Real estate agent advice- Northern Cal (Sonoma: for sale, foreclosures, leasing)

[Katiesmom716]

My questions(so you don't have to read my long post to get to them): Do we continue on in the same manner with our current agent and chalk it up to the market? If I seek out another agent, any questions or tips to guide me along? Is there a website to find the top selling agents in my area? Anyone have any tips on awesome Northern Sonoma County real estate selling agents?


We are in the same boat as other sellers. We have already moved to SoCal, but our house is still on the market in Northern Sonoma County. It has been on the market for 6 months. It shows every week, we have lowered the price by $120,000, but we have not received a valid offer. Our house is in line with others in the area (yes, we have followed the foreclosures and short sales down..very frustrating) We understand this is the reality of the market, but we also are not too impressed with our agent. In fact, we send her calls to VM, because she insists on giving us a "doom and gloom" speech every week. We have asked that she only tell us what new things she is doing to market our house and when we have a true buyer. Her entire marketing plan is the MLS, Homes and Land magazine(which I only pick up when I am waiting on my car at the car wash), and mentioning that our house is for sale at her weekly office meeting with other real estate agents. She finally posted it to Craigslist one time when I insisted she try something new.

I understand the market is rough for agents, too. But I also understand that couples like us do much of the looking on their own first via websites and other message boards. I have to imagine there are some really creative seller's agents out there or at least some sellers who are great at what they do, even in this market.

The time has come to either re-up with this agent or move forward with someone else. She wants us to return another 6 month agreement. I already explained that this was too long. Like I said, we are already in SoCal, but I am willing to travel north if I am armed with the right questions to seek out a creative agent.

My questions: Do we continue on in the same manner with our current agent and chalk it up to the market? If I seek out another agent, any questions or tips to guide me along? Is there a website to find the top selling agents in my area? Anyone have any tips on awesome Northern Sonoma County real estate selling agents?

Thank you. Happy home selling!

[Sorcerer68]

Ask your current agent for comparable home sales in the last area for the last 3 months i.e. location, size, bedrooms, age, style, condition and amenities. All factors being equal, the 3 most important things to sell a home are:
1. Priced Right
2. Shows Well
3. Easy to See

The most important thing an agent can do to sell your property is to make sure every agent in the area knows about it, then again with every price reduction. I work in a team and with our listings, I work agent contacts constantly. Has she put your home on Broker caravan? This is sooo important! Regular open houses are a better tool for agents to get clients than it is to sell the house BUT when the neighbors all come in and see it, they might have a friend or family member who has been asking what's available in the area because they want to move there and voila! I've had this happen more than once. Another is to make sure your pics on the MLS are stunning. Often other agents won't show a property because a) nobody "sold" it to them and b) when the client was looking online, the dumpy pic made him pass over it.

For you, ask yourself if your home is spotless and shows wonderfully. Is it empty? Is it staged? If it isn't staged, consider doing it. Companies will do it for you. If there's any peeling paint, grown up yard, etc it needs to be taken care of. Anything that shows wear should be addressed unless a home is being sold as a fixer. Were you able to get into any open houses of similar homes when you were still there? This helps immensely to see what your competition is. If they all have brand new kitchens and bathrooms and yours are an 80's remodel...or conversely if your home is spotless and theirs aren't, you hold an advantage.

Another trick is to knock it into another price point by lowering the price $100. People enter search parameters like "below 500k" and homes exactly at 500k don't show up. Homes priced $499,900 do.

Your home needs to be in the top 20% condition wise and bottom 20% price wise to sell. This is the only way it will happen in an extremely rough market. If you've purchased a home down here, you bought low so if you sell low...not a disaster. If you sell high, you buy high.

If worse comes to worse, you might consider offering owner financing i.e. carrying a note for maybe 5 years with a decent down payment. Versions of this are limited only by your imagination. Lots of people are leasing their homes out right now. I only suggest doing this if it won't be an "alligator" (monthly payments and upkeep higher than rent).

Regarding the agent question...if she's skipped the things I mentioned above, you might look around. If not, realise people hate us right now and many of us are doing our best. Sellers loved us when the market was hot and all we had to do was bang a sign in the ground and things sold in a week for over asking with multiple offers. Now we are spending tons more money on advertising and homes are 10 times harder to sell (unless you're in my area). 4months in a good market and 6-8 months in a mediocre market and more in a bad one if all your ducks are in a line. If she's a slacker, get rid of her. If your home doesn't fall exactly within the parameters above, that's why it didn't sell. If you are uneasy with her, tell her you'll sign her 6 month listing with a right of cancellation with (3) days notice (or something like that). If you stay with her, it will make her feel better if you can't commit to her listing. She sounds like many agents, she's gotten extremely discouraged.

I have one acquaintence who does sensational business like so:
He lists properties 20% under market value. When they hit the MLS and Broker's Caravan especially, he gets a flurry of offers. This is pretty common these days. We don't do it in my part of town but it works well for him.

Best of luck to you. If you have questions, PM me.

P.S.
The top selling agents in your area are likely sitting with their heads in their hands right now. Some surprising names are popping up as the survivors. Ask "what training have you had re: selling property in a down market and how have you implimented it?" That will weed 90% of agents out.

[Katiesmom716]

Thank you for the reply. Just started pulling out my hair after I talked to our agent first thing this morning. She talked about the office fax machine for 20 minutes. I have even gone so far as to try and talk over her, but it rarely works.

I haven't heard of a Broker's Caravan before. (This is our third house sale, but we had fabulous agents the last two times.) I will do some surfing on that today to learn more-sounds like it is something we need her to do. Also, thank you for the advice on the extension of her representation. The three days notice to cancel is an excellent idea; it is exactly what we need to feel comfortable about signing it!!

I think I will head up north and talk to some additional agents. Your question regarding training in a down market and how to implement it is, once again, excellent!!

Our house is in move in condition (with the exception of the backyard). It was built in 2003 and has some upgrades. It ranks in the top 15% of homes on the market, I would even go higher after seeing some of the disasters in the custom homes. The interior color is neutral (eggshell, etc.) Won't bore you with the details. The house is extremely clean down to the baseboards. The backyard needs sod. We had that lined up to be done in March just as our house went on the market and our agent said not to bother putting any money into the house or backyard, because our house was better than anything she has seen for sale and foreclosures were coming around. I mentioned the backyard again in April and in May. She tossed it aside as unnecessary. Okay, I got started. Sorry about that. I have asked my husband about landscaping in the past two weeks, and of course, putting more money into the house after dropping it makes him grumpy. I tried to explain we may end up renting (and need the backyard done) sooner or later, because carrying the mortgage and renting in SoCal is alot of money each month.

Anyway. Thank you, thank you. Off to research Broker's Caravan and find some realtors to interview.

[DMenscha]

I might also suggest you speak with the Broker in charge of the office if you're not satisfied with the agent. Perhaps s/he could help get things off dead center. If you were my client and not happy with the service you received, I would release the listing. But this is a small town and I couldn't afford a bad reputation.

[RandalR]

Originally Posted by Katiesmom716

Our house is in move in condition (with the exception of the backyard). It was built in 2003 and has some upgrades. It ranks in the top 15% of homes on the market, I would even go higher after seeing some of the disasters in the custom homes.

None of that matters - if it hasn't sold, it's priced too high. The market dictates the price, and you can't afford to hold on since it's very likely prices will be lower still in a year.

Drop it 10%. If it doesn't sell in two weeks, drop it another 10%. Repeat until sold.