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It never occurred to me to do this till reading this but when people are evaluating which realtor to list with, can people ask for ALL their past listings for say a year, to see how long houses were on the market? Also listings are still on the market its fairly easy to contact the other owners and get feedback on how much communication they are getting.
any agent should be happy to give you this information, including the phone #'s for current sellers.
I think the “agent forgot me” problem is quite common. It’s due to this kind of thing that I give a listing agent a very short initial trial run of about 90 days. If I’m not happy with their response time to questions, booked showings, or attention to the details, they are dropped at the 90 day mark. I’ve used enough agents to know that a good one will be easy to reach and gives an obvious impression of actively working on the sale of your home. You may want to consider changing agents. I suggest looking at local agency websites and see who is full time, who seems to have the most sales of homes (hopefully some in you price range), and who gets good word of mouth.
I don't understand really. The appraisal is ordered by the Buyers Lender for the Buyer and is paid for by the Buyer. Usually we (Listing agent and seller) do not get a copy or hear about the appraised value just that it has appraised. If the appraisal comes in above the sales price, you could not renegotiate the contract sales price for the higher appraised price.
Back to OP... We agents are paid by Commission , not by the hour or length of time a home sits on the market. It's in our best interest also to not let a home linger on the market. An agent who lets a home sit on the market for 9 months in a good market means something is very wrong.
The seller can pay for it if they choose to do so.
I think the “agent forgot me” problem is quite common. It’s due to this kind of thing that I give a listing agent a very short initial trial run of about 90 days. If I’m not happy with their response time to questions, booked showings, or attention to the details, they are dropped at the 90 day mark. I’ve used enough agents to know that a good one will be easy to reach and gives an obvious impression of actively working on the sale of your home. You may want to consider changing agents. I suggest looking at local agency websites and see who is full time, who seems to have the most sales of homes (hopefully some in you price range), and who gets good word of mouth.
If 90 days is a short trial run, this might explain part of the problem. You're in a different part of the country where real estate is moving much more slowly, and things might work differently. I guess I could see agents forgetting about properties that aren't getting any interest if it's normal for sales to take months and months. In which case, if you feel he's not calling you enough, why not call him?
Having said this, it doesn't quite make sense to me. After all, they've already spent time and effort courting you, but they don't get a dime until a property sells. So ignoring a property means they lose money/time. Unless a property turned out to be worse than they thought, and they don't want to throw any more time/money after a lost cause.
Maybe a beginner might do that, but I doubt a seasoned, professional realtor would waste his time like that.
Then again, I'm no expert and It's true that I've met a few realtors who do things that make me wonder. So, do yourself a favor and spend a little time looking for a realtor. Don't just use your nephew or some friend of a friend who is doing this as a hobby. And, as I said earlier, if you aren't happy with how someone calls you, don't wait for the phone to ring--give him a call.
They are sales people. You can expect real estate people to act like sales people. In other words, as soon as they have gotten what they want from you, they're done.
In this context, a listing agreement doesn't pay a dime, so a committed listing agent would be working toward a close, not just a listing--so the effort after getting the listing is what counts to these "sales people".
OP: You don't mention anything of substance about what drove your decision to list with this agent. You've sold multiple properties but fell for a cheerleader pitch? No CMA? Did you price within comps? A nine month stale listing that finally sold? What changed?
Back to OP... We agents are paid by Commission , not by the hour or length of time a home sits on the market. It's in our best interest also to not let a home linger on the market. An agent who lets a home sit on the market for 9 months in a good market means something is very wrong.
But if a listing agent has 5 500,000 thousand dollar houses to sell and one 150,000 house to sell I imagine they would spend more time with the clients whose property will be a bigger payoff both in terms of sale and referral.
And/or squeaky wheel gets the grease.
All the in town clients can track you down far easier than the one out of town client and you'll never see the out of town client again whereas the intown client might be a repeat customer.
But if a listing agent has 5 500,000 thousand dollar houses to sell and one 150,000 house to sell I imagine they would spend more time with the clients whose property will be a bigger payoff both in terms of sale and referral.
And/or squeaky wheel gets the grease.
All the in town clients can track you down far easier than the one out of town client and you'll never see the out of town client again whereas the intown client might be a repeat customer.
All of these are possible, but a smart agent will not neglect any client.
That $150,000 sale often turns into multiple sales.
And, I have clients I have never met, from out of town, who will say good stuff about my service.
Smart agents value every client.
But, yes, some people are short-sighted and the squeaky wheel usually gets the grease.
All of these are possible, but a smart agent will not neglect any client.
That $150,000 sale often turns into multiple sales.
And, I have clients I have never met, from out of town, who will say good stuff about my service.
Smart agents value every client.
But, yes, some people are short-sighted and the squeaky wheel usually gets the grease.
True enough. There are agents that won't have anything to do with the smaller listings. Dumb really. People that own those know people that own the bigger things. Why limit yourself?
I listed a trailer once that lead to a 400K listing. I pays to treat everyone with good service.
The seller can pay for it if they choose to do so.
In my 20 years I've never seen that done. The seller can make a lump sum payment towards closing costs or the Title Policy but in our contracts there is no option to pay for the Appraisal.
The Appraisal is for the Lender actually not the Buyer.
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