Seller's agent blues (recommendation, new agent, commission, sales)

[boating_fool]

My family and I are relocating to Chambersburg PA from Savannah GA. My company is paying all costs including real estate marketing fees. The relocation company picked the realtor office and agent.

We have not been pleased with the overall performance. This is our first seller's experience, so I don't have much to go on. It took her 2 weeks to come up with a market analsys, 5 days to collect photos, 5 days for a MLS listing after signing the agreement and 6 days for a sign on the property. We were not impressed with the MLS listing, it was sloppy and had no photos of the outside of the house. Even the relocation company has had trouble contacting her. The house has been on the market for 2 weeks and there have been no showings. She did contact us once for a showing but canceled. We priced our house WAY below market value, what we wanted, and WAY below everyone else in the neighborhood per their recommendations for a quick sell.

OK, I realize the market is slow now, but after 2 weeks, she has called us 3 times. Once for the showing, once to cancel and once to tell us she finally corrected the listing.

I have had to add the flyer box on the sign and print outs. I also had to ask about the realtor open house (walk through with all agents from their office). Even the relocation advisor said she thinks the agent may have too much on her plate or simply lists excessive number of homes and hopes for other agents to sell them.

Am I missing something here? Shouldn't we be contacted more frequently with updates, reports, etc? Is there a better way to get visability of our property?

Any help is appreciated.

Vincent

[tamitrail]

What kinds of reports and updates are you looking for? Have you told your realtor what your expectations are?

If you aren't happy, tell the relocation company you want another realtor. If they have had problems contacting her, then they are aware of the issues. It's possible the relocation company can get another agent in the same office for you who will better serve your needs, or perhaps they have other companies they work with.

[shellytc]

I would tell the relo company (in writing) that the agent is NOT up to par. Then I would call the agents broker and request a meeting with him/her. I would tell them what is going on, and that I want a new agent assigned immediately. you should be getting top notch service as a relo client, and it sounds like you are getting the shuffle. you deserve better.

shelly

[middle-aged mom]

The listing broker/agent are paying the relocation company 35-40% for the referral.

Most people do not realize that they can choose their own agent provided that agent/brokerage is a part of the relocation company's broad referral network, instead of taking the one assigned to them.

Shelly's advice is sound. Your listing is held with the broker, not the agent.
Call/meet with the Managing Broker at your agent's office and ask to be assigned to another agent. No doubt, they will be glad to oblige.

[tamitrail]

I just want to make a note that in a relocation case, sometimes the relocation company wants to handle things. When we relocated we were told by the relocation company person we were working with to contact her, and not the broker, with any issues. We did have issues, we called her and they were resolved. Ultimately, we were assigned a new agent from the same company. My post about contacting the relocation company was based on my past experience only.

[boating_fool]

Thanks for the advice. The relocation company wants to give the agent a chance, so at this point she has to fall short again for me to gripe. I pushed her for the realtor open house, and she said it would be on the 28th. This will be her last chance, and what I suspect will be a failure. I sent her a message yesterday asking for updates on interest in our property and timelines for our listing to show up in paper publications.

The comments about the connection between relo companies and real estate brokerages are correct. They did say we could choose our own agent, but there was no guarantee I would have chosen a better one. I would have liked to interview a few to get some details (listings, average time to sell, homes sold RECENTLY, etc).

This is only our second time dealing with a realtor, the first was looking for a house when we moved here 7 years ago. That was not a good episode either. The realtor we have in Chambersburg PA is MUCH better, yea I realize they are selling us a house, but it just seems they are more customer service oriented. Maybe it is something in the water??????

Anyone know where I can get a St Joseph home sale kit?????????? LOL

Thanks again.
Vincent

[austin-steve]

I would call the agents broker and request a meeting with him/her.

I agree with this advise. You should not feel trapped or stuck with an agent who is not executing the basic sales steps in a competent way. Let the Broker and relo company know this know this, and tell the Broker you want to interview replacement agents.

Now, here's the catch, if my Broker were to come to me, hypothetically, and ask that I take over a listing and make sure the seller gets top notch treatment (a given anyway!), and that it's a relo listing, I'd have to say "no thanks".

I'm busy enough with regular business and not interested in working for less than 2/3 of my regular commission (relo co's take 35% of commission) and at the same time deal with the relo company people, who work banker hours and creates triple the amount of paperwork and communication and take forever to make decisions. Then you find out that the person on that end has left the company and nobody knows where the file is (that happened on our last one, on the buyer side). Relo deals are high effort, high risk, low pay. No thanks on listing one.

This may be why you have the agent you have. Not that there are not great agents who work a relo niche, but most that I've dealt with seem tired and worn out from the relationship.

Steve