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House goes up on the Triangle MLS last night. It's in a fairly desirable neighborhood, easily walkable to downtown, at a price that's probably 1.5x the value of the land it sits on. Nice looking house. So the house would have to be REALLY tore up to not sell easily at a significantly higher price. In the one listing photo and on Google streetview, it looks like it's in OK/decent condition, but no idea about the inside.
So we call the listing agent this morning. In a shuffley, slightly nervous voice he tells me that the house sold about an hour after it went up, and that he sold it to a "business associate" of his that he'd showed the house to before listing it. He says that he didn't expect his associate to buy it, but he got the offer and the seller accepted it. He then rolls into the usual realtor spiel, trying to pick us up as clients.
So the listing agent sold it to a friend at what appears to be a lower-than-market price, after putting it up on the MLS for an hour (that'll help his days-on-market stats!), it's still listed as active and he's probably getting lots of calls about it (potential new clients!)
The thing I don't get is, how is this not a breach of duty to the seller? Isn't there a responsibility to the seller to market it widely, to try and get the best offer? How is this not advancing his own interests over the seller's?
No. Realtors want to sell ASAP. Period. Look at it this way. An extra $100k is worth 2% to 3% for the realtor. That's $2 to $3k. Who cares? Read freakonomics. They will explain far better than I.
I don't know about this particular situation, but I used to waste a lot of time as a buyer to only find out that the property had already closed or was in attorney review (and the seller didn't want new offers, just wanted to work with the one "on the hook" by the time the listing agent got back to my agent).
Driving by the property, figuring out an offer price, running through numbers for mortgage payments based on what our lowest and highest offer would be, figuring out time to renovate and cost (mostly through pictures and for the obvious cosmetic flaws) in order to "guess" if we could have if "fixed up" by the time our rental base starts looking. Some buyers who are ready to buy, like me, can get a little over-excited.
I've since learned my lesson and the first thing I do is call my realtor to find out the status of the property. If I don't hear back from him in 24 hours (after checking in with him to find out if he's heard anything), I call the listing agents office and ask whoever answers the phone if they could give me the status of the property. Sometimes the person who answers the phone can do so, other times they want to put me directly through to the listing agents VM.
There have been several occasions where the listing agent just won't return a call to my agent or me.
I understand the marketing aspect behind leaving listings up on the MLS that have already closed, but I do appreciate the those who update the status to "pending" or "attny review" or "sold".
I don't know about this particular situation, but I used to waste a lot of time as a buyer to only find out that the property had already closed or was in attorney review (and the seller didn't want new offers, just wanted to work with the one "on the hook" by the time the listing agent got back to my agent).
Driving by the property, figuring out an offer price, running through numbers for mortgage payments based on what our lowest and highest offer would be, figuring out time to renovate and cost (mostly through pictures and for the obvious cosmetic flaws) in order to "guess" if we could have if "fixed up" by the time our rental base starts looking. Some buyers who are ready to buy, like me, can get a little over-excited.
I've since learned my lesson and the first thing I do is call my realtor to find out the status of the property. If I don't hear back from him in 24 hours (after checking in with him to find out if he's heard anything), I call the listing agents office and ask whoever answers the phone if they could give me the status of the property. Sometimes the person who answers the phone can do so, other times they want to put me directly through to the listing agents VM.
There have been several occasions where the listing agent just won't return a call to my agent or me.
I understand the marketing aspect behind leaving listings up on the MLS that have already closed, but I do appreciate the those who update the status to "pending" or "attny review" or "sold".
The question was specific to the thread. And the thread is pretty much specific to my market, being regarding my MLS, Triangle MLS in NC.
We don't often have Closed listing showing Active here. Buyer's agents will pester listing agents for updates. I did have one a few years ago that the agent forgot to update, but that is rare.
Another item that is specific to many areas of the Triangle:
We are very low in inventory. Buyers are smart to be aggressive about getting access to listing, having all bona fides in order, and knowing who will write the offer, i.e., a buyer's agent.
Multiple offers are common and having multiple agents showing a home at one time is very common.
While no one should rush rashly into purchase, a buyer here who wants to spend excessive time in due diligence, contemplating, waiting to drive by, may well be disappointed when the house gets sold before they are ready to act. It is happening daily, and the spring season is hardly upon us. This summer will only be worse, with increased demand and inadequate inventory.
I understand the marketing aspect behind leaving listings up on the MLS that have already closed, but I do appreciate the those who update the status to "pending" or "attny review" or "sold".
I don't know about Triangle MLS, but around here, an agent gets fined if they aren't reasonably current on updating the status of a listing (I think it's 10 days to update). So for the most part, once a purchase and sale agreement has been accepted, it's listed as "Contingency-Due Diligence", or "Pending", etc. Pending usually means that the listing has cleared contingencies and is awaiting closing. Admittedly, some agents are a little sloppy keeping up with the small increments between "Active" and "Closed", but they are generally pretty good about closing out their listings. However, one of the MLS's here requires the broker to update, not the agent -- so sometimes it gets lost in the shuffle. The agent has NO control over what listings appear as "Closed" on FMLS, except to correct matters of fact (sale price, etc.) It's not a question of "leaving" them up out of the goodness of their heart.
If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. And for all you know the previous resident was a cat hoarder who stole the copper pipes and tore out the cabinets, explaining the low price.
It could have been worse than that and still sold higher. It would've been a good deal as a total gut and re-do with structural work as well.
Like I said, It might be kosher, it just smells funky to me. I can't say I'm surprised there's a bunch of realtors jumping in with the usual talking points. And making a few assumptions that don't quite pan out...
Is the argument really that if you don't submit an offer on a house before it goes on market, you're too slow?
So I'll just say this: I've met and worked with a few good realtors, they just seem to be an extreme minority. Back when I worked in residential architecture, it was a pretty common occurrence to get a call from a couple that was under contract on a beat up house, and they wanted to talk to an architect and contractor about options and budgets. We'd go out to the house, and inevitably there would be a sentence like "our realtor said we could fix it up for $XXX,000 and move in in a few months." At which point contractor and I would exchange piteous glances, knowing that wouldn't even get them half way there.
It happened over, and over, and over. So maybe I'm a little suspicious of realtors.
And I'll mention: People my age and younger get really turned off by the old-style sales models and techniques, we just roll our eyes when people try to "develop" us as a lead. This way of doing business is going to get harder as my generation gets older and becomes more and more of your clients. You win our business by having for sale what we want to buy.
We just saw a pre-listed house today. Some people prefer not to have a ton of people coming through the house, the stress etc. I would have loved this to have happened when we were selling.
It could have been worse than that and still sold higher. It would've been a good deal as a total gut and re-do with structural work as well.
Like I said, It might be kosher, it just smells funky to me. I can't say I'm surprised there's a bunch of realtors jumping in with the usual talking points. And making a few assumptions that don't quite pan out...
Is the argument really that if you don't submit an offer on a house before it goes on market, you're too slow?
So I'll just say this: I've met and worked with a few good realtors, they just seem to be an extreme minority. Back when I worked in residential architecture, it was a pretty common occurrence to get a call from a couple that was under contract on a beat up house, and they wanted to talk to an architect and contractor about options and budgets. We'd go out to the house, and inevitably there would be a sentence like "our realtor said we could fix it up for $XXX,000 and move in in a few months." At which point contractor and I would exchange piteous glances, knowing that wouldn't even get them half way there.
It happened over, and over, and over. So maybe I'm a little suspicious of realtors.
And I'll mention: People my age and younger get really turned off by the old-style sales models and techniques, we just roll our eyes when people try to "develop" us as a lead. This way of doing business is going to get harder as my generation gets older and becomes more and more of your clients. You win our business by having for sale what we want to buy.
Stop licking your wounds and listen to people who are working this market every day: Yes, in highly desirable areas, many homes ARE getting sold before they hit the market. Home supply is many areas of the country are at an all time low. One agent in our office today was frustrated because she had taken some relo clients out to look at homes, "and all the homes on the market are crap!" Old, tired, unrenovated, bad locations -- these are all the homes that have been on the market. The good ones are snapped up FAST.
(sarcasm on)
You didn't get a chance at the house. You're annoyed. And now it's the real estate agent's fault. Wah. Agents win your business by having for sale what you want to buy? Well, now -- THAT'S headline news, for sure. Because agents have stayed in business lo these many years by selling homes that people didn't WANT to buy . . .
(sarcasm off)
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