Are the services of a listing agent worth 3% of a house to you? The primary function of a listing agent is simply to get your property into the MLS system, something you can do yourself nowadays for a relatively small fee. What else could you do for yourself? Could you research the realistic value of your house in the market and price it accordingly? Are you savvy at online marketing? Could you prep your home for an Open House and show it to potential buyers in a way that makes the house desirable? Could you be a hard-nosed bargainer and bring your potential buyer up to their “price ceiling?” If so, you could pursue a “For Sale By Owner” method of selling. Alternately, if the cost savings interests you but you’re less sure about valuing the house objectively and bargaining over the final price, read the surprising options available today from Oresy.com; these are covered in the last section of this book.
The Listing Contract
Think of this contract as the terms of employment between yourself as the seller and the broker you hire to find a buyer. Remember that a broker typically is hired for a fixed period of time and, in order to secure a commission, that broker may urge you to accept a low offer before that period ends rather than see zero compensation because no deal was completed.
The Open Listing option
When you give a broker a non-exclusive agreement to list your property, this is called an Open Listing. Using it, you can hire thirty brokers and agents if you like, assuming they welcome open listings. If one of the brokers listing your property finds a buyer and the deal closes, you must compensate that broker for his role.
6. How do I evaluate potential agents?
Because of the serious cost of hiring an listing agent or broker -- often more than 6% of the value of your home -- do your best to avoid the services of an unprofessional or ineffective agent. Here are a few potential signs of trouble to watch out for.
Agents must be there to help you, not to push you. Look for thoughtful agents. Not only considerate and polite, although this helps: did the agent come to the interview prepared with list and sold comps in the area? How about a detailed marketing strategy?
If your agent or broker isn’t able or interested in educating you about every step in the process of selling your property, seems to be asking you to “rubber stamp” decisions rather than make them yourself, or seems to play on your inexperience to personal advantage in any way, you need to find a new agent immediately, or consider selling without an agent. Ignore pushy brokers and agents.
If they push you early and hard to sign a listing agreement, especially a lengthy one, walk away. After all, if the agent can’t be bothered to thoroughly outline their intended strategy and patiently answer all your questions before moving on to the contract, you can’t expect much from him after the contract is signed.
And beware of desperate agents. Are agents calling you at all hours to plead for your business? This is probably not a very successful agent.
Agents who have no focus on specific property types or geographical area are unlikely to know enough about your specific area and class of property to serve you optimally.
Agents uncomfortable with other professional consultants such as contract lawyers or property inspectors may not be able to negotiate effectively as you try to close your transaction or present the property well to potential buyers.
Marketing Strategy: Today’s market requires a real estate agent to be a marketer above all else. Ask the agent about his/her marketing strategies. How will they advertise your property and where? If their only responses are the standard ones—the MLS, free sites like Craigslist.org, and fliers in the neighborhood—be skeptical. Can they guarantee strong page rank on the major search engines? If I type in “real estate” and the name of my town into the search boxes of YouTube and Metacafe, will I see my property?
Minimize the term of your contract. It’s in the listing agent’s interest to contract with you for as long as possible. In other words, no agent will promise to sell your house in two weeks. As a seller, you want your agent to do everything possible to maximize the price and minimize the time the house sits on the market. If you sign a contract with an agent for six months, you are giving an inattentive agent no incentive to sell your house in the next five months. A good agent will push the property effectively from day 1, of course, but if you don’t have this kind of agent a long contract term can seem like an eternity. If your agent insists on a six-month minimum contract term, find someone who wants to sell your house sooner. A 60-day term is ideal, but settle for a 3 month contract if necessary.
Could you recommend an agent?
- Mar
ia, I heard you’re putting your house on the market?
+ We already have an ad in the paper and online. But I think we should bring in an agent. Do you know any good ones locally?
- You don’t want to use ours. We sold our house five years back and had some trouble with an inexperienced guy. He not only urged us to sell at a low price, he lost our first promising prospects.
+ What happened?
- We’d already moved out and the agent was going to show the place by himself. The prospective buyers showed up on time first thing in the morning, waited twenty minutes for the agent. When he got there, he apologized for being late but had forgotten the keys to the lockbox and so couldn’t show it anyway. We never saw those two again. So we never saw that agent again!
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