In January we decided to put our Texas house back on the market. There was one agent I phoned simply because she sent me a Christmas card. I knew very little about her but we chatted about the house and what might have gone wrong when we put it on the market last May. Then she said she'd go over and have a look and get back to me.
She got back to me alright.She sent me a terrifying email - told me the ceiling was falling down and that the house was covered in mold. I was panic stricken. I know things can go wrong in a vacant house when no one is paying attention. But we'd been there in October and it was late December - less than three months later. I sent one of our inspector's over to check it out. Bottom line, no collapsing ceilings that he could find and no evidence of any organic growth. And if terrifying me wasn't enough, she also insulted me. She said the entire house was in DIRE need of a redo - especially the kitchen. She told me it would never sell like that - not at ANY price, except to an investor who wanted to rehab it. We'd redecorated the living, dining rooms and hallway less than two years ago. The kitchen redo was about 12 years old - all the cabinets had pull out drawers and the corner cabinets all had lazy susans. The laundry room redo was less than two years old. (I couldn't believe my taste was so bad that the entire house needed to be redone. Most people who came into our home were very complimentary about it. And I believe the compliments were sincere because if you don't like it, you don't have to say anything at all.) I suspect she was trying to set my expectations extremely low.
She said my best move would be to sell it to an investor (flipper) because no one would buy it unless it was completely renovated. And this was where she could save me money by NOT putting it in the MLS, but focusing on her list of over 50 investors. I didn't ask her how she thought that limiting exposure to other agents and their clients was going to save me money because I didn't want to argue with her. So now, in addition to insulting my taste, she also insulted my intelligence. Her big point was that other agents were just tossing out unrealistic high prices to make me happy and get the listing when they knew full well they couldn't sell it at that price. (Still trying to lower my expectations.)
Long story short, we didn't list with her. I didn't appreciate that she tried to scare me into thinking something dreadful was wrong with the house. I didn't appreciate that she insulted my taste and sensibilities by trying to convince me that the house was hopelessly unappealing. And I didn't appreciate that she tried to position herself as the only person who was telling me the truth and then being so bold as to try to tell me that not listing it with MLS would save me money. (To me, that was stretching the truth way too far.)
In the end, we listed with another agent who came highly recommended by a friend and who did not think there was anything dreadfully wrong with the house, and her only suggestion was that we repair and repaint the wall in the hallway. The wall's previous amateur repair job had been covered by a bookcase when we lived in the house, so it wasn't something we'd noticed needing attention. Anyway, the house sold within three days of hitting the market and we had three offers to choose from and only one of those offers was from an investor. The other two were people looking for a home.
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