OK... So here's the scenario...
You have a home, or piece of real estate for sale. You KNOW that you want to use a real estate professional to help you with your sale, but you just aren't sure who to call. Being the responsible consumer that you are, you decide to follow Mom's advice and interview three agents before deciding who to list with.
AGENT A - Meets with you, and gives you his assessment of what it will take to sell your property. Based on the current slow market, he advises you that it may take 90-120 days to get an offer. He also tells you that in order to compete with the 500 other listings for properties JUST LIKE YOURS, you may need to have a lower price, ESPECIALLY if you need to sell your property more quickly. After a careful analysis, he comes up with a price of $350,000. In your mind, this doesn't sound all that great, after all you were hoping for closer to $400,000. That's what the Jones' got for their house last year... right down the street.
AGENT B - Meets with you next - After a long discussion and a careful analysis on her part... the conclusion ends up being pretty much the same. "WOW - I guess our home just wasn't worth as much as we thought," you say to your spouse.
AGENT C - Comes to your home, takes a look around, and asks you how much you were looking to get for your home. When you tell him $400,000 he lights up with a smile. "That's just the number I was thinking." Finally! Someone who agrees with you. Your sense of want takes over, and suddenly both of the other two agents you interviewed fade from your memory. How is this guy going to market your property? What will he charge? Who cares? He told you what you WANTED to hear. The only question left is "WHERE DO I SIGN?"
We all LIKE being told what we want to hear. Here are some things I would like to hear from the professionals I work with:
My CPA - Don't worry about the IRS, they never audit people anyway, and I can make sure you NEVER pay a dime of taxes on any of your income
My Attorney - Illegal Schmegal, Just do whatever is best for your own interests, and leave the legal questions to me
My Doctor - Don't worry... go ahead and smoke, drink and eat whatever you want, I can cure anything with this little blue pill.
My Financial Advisor - I can guarantee you 120% annual returns on your investments
My Realtor - Sure your house is worth $200,000 more than you paid for it last year
These all sound nice, but they are fantasies. We wouldn't accept these statements on face value from a CPA or a doctor, but our sense of greed always comes in to play when looking to sell our property. Why is that?
The fact is, we are in a tough market right now. Properties are selling for less that what they did just a few months ago in some cases. It requires a professional agent who know's what they are doing in order to get the most money for your property. OVER PRICED LISTINGS will hurt the bottom line for you, when you finally do come out of fantasy land and decide to lower your price, it may be too late. All the newness of your listing will be gone, and at the rate things are going, your property may be worth a little less in 90 days that it is worth today. When you return to Agent A, you will find he now thinks you need to start at $340,000 just to get enough attention.
These unprofessional agents are everywhere, they not only hurt their own clients, but the whole market, by keeping listings on for month after month that DO NOT SELL. I will be happy when these agents finally are no longer able to sustain themselves in the real estate industry, and find an alternative career path, as only then, will this market turn around.
These poor sellers are doomed. They'll probably get beaten up for a price reduction immediately. If some fool does come along, the home won't appraise. Ah well. Like Vicky said, it can be good to be the second agent in this case!
Time always reveals the truth...............always! And time is on your side.
Let us know how it goes when you get the listing in February! Thanks for posting.
I had a seller contact me last year after having their home listed with an agent for six months. This agent did them such an injustice, but people listen to the price instead of reason. They put the house on the market overpriced. Six months later, I relisted the home and had to sell it for much less than it would have gone for if it had been priced right to begin with! I felt so bad, but there wasn't much I could do as I didn't have the listing six months prior. The sellers learned a hard lesson.
I wish I could add something brilliant but Craig and Vicky are right.
I have another fib from a professional. Don't worry Mr. Keberlein your hair will grow back!
I agree with you all the way!! This is the exact reason why we have so many houses just sitting on the market or expiring. Thanks for sharing this with us. Here is a blog I wrote just a few days ago. Enjoy!!
"It takes more than a price & a sign to sell a home."
Nicole Garner-Portland Metro Oregon
I am the AMEN chorus. I just don't get the point of taking overprice listings. Interview the consumer carefully and disqualify those that are not realistic.-- if they are going price their home correctly, you will only lose money!
Vicky/Antoinette/Craig - I think Craig is right about the pride issue. I've been down that road
Gene - I personally never sweat it. Because I deal mostky with foreclosures, this doesn't happen to me too often but it's still an issue industry wide - AND it is affecting property values that there is too much inventory that is overpriced and stale. If these people would simply ALL take their homes off the market, the absorbtion rate would go down, and we would have a healthier market. Add BAD real estate agents to the list with bad mortgage lenders for the blame for our market!!
Kim - at least they finally learned
DAN - You are right - greed can cost sellers
Randy - Perhaps a good toupee would help :D - " Noboby will be able to tell" (How's that for a good lie?
Chris - Just triple every number in my above example and you have California
Nicole - good post... I read and commented!
Joan - Here's your Choir Robe!
Jesse & Kathy - Let her have 'em they were greedy sellers anyway!
Mike,
Pulling other agents records and giving them to sellers is a dicey way of doing business, no? I couldn't get away with that in my neck of the woods.
Dawn Cox
REALTOR/e-PRO
http://www.wayneintegrityteam.com/
Weichert, Realtors
991 Hamburg Tpke
Wayne, NJ 07470
cell: 201-755-2633
Henry - glad you found me!
Mike/Dawn - I have to go more with Dawn on this one, although I would love to print and post the statistics of the bad players. I believe you just have to be willing to let unreasonable sellers go. There are plenty of people who will see things your way.
One thing you can do is know the other agents numbers if they tell you. I would maybe compare number and If my numbers were better, I may say wither that in comparison my numbers for x are the best of the people they are interviewing, or just let the sellers know your numbers and ask the others their numbers. I find the key is to educate the seller on what to look for so they don't get fooled by the other guys brochure.
On a side note, Dawn you shouldn't post your contact info in comments, the AR rules say this is a no no unless you have permission of the blog owner. :)
It's unfortunate, but this happens quite often. In our listing presentation, we refer to the Code of Ethics:
REALTORS®, in attempting to secure a listing, shall not deliberately mislead the owner as to market value.
We explain to sellers that they will, most likely, encounter an agent that will try to "buy" their listing by unethically quoting an inflated price for the property.
Amazingly enough, some folks still don't get it or it takes a few months (as you stated) before they finally get it.
My question is this: We all know that this is an unethical practice, yet there are REALTORS out there that do this every day. Why can't it be stopped? Why are there no consequences?
turkeylisting and for the sellers out there...It sure doesn't pay to overprice your home! These sellers could have at least walked away with $19,000 extra in their pocket, but because they decided to hold out they walked away with considerably less and no where near their original asking price.