Buying and selling property- Realtors please help! (sale, real estate) - Massachusetts (MA) - City-Data Forum

homesearchmass15 · 09-12-2015, 06:20 AM

Good day everyone,
We are planning on buying a home in a town with good schools, but have to sell our home first. We came across a realtor from town A who showed us a few properties initially but then decided to stop looking because we were priced out(this was in April). Move ahead 6 months,we saw a house big enough for our family in town A which we really really like and are considering putting an offer. The listing agent happens to be the same person who showed us home several months back. Now we need to sell our house in town B but despite all the new changes we have made in our home(roof,furnace etc.) this realtor tells us that our house is not worth more than 375K. I am really bummed because our house is on a really lovely street, with families with younger kids, and is really in a nice part of town BUT the zip code is what makes the price. A few wks back, another realtor contacted us and told us we could price our home 10K more than what the other realtor says. My dilemma is should we use a different agent to sell our house and the listing agent as our buyer's agent? The realtor belongs to a different town as us and my worry is that it might affect the assessment of our home and we can realistically sell it for higher than suggested.

Any thoughts from someone who has done this in the past? Can any real estate agents chime in?

I don't want to hurt anyone in this transaction but the reality is we are banking on the sale of this house to help make a downpayment for the next home.

alidmc · 09-12-2015, 06:53 AM

Many people use a different realtor-one to buy and one to sell. I actually think this is smart, if you are buying in two different towns that wouldn't be considered the same market.
All real estate is local, you should list your house with a realtor who sells a lot of homes in your current town. He/she will know what houses are selling for and will know better what you can list your house for.
When it comes to buying, you should also use a realtor who best knows the town you are buying in. You should not, however, use the listing agent as your buying agent. When it comes to buying, you need someone who will help you in making a realistic offer. If your buyer's agent is the listing agent, that will not be the case.
Also, the offer is just the first step. A good buyers agent will guide you through the inspection. If your buyers agent is also the listing agent, you are most likely on your own.
You have to be careful when pricing. While everyone wants as much money as they can possible get for their home, overpricing by even $10K can cause your home to linger on the market and sell for eventually less. I would call in a couple more RE agents to perform a market analysis and see what they have to say.
Good luck! It's not easy to buy and sell a home at the same time these days.

luvmyhoss · 09-12-2015, 08:11 AM

You could do your own comparative values using similar homes in your neighborhood.
Price is always subjective. If you want to get a higher price you can try; it can always be reduced.

Good luck.

chicagoliz · 09-12-2015, 08:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by homesearchmass15

Good day everyone,
We are planning on buying a home in a town with good schools, but have to sell our home first. We came across a realtor from town A who showed us a few properties initially but then decided to stop looking because we were priced out(this was in April). Move ahead 6 months,we saw a house big enough for our family in town A which we really really like and are considering putting an offer. The listing agent happens to be the same person who showed us home several months back. Now we need to sell our house in town B but despite all the new changes we have made in our home(roof,furnace etc.) this realtor tells us that our house is not worth more than 375K. I am really bummed because our house is on a really lovely street, with families with younger kids, and is really in a nice part of town BUT the zip code is what makes the price. A few wks back, another realtor contacted us and told us we could price our home 10K more than what the other realtor says. My dilemma is should we use a different agent to sell our house and the listing agent as our buyer's agent? The realtor belongs to a different town as us and my worry is that it might affect the assessment of our home and we can realistically sell it for higher than suggested.

Any thoughts from someone who has done this in the past? Can any real estate agents chime in?

I don't want to hurt anyone in this transaction but the reality is we are banking on the sale of this house to help make a downpayment for the next home.

You have no idea whether this agent is competent or not. How far away is Town B from Town A? If it's not nearby, the realtor might not know what he's talking about. On the other hand, he might know exactly. That phrase "Location! Location! Location!" is absolutely true. Very often, homes in certain locations will max out on price, no matter what improvements you've made or how nice it is. The primary determining factor of home value is the location. But you really need to know from a competent realtor what your home might be worth.

Don't worry about "hurting" anyone. This is a financial transaction. The realtor isn't going to go home and cry into his pillow over anything you do.

homesearchmass15 · 09-12-2015, 09:32 AM

Thanks for your input. Our current home is literally a 3 minute drive from the home in town A that we want to ultimately buy in. The homes many times go over asking(bidding war especially around Spring time). With that being said, the listing agent is a popular agent in town A. I am just tempted to use a different sellers agent (from our town) and then see how it goes. You are def. right about the location thing. I wish I had not spent so much money putting in upgrades in our current home. We thought we could have priced it higher, hence the upgrades. we have had 3 realtors (2 from town A and 1 from town B) gives us comps on our home. All have come in ranges from 375-410K. The higher prices obviously being from the realtor of our town.

Cheney87 · 09-12-2015, 01:51 PM

I would agree on using two different agents. I'm in the process of selling my house and moving to another house, both are under agreement. We put an offer in on the house we really liked and was accepted with a contingency on the sale of our house. Our house wasn't even on the market yet (was listed 3 days after the accepted offer). So since we had a timeline we were worried about the sale of our house since it needs some work. The comps came back between 280-330. We started at 329 cause you can always go down. I had an appraisal done a year ago came back at 304, figured why not try high and our lowest we could sell for was 300. Each week we went down 10k, 3 weeks later when it was at 309 we started getting offers finally and it was getting close to when the house we had under agreement would start accepting other offers. We accepted an offer of 300k, which was our target in the first place. But also there could be a bidding war if you price low because it's a sellers market right now and there's not a lot of inventory. A house two streets over needed total renovation. It was listed at 269, sold for 296.

johngolf · 09-12-2015, 05:58 PM

My last two new home purchase were cash and you would be quite surprised how cash can talk. In my last sale we got down to 3 offers (none cash) and we chose the actual less dollar offer.

1. Highest offer was dependent on sale of another home.

2. Middle offer wanted closing cost help.

3. Lowest offer was a company transfer and they asked for nothing which I considered to be the "cleanest" offer. Actually they asked for removal of two trees which cost me $600.00.

Guess which offer we went with?

johngolf · 09-12-2015, 06:18 PM

Home

I am an advocate of Seller Agents, but not of Buyer Agents. I want help/listings/contacts, etc. in selling my house but I can handle the buying aspects.

MikePRU · 09-12-2015, 07:16 PM

If the two towns are close together, chances are all the agents you've interviewed from both towns know your location equally well. Have all the agents you've met with provided you a market analysis with comps? Was there any overlap between the comps used in the three reports? Which agent in your opinion gave you a report with comps that were most similar to your home?

The one thing I want to say is just because an agent walks in your front door and says your house is worth $1M doesn't make it so. Don't get hung up on the fact that someone said your house is worth more than anyone else said. Hire the agent with the most effective marketing plan for your house and one with a track record of success. Then follow their advice about pricing.

As for the question about using two different agents . . . when the two towns are so close together it probably will not make a difference if you use two separate agents. If you use the same agent for both transactions, then it's easier to keep both coordinated in terms of the timeline and the agent may (I can't guarantee what other agents will do for you) offer you a more favorable commission structure on your sale given that you are doing multiple transactions with them.

homesearchmass15 · 09-13-2015, 12:17 PM

Thanks mikepru. Really value your opinion as I have seen very insightful posts from you on this forum. The agent who is the listing agent for the house we want to buy has helped us put a contingent offer to the sale of our house. We plan on putting our house on the market in the next few wks. I am concerned that we might be forced to accept low ball offers because this realtor is also coordinating the sale to the next house. This realtor did give us comps online. The towns are neighboring but the schools districts are like day and night unfortunately.