How Not to Fire Your Listing Agent. Don’t Make These Mistakes!
Ok. You hear about all of these bidding wars and low inventory. Yet your home still sits after 90 or 120 days. Is it the agent’s poor marketing? Is it the lack of follow up?
Did your agent agree to your “hurry up” and get the listing up and thus result in a “Throw Up Listing” that takes longer to sell? (we recently refused/lost a listing because we refused to put up garbage that would hurt the client)
Or did they win you by telling you your house will be on 600 websites! (as if that isn’t the default nowadays, but sounds great!!)
Or you just never hit this blog to get non-boilerplate Listing Advice.
Or maybe it is partly your fault for the home being overpriced? You demanded a price that in your gut felt right? Or they gave you no guidance and said yes to every command. (President’s shouldn’t have “yes men” around them, and you shouldn’t hire a “yes man” agent, hum that sounds like a solo blog post, make sure you subscribe today!)
Perhaps, but has the agent done their part and shown you EACH home that has gone under contract or sold nearby since the day you listed? And have they contacted EACH buyers agent and asked them “I see you bought, xyz, would you mind telling me why you passed on our house?”
My guess, very unlikely. Why? Because that stuff takes time.
So you want to fire them once the listing agreement expires.
Expect a flurry of new activity before the expiration. Is it a sudden swarm of buyers? Or is the listing agent actually working to bring you a deal (like does your agent contact EACH buyers agent that has visited the home to get feedback). They will dangle the “I have a nibble here, just give me another month.”
Whatever you do… if you have decided to switch real estate agents in a week, DO NOT LOWER THE PRICE!!
It is hard enough for a new listing agent to try and create new excitement. It is 10x harder if you give the initial listing agent the $10k price drop before expiration. What, is the new agent going to take it on at the same $10k lower price?
Also hopefully your agent won’t throw you under the bus (house) and tell buyers you are desperate, in hopes of getting a low ball or something to show for themselves.
Add in the comments any pre-firing tricks you have experienced or heard about.
Best of luck! Reach out if you need help. I reply quickly and no I’m not too busy for you.
Frank B. LLosa Esq
Broker FranklyRealty.com MD, DC, VA
Attorney only in NJ
ps. Please report typos
- 29
- October
- 2012
I always value the honesty of your blog postings. More and more I feel like I am starting to understand the realty game. Although it shouldn’t be this way, it is as if you are giving us “commoners” inside information…Thank You!
I guess you are not trying to arose the Donald Trump hidden in us and go on a ‘firing spree’. But yes good points, a good realtor should aspire to help you achieve your objectives and not entertain you, leave that to Jim Carrey.
As a Philadelphia Real Estate agent, I do have listings that are difficult to sell, more because of the client than myself. I have one listing where my client insists against lockboxes and the key is kept at my office, forcing showing agents to pick it up. I also have over-priced lists.
However, we all know agents that do nothing more to sell a property, than turn the listing contract into their front desk. I do think an agent should be asked two questions when a listing contract expires:
1) Why didn’t this sell within the course of the contract?
2) What was done and will be done going forward.
If either response doesn’t make sense than I would recommend interviewing other agents.
Thanks for a great blog!
Glad I read this post. Near the end of our listing agreement, our prior agent suggested a pretty hefty price drop (we had already dropped once several months prior). When we listed with a new agent, we did drop (based on comps), but not as low as the prior agent suggested. I’m not saying that the prior agent was wrong to suggest the drop, but the frustration on our end came from the fact that there didn’t seem to be much else happening in the way of strategy to sell.
Thank you for this reassuring post.
We hired a well regarded broker with more than two decades experience in our area. Based on his stager’s recommendations, we spent more than $8000 painting, making repairs, and replacing fixtures. We also followed his recommendation on the listing price.
Once listed, we had the house ready for all but one of thirty-five showings. (We got caught with unmade beds once on thirty minutes notice when we were both at work after a three week drought in showings) The only showing we turned down was at 6:30 on Wednesday evening before Thanksgiving when we were cooking and baking.
We were told several times that our house was on some potential buyer’s short list including two or three who came to see our house twice. We have very little idea what happened to a any of these prospects, i.e., why they decided to pass on our house or what they chose instead. If we wanted to know what was going on with our listing or the market in general, we had to call our broker. He didn’t initiate contact.
When the listing agreement was about to expire, he sought to convince us that he deserved more time because no one else could have done more or would do more. Perhaps so, but after reading your post, we are confident that no other client would have given him a better opportunity to sell the house than we did.
Hi Frank,
Thanks for the info in this blog. I love it! I plan to start law school next fall and after law school would like to have a law practice and real estate brokerage firm.
I do have one concern and I only make it because you asked for typos. Although it is not exactly a typo. The crumpled paper background looks nice, but makes your page hard to read, at least for some of us that aren’t 20 or 30 something anymore. It’s really annoying.
After just two weeks, I want a different RE listing agent. The current agent is elderly and frankly out of date with technology. In addition, she does not know the area or care about getting to know about the area. She complains about how far out the property is from her office because she does not know DocUsign. Her broker is a piece of work also and states he will not release me from the listing contract. I have one offer that I know will not close and am willing to let the go through, then I want the RE agents gone so I can sit back and think about either listing with another company or just for get it for a while.