Most people list their property with the first agent they call. Not me. I want to meet them. I want to hear what they have to say about my property. Do they think it will sell quickly or do they think it will be a challenge. Most of all, I want to know why I should hire him or her instead of one of their competitors.
You'd think it would be easy for us since we are in the home inspection business and have plenty of experience with agents. I've recommended a number of them to friends over the years. But we were reluctant to call one of them because choosing one over the other might set off a firestorm that could end up damaging our business.
There are also some agencies that I just don't like. Coldwell Banker is one. I don't have to worry about losing business from them by saying that because unless you sign up for their vendor program, you're not getting any of their business anyway. And I won't pay to play.
ReMax and Keller Williams have some excellent agents - all the ones we've worked with have been great. But KW also have a lot of part timers. I know many people hire their friend who's a part time agent to list their house. Personally, I don't think it's a good idea. I prefer a full-time professional. (Do you want to hire a CPA who only works evenings and weekends?)
I like Ebby Halliday. All their agents are full time. And I have NEVER been asked by one of their brokers or agents to sponsor an event or join a vendor program. Although I used to hate to meet them at networking events because I always felt like they were going to take my arm off. As a group they were what I call snooty. Perhaps I found them intimidating because I'm a tad introverted.
Anyway, I digress (this is not the Inspector's Wife blog). The first agent I talked to was recommended by someone who'd done some work on our house. I met with her and she was very nice. The meeting was fairly casual, although she had brought some comps with her. After seeing the property, she gave me an opinion on price, based on her knowledge of the local market and her 20+ years of experience. I liked her a lot. She shared a few tips for de-cluttering and gave me some insight into how she intended to market my home. I wasn't particularly happy that she was with Coldwell Banker and she did make a pitch to sell me some homeowner warranty insurance that is "totally optional". But for now, she was in the lead.
We also considered some of the reduced commission agencies like Redfin. Seriously, why would you pay someone 6% of the sales price if all they're going to do is list it with the Multiple Listing Service? I filled out the online form and Redfin emailed me back that they didn't have any agents in my area, which I found odd because we've done inspections where the buyer's agent was with Redfin. I guess the bottom line was that they didn't have any agents that would list it for 1% - all of them would be charging 3%. That's the same price as a full service agent but without full service. Redfin was off the list.
I was still toying with the idea of calling some agents that we'd worked with in the past. But instead I filled out an online form to be connected with "top" agents in my area. (I suspect that "my area" was loosely defined by the website.)
That website emailed me contact information for three agents. The first one was a Coldwell Banker agent. I already had one of those, no need to call another.
The second on the list was from an agency I'd never heard of. I called and talked with the agent's assistant. I explained my timeline - we need to de-clutter, take our personal pictures down, repair a couple of cracks and then repaint a wall or two, and have the house ready to go on the market by the time we leave for England at the end of April. And she said, "It sounds like you have a lot of deferred maintenance. Why don't you give us a call back when you're finished with those repairs?"
"Deferred maintenance?" Indeed. Perhaps she doesn't understand what deferred maintenance is. I do. It's when homeowners fail to perform routine maintenance on their property and it falls into a state of disrepair. Not what's going on here. If I didn't take my personal pictures off the wall (along with the nails and hangers that were holding them up, the wall would not need to be painted. In my thinking, a cosmetic touch up is not the same as deferred maintenance. It's like the difference between putting on makeup and getting a facelift. She's off the list.
Next up was an Ebby agent. I'd seen her signs around town. We met and talked about my timeline and I showed her around and then she showed me her listing presentation that was pretty much focused on the million dollar properties that she'd listed and sold and the awards she'd won. That's nice and all, but I know my house isn't going to sell for a million dollars, so I'm wondering how much attention my listing will get when she's got those million dollar places consuming most of her time and resources. Bottom line - she came across as snooty. But to her credit she refrained from putting a price on the house until she'd done her homework. I got it in an email just as we were leaving on vacation. She thought it would sell for $100,000 less than the Coldwell Banker agent did. That's not a big difference on a million dollar property - what's $100,000 when you're talking about a million? But we were talking about the difference between $200K and $300K. I eventually got around to looking at her "scientific" calculation. It was formatted much like an appraisal. But it's scope was very limited. The things you got plus or minus for were age, square footage, bedrooms and garage. Although she did give some high points for one house that had been flipped and was completely sleek and modern on the inside despite it's old-fashioned farmhouse exterior. That seems psychotic to me, but in her estimation it made my traditional-style home worth less. Of the homes in my area, even the one that had no garage, no laundry room, a smaller lot, and only two bedrooms sold for more than she wanted me to list mine for. I got no points for updated plumbing and electrical. No points for radiant barrier. No points for HVAC units that are less than 5 years old. No points for the 12 x 16 barn. No points for the hot tub. No points for the less than one year old energy efficient windows. My best guess is that she didn't want to mess around with it so she priced it to where it would sell within an hour and she wouldn't have to waste any of her marketing money trying to sell it at a fair price. She's off the list.
But with the big gap in suggested pricing, I knew I needed to speak with a few more agents.
To be continued...
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