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Hello everyone, I know this thread has appeared before and I have read alot of the responses. My situation is one of being out in a rural water front community for sale by an out of area MLS brokerage. I am offering 3% commission to a buyers agent and have aleady dropped my price. In the last 6 months I have only been shown once however my weekend directional signs have been taken down by someone I suspect are local agents. Since my husband and I moved here we have been looked at as "come heres" so I suspect my choice of non local brokerage companys was not well received. By the way I did call on two local brokerage's however they wanted a full 6% to list my home. After verifying that they had minimal marketing and counted on walk-in traffic to sell, I choose a more progressive discount MLS company that I paid for the broker to be in our local MLS. Anyway...I suspect now that the local RE houses have alot of their inventory to sell and I am just one more house to compete with. At this point I since I have dropped my price I do not have much room to go full service, so I am considering a bonus structure or increasing the commission. I can not afford to lower the price again plus pay a bonus plus offer closing costs to the buyer...any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Just dropping the price has not worked...doesn't get the agents to my house. Thanks...
I see this question a lot. Brokers don't "blackball" a home because it was listed with someone else. they want to a sale any way they can get it, not to mention buyers will find it if they are looking for something like yours and ask to see it. I suspect your problem is something different with only 1 showing, I'd bet my bottom dollar you need to reduce your price. Also, most of the time it's actually neighbors or town ordinance officers that remove signs.
Forget the bonus and reduce the price more instead.
It is not uncommon in a rural area that agents sell their own listings.
If that is the case where you are, you may be paying a severe price for bucking the local dynamic.
When you bought, did you buy a FSBO, with help from an out-of-area buyers' agent, unrepresented as a buyer? Or working with a local agent?
Location: Mokelumne Hill, CA & El Pescadero, BCS MX.
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I lose signs all the time at some locations. I've quit putting them up in those areas. I can assure you that no agent ever messes with signs (even FSBO's).
We've found that out of area agents rarely price the local property correctly and as such their days on the market are longer. I've always been curious why sellers choose out of area franchise brokers (None of the locals around here are franchise operators.
I know one big reason that sellers choose a cheapie real estate office - they think they'll net more. I suppose if the market was HOT ther might be some truth to this, but even then the exposure of the better offices tends to result in shortest list times...
The OP is in a tough spot, and if the commission makes the difference between breaking even or losing money I can understand how tough the decision is.
If the OP's home is truly as perfectly staged as one could hope for, (which is the lowest cost way to get top dollar) if the price is as competitive as possible, if the exposure and overall marketing is as good as one could hope for, then I would say that sweetening the deal FOR BUYERS with thinks like "will pay closing costs" are better than sweetening the deal for agents, as MOST agents really want to sell SOMETHING more han they care about how big the bonus is...
Speaking on the question of whether to offer a "bonus", I've only ever viewed a bonus as just that: a bonus. AFAIK, no agent can refine their MLS search results to filter by "owner offering a bonus to selling broker/agent". Now, while I'd like to believe an agent wouldn't ever "encourage" a buyer to go for the listing offering the bonus, I'm sure it's happened at least once. But, any ethical agent would easily resist the temptation to do that. Just like chet everett said, these days, most agents would be happy just to get any sale.
It is not uncommon in a rural area that agents sell their own listings.
If that is the case where you are, you may be paying a severe price for bucking the local dynamic.
When you bought, did you buy a FSBO, with help from an out-of-area buyers' agent, unrepresented as a buyer? Or working with a local agent?
No we purchased from a local broker, one of the two that I approached to list with at 6%. They have the best location in town for visitors on weekends etc and they probably get alot of walkin traffic. Actually they were the ones whom showed my home however we did not get an offer. My girlfriend works for them as an agent and told me that they get a extra bonus for selling their own lisitings. As for my missing signs there is alot of traffic that drives by our street on their way to a recreational island. It is interesting that yard sale signs do not get touched but my directional signs get taken down...anyway enough of that I guess. As for determining an appropriate price for my home it has been hard as I am using the local agents pricing on similar homes as a guide. I was hoping by maybe offering more commission or a bonus and dropping the price I could compete with their internal incentives and in this ecomony the agents might be more interested in showing my wonderful home..
No we purchased from a local broker, one of the two that I approached to list with at 6%. They have the best location in town for visitors on weekends etc and they probably get alot of walkin traffic. Actually they were the ones whom showed my home however we did not get an offer. My girlfriend works for them as an agent and told me that they get a extra bonus for selling their own lisitings. As for my missing signs there is alot of traffic that drives by our street on their way to a recreational island. It is interesting that yard sale signs do not get touched but my directional signs get taken down...anyway enough of that I guess. As for determining an appropriate price for my home it has been hard as I am using the local agents pricing on similar homes as a guide. I was hoping by maybe offering more commission or a bonus and dropping the price I could compete with their internal incentives and in this ecomony the agents might be more interested in showing my wonderful home..
Rudy,
You used a local guy to buy, but not to sell?
Why didn't you use an out-of-town guy to buy? Because the local guys get it done, and had the visibility.
I'm not saying you are right or wrong, or that the locals are right or wrong. I'm just saying there may be some local dynamic that you are trying to buck, and you may be paying the price.
I am very curious why you didn't let your girlfriend list it, especially since she actually works for the local brokerage, who has their finger on the local pulse. My guess is that the out-of-towners listed for less. Bad move.
A note about your directional signs that are missing .... many cities / HOA's, etc have ordnances that prohibit or restrict signs. You may be violating these laws and someone officially is taking your signs. Happens to us agents all the wrong time if we put them in the wrong spot, wrong hours, wrong sign language.
Any sign placed in a public right of way is many times considered "Abandoned" and anyone can take it. Once you put it out on a public street it is no longer your sign.
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