[journey1]

NEEDING HELP! Would any of you in Marion County (Ocala FL) could give me several GOOD real estate companies to list my home with. Have it currectly listed with a realtor and the agent hasn't shown it in 10 months, not one time. Price is with-in range comparison around where I live. Contract expires in October. HELP!

My husband and I would like to move to TN. I know things are slow...but come-on...not one showing. Somthing is very wrong with this agent.

Thank you.
Jouney1

[House4Sale]

CAUTION -- DO NOT TRUST THOSE booklet and website blurbs where an agent/agency is rated by a (trustworthy, accurate??) panel saying how great a realtor/realty company is. Ex. We did (thought we did) our homework looking under every rock and asking around and read several books and web blurbs telling us how great a partic. realty co. was and went w/them. Turns out that was several weeks earlier. The star producer went on his own and the owner of the co. was clueless and has to be the worst.

Make sure you do not get a realtor who sloughs off acct. on a newbie agent. That happened to us. We hired him and got his asst., a gal who was only three months in the business. She did absol. nothing for us. Do not sign a contract with an amt. in the exit fee blank. One charges a client 1,500+ to exit if customer is unhappy w/agency. Make sure their office has a live person answering phones on all days. One co. we went w/did not and even had their phones turned off for several days. Also, I'd find a house w/a sold sign, knock on the door and ask directly the people who sold the house how the realtors were. (Make sure it's the owners who sold it though). Get recommendations from actual customers, friends, family rather than refs. from ads, polls or another agent (might be their friend or they may just not know). If you do not pick the right agent it can do more harm than good. There are several who post here who seem good but I don't know first-hand or if they're in your area.

So far ReMax and Weichert seem good, professional. Coldwell...we had mixed results with. Small neighborhood agencies cannot cast as big a net as a bigger co. but some have great agents so it totally depends on the agent. Many are great where many should not be granted licenses. Best wishes!

[journey1]

Thank you for the info. We will be more selective than the first time around. These so call agents are doing great harm to the home owners that are trying to sale they home.

Thanks again.
Journey1

[MyHomeIsInOcala]

journey1... what company are you using?? Use one that is NATIONAL... I will PM You!

[pslOldTimer]

Color me confused -- is your house not in MLS? If it is, then switching from agent A to agent B gains you nothing, because agent B has been a member of MLS all along, and if they had a prospect, they would have shown it.

One possibility is that your existing agent is not offering a fair split of the commission to the selling broker. Many agencies think they can keep 60% or more of the commission for listing, and pay 40% or less to the selling broker. Selling brokers will therefore steer their clients away from your home, unless they've shown them everything else.

Another possibility is that your house is unique in some way, and there just have been no buyers looking for that type of house. My kids are selling a house like that; it's a 5 BR, 3 Ba house on 2.5 acres with a pond and an oak lined driveway -- sound great? Yes, but it needs some work, and the people with large families and the skills to do the work yet with enough money to buy a house like that are few and far between. The right buyer will snap it up -- except that the right buyer may not exist in this market, or may have found a better deal before they ever got to yours.

The bottom line is that it's tempting to blame the agent when the house is not being shown -- this is the same conversation I just had with my daughter -- but there are dozens of possible reasons. What you have to do is try to get to the heart of the problem and work with your agent to get it corrected, adjusted, or whatever is needed to get it sold.

You mentioned that price is in range with comparisons; is that with houses that are listed for sale, or houses that have sold? If it is the former, you're probably all comparing to each other and none of you is getting to the right price.

[ddlove01]

Wow, not even one showing...that seems extreme, but if it's on the market all competing real estates could scoop up your listing. Have you asked your agent for ideas to bring in more buyers? Open houses? Brokers Open? It probably wouldn't hurt to ask...

Have you ever dropped your price in 10 months? We kept dropping our price a little bit so it was in the range that appealed to buyers...we found the comfort zone as I like to call it. You can't go by what others are priced, actually, if you price about 10K less than your competition, you should come out ahead. 10 months is a long time, but it's not unheard of in this market.

[Jim280]

Originally Posted by journey1

NEEDING HELP! Would any of you in Marion County (Ocala FL) could give me several GOOD real estate companies to list my home with. Have it currectly listed with a realtor and the agent hasn't shown it in 10 months, not one time. Price is with-in range comparison around where I live. Contract expires in October. HELP!

My husband and I would like to move to TN. I know things are slow...but come-on...not one showing. Somthing is very wrong with this agent.

Thank you.
Jouney1

It's not likely the agents fault you haven't had any showings. I have a friend in Brevard County that hasn't had a showing in 8 months, they are listed with the same realtor that sold 5 houses for me in 2 years... the agent is one of the best around.

[abra]

I had a realtor once just sit in my house getting customers for other homes all while there was no interest in my home. I ended up waiting until the listing expired and sold it by owner.

If you need to sell or want to get out soon, I sugest you try to cancel the contract with the realtor and either hire another one or try to sell it by owner or get it listed in the mls by a realtor that charges a flat fee (can vary $250-$500 depending on the real estate broker) and offer a decent comission to the realtor which actually brings you a client.

Also make sure your house is priced right, if it is overpriced then you will get no interest and it will sit and sometimes that's worse, because you could loos potential buyers.

Good Luck!