ask your freinds and family who they can recommend.
References :
February 23rd, 2010 at 4:32 pm
first, FISBO is a regular occurrence.
second, as a private seller, your property won’t appear on the MLS system because you aren’t a member of it and can’t become one [licensed brokers only are permitted].
third, you misunderstand what an agent is supposed to do and how the system works — every realtor in your area is a sub-agent of your agent [she will split the fee with them if they sell the house]. That leverage is how most houses are actually sold.
So, to FISBO, you’ll have to generate the sales leads yourself that the MLS system is generating for your agent. That means that you’ll probably want to advertise in newspapers at your expense, post via websites [with photos], etc., etc.
you’ll also need an attorney if and when an offer is received.
***
Why doesn’t a house attract many interested potential buyers?
many possibilities — chief among them are
1. not many shoppers out there.
2. price is too high for what you’ve got and what the competition is offering.
3. ineffective marketing
4. shows poorly — not in "move in" condition
5. poor "curb appeal" — people actually looking drive by and, for whatever reason, won’t stop.
I’m pretty sure there are other reasons — and this probably covers the majority of cases.
References :
properties investor
hey — I won’t even look at a property if the profit fundamentals aren’t close to being there — that’s the relationship of rent to price [including repairs] and rent to total costs. Why should I waste my time on people who aren’t willing to sell for a price that lets me make a profit?
February 23rd, 2010 at 4:49 pm
G, I understand your fustration and agree with you that maybe that agent didn’t do all she could have. But before you get your pants in a knot, what I would suggest is talking with 3 other Realtors, interview them in effect. Here is what you want to have them tell you – not what you ask them;
#1 MLS to Realtor.com
#2 Brochure booklet for the home and extra’s for potential buyer to take with them after showings
#3 Brokers Open House with first 2 weeks of listing
#4 Open House (Sat/Sun) within 30 days of listing
Most agents have access to various sites on the internet to advertise their listings, they should tell you up front what those are.
While advertsing in newspapers helps the agent, the only time I would ask for such advertising, is a week before your weekend Open House.
You can certainly go the FSBO route if you like, but I can tell you from personal experience, that most inquiries will be spam or scammers. Most buyers that approach by calling or coming to the door, may not be qualified and you want to be careful not to let anyone in when you are alone.
Last but not least, while today’s buyers do a great deal of research and looking online, most end up buying with a Realtor. Don’t miss the few buyers that are out there, because you decided you could do it on your own.
References :