I have 2 homes for sale that I rehabbed and wish to sell. The agent I am using for the listing is ok but not great. I am trying to come up with ideas on how to get other agents to want to show the property. Would a special buyers agent commission be helpful?
Right now we offered a 1K bonus plus the standard 3 percent to buyers agents however the market is slow and I am not getting much activity. The sale price is around 150K so 3 percent isn’t a huge sum of money.
Would it be wise for me to call other agents and tell them about the bonus and perhaps offer them and additional 1000 dollars if they can find a buyer? Or would agents not appreciate my calling them when I already have a listing agent? Any other ideas?
There are only 2 factors that control how fast a house sells. They are the price and the condition of the property. The house must be priced a little below what everyother house just like it in the same neighborhood has sold for in the last 3 months. That price needs to be adjusted down based on the condition of the house versus the other houses that have sold in those 3 months. If done properly the house will sell in a month. If you are flipping a house it sells in one month otherwise you are not flipping you are doing something else.
Remember Realtors want to make money. If they don’t sell houses they don’t make money. Realtors will show any house that will sell. They won’t show any house that will not sell. If they won’t show your house it is because the house won’t sell. Drop the price don’t mess with the commission. They prefer 3% of $50,000 versus 100% of zero and if the house won’t sell they will get zero.
It is important to understand the time of year as well. You are entering into the seasonally slow time of the year. Do not expect much activity from now on to the end of the year. There are not a lot of buyers. As a suggestion, you could remove the $1,000 commission and offer a paid cruise for two to the buyer’s agent. Often you can get some really cheap cruises right now. Have some great flyers made and fax, mail or email them to other offices. Just might light a fire.
Thank you very much by the replies. I appreciate the advice. I will put together a CMA and will make sure my home is the lowest for this type of home and area. We just had a showing which went well, as they loved the upgrades. Not sure if they will take it but at least that was a positive sign.
Do you guys feel that it’s worth putting in a bit of furniture to make it look more homey?
The cruise idea was intriguing to me. Should I personally send flyers to all the different offices or should I ask my agent to do so? I am concerned that my agent won’t get to it which is why I would like to do it myself.
Putting some furniture and decorations in a property for sale is called staging. It can be very helpful, but comes with a price. If you’re pricing in the low end of the market, it may not be necessary to stage it. Taking a close look at sold comps and what your competition is doing is very important. Is your agent doing this?
Forget about the cruise and instead do just as Bluemoon06 suggested. Focus on price. Don’t be afraid to reduce quickly to find the market. You might want to ask your agent if he followed up the recent showing for feedback.
Also, don’t forget that you want every offer to have with it a pre-approval or proof of funds.
A bunch of great recommendations are written there. I would like to add one more tip concerning open house. Don’t ask you real estate agent to hold it. The majority of visitors aren’t buyers—they’re nosy neighbors. It gives real estate agent an opportunity to gain new clients, rather than help you to sell a house. thus private showing is always better.
You have listed your home with a realtor so it’s in the MLS and sites like Zillow and Realtor.com will have picked it up as well. A lot of realtors will just list it and hope that the other 5 zillion realtors in the area will sell the house. If you are unhappy with the realtors service, let the contract run out and get another one or call the broker and see if they can help make you happy. You may be over priced or have an unmotivated realtor. Over pricing a home will kill it’s ability to attract buyers.
Most importantly you have to consider the type of listing you gave the Realtor. If they have an Exclusive Listing, no other Realtor can list your house as long as that listing is active. It’s against the local real estate board membership rules, the Code of Ethics and the NAR forbids it. So, no amount of dangling carrots will work in this case. If you’re unhappy with your current Realtor, simply withdraw the listing (it’s in your contract, read it). When the house if officially off the market, give an Open Listing Agreement to many Realtors, not just one. But yeah, price and condition are the two factors why a house doesn’t sell. You can’t change the location. So, you can price it to sell your house or to sell the guys down the street, which house would you prefer sold?