From NorthJersey.com:
Should you renew agent’s contract?
Diane Barone could hardly wait for the six-month real estate listing on her Elmwood Park ranch home to expire in late January.
She had listed with a neighbor, who is a real estate agent, in July. And she didn’t think the agent did enough to market the home.
“All she kept saying from Day One is that she recommended the house be listed at $299,000,” Barone said. “I had it listed at $325,000. Other houses in the neighborhood have sold for $400,000.”
Barone freely admits the house needs new siding and new windows, and it probably needs an updated kitchen. The feedback the agent got from potential buyers is that the house is too small, the back yard is too small and there’s no upstairs, according to Barone.
“Unfortunately, because the housing market is the way it is, I didn’t feel I got my money’s worth out of my agent,” she said. “If I had sold the house, I would have had to pay $17,000 in commission.”
Barone got three offers in the $280,000 range. But, doing the math, she realized she couldn’t sell at that price, pay the commission and pay off the mortgage. She is now working to sell the house on her own.
Sellers trying to swim the chilly waters of the housing market for the past three to six months, and whose homes remain unsold, now have a decision to make: renew with their current real estate agent, or go elsewhere.
“Absolutely, you should renew the listing if your Realtor has done everything he or she said they would do,” said Joan Sobeck, an agent and real estate author with 40 years’ experience, from RE/MAX of Woodcliff Lake. “If the price is too high, that’s not the Realtor’s fault.”
Yes, it IS the Realtor’s fault…for taking the listing at an unsellable price. That’s a clear demonstration of an agent’s lack of negotiating skill. Not surprisingly, that lack of negotiation skill shows up later in the chain of events.
Many sharp posters here understand the negotiating power of the willingness to walk away from the table. The first negotiation that happens in any RE deal is the one between selling prospect and listing agent. A good listing agent should be prepared to “walk” on any listing in which the seller demands a price and terms that are unattainable.
It’s amazing what happens when a quality agent refuses to take on a bad selling proposition. Even the most entrenched of sellers will sometimes come around to taking a more reasonable position.
4 room 2 bedroom home on small lot, that needs “TLC” but…… and this is where seller’s have a hard time, the last few months have not showed ( in that area) that $325,000 is off, there were other homes with similar descriptions that sold above $280,000 this is not a so in your face lower it situation. I don’t know, but it’s not all price.
KL
PS:
Three offers of same price also say alot!
KL
Clot,
Have walked away and had someone else come in and sell it? At or close to owners price.
KL
Clot
Don’t forget the Friend/neighbor factor – it gets us all the time.
KL
KL (4)-
No. Good question.
KL (5)-
To steal and re-work a line from “Jerry Maguire”:
“They don’t call it real estate “friends”. It’s a business.”
Clot and rhyming, are you at all familiar with the home in question? What do you think it should have been priced at?
Lindsey
Not familar but I checked it, on mls and was not sure as I stated in #4 if it was all price. If you slashed to $250.00 it would sell, is that what it should be – Don’t know- Is that what it will end up ? don’t know that either.
KL
she realized she couldn’t sell at that price, pay the commission and pay off the mortgage
Looks like Diane is underwater. I wonder if she is a recent buyer or if she refi’ed herself into trouble? I think we are going to see many sellers in this situation. They want to sell but simply can’t afford to sell for fair market value. Those who can afford the mortgage payment and spiraling property taxes will just be stuck and miserable. Those who can’t will face foreclosure. I wonder which group will make up the bulk of the distressed sellers?
Can someone with MLS access check and see if this listing has closed, and, if so, what was the sale price?
235 1629
Thanks!
Clot: I agree 100%. Any chance you could convince the rest of the brokers out there?
CommercialRE (12)-
Why should I do that? That’s my competitive advantage.
The big, old-fashioned companies wouldn’t listen anyway. They’re not listening to thousands of buyers and sellers who need help right now; why would they listen to me?
The market is warming up a little now, have patience and list it in http://www.forsalebyowner.com and do the marketing for yourself.
The realtor will only get at most $125 for each additional $10,000 the seller is getting. The realtor is not going to work hard on prompting the house for extra $10,000. In turn if the house is listed at $290,000 and sold for $280,000 the listing realtor only lose $125. Did you see the picture ?