Six Things Real Estate Agents Don't Want You to Know
by
Andrea Reynolds © Copyright Andrea Reynolds 2008.
This article may elicit hate mail from
realtors, and it’s not my intention to cause anyone to lose
business, but I can honestly say I’ve never been
represented by a realtor who helped me. Some even tried to
kill a sale for me and I had to step in and deal directly
with the buyer. (Yes, she still received her commission.) I
don’t dislike realtors; I’ve known some nice people who
sold homes for a living, but I’ve had better luck selling
homes and property on my own. If I were selling a $500,000
home I’d prefer a realtor handle it.
I am not a realtor, but rather an investigative journalist.
My mission has always been to immerse myself in a subject,
not just by reading, but also by experiencing and observing
to provide accuracy. I also hosted a weekend radio show in
the United States called Open House. Each week I
interviewed a rotating guest list of 3 realtors and a real
estate attorney. Each week I asked the guest to give me a
subject they wanted to discuss, but I could never get any
assistance from them to make them sound like experts to the
listeners. With two of them, I found getting them to answer
questions on air was like asking a toddler to explain
Einstein’s Theory of Relativity. However, the third realtor
offered to pay my way through real estate school if I’d
come work for her. (I decided not to: writing doesn’t
require that I buy a fancy car, wardrobe, and jewelry in
order to get paid.)
From my interviews and from my own home buying/selling
experiences I gleaned these pearls of wisdom you should
consider.
1.
Realtors are vertical thinkers, not lateral
thinkers.
Lateral thinkers
are brainstormers. Vertical
thinking follows the most likely paths, lateral thinking
explores the least likely. Don't expect a realtor to think outside
the box. Their training teaches them one way to think and
act and not deviate. Here’s what I mean:
When I wanted to sell my second mobile home and my
neighbors were making it difficult to sell, I brought in an
agent to help me. There had been a fire in a mobile home
park across town where about 40 mobile homes were
destroyed. Forty families suddenly needed homes. Assuming
only half of them owned their homes and had replacement
insurance that's 20 families that would be financially able
to pay cash for a home. I called my realtor to ask if she
would drive over there and distribute a photographic flyer
of my home, which were already created. She refused. That's
not how she was taught to market homes. In other words
realtors don't actively find buyers; they only put up an
MLS listing and post a For Sale sign sand wait passively
until a buyer phones them. I was annoyed because there was
a clearly identified market of potential buyers all in one
place, easy to find… going untapped.
2. Many realtors are hobbyists.
Few realtors
work full-time as realtors. I once attended a conference in
Pennsylvania of all the real estate agents in the county.
Many licensed agents see real estate as a hobby and some
see homes as investments for themselves which they can
scoop up. In an audience of 600 realtors only about 6 could
be identified as full-time, aggressive sales individuals.
If you aren’t lucky enough to get one of those 6 agents,
you’ll be stuck with someone who gives you half-hearted
service. If I’m going to hand over a 6-10% commission I
want better than half-hearted service.
Remember: When you call a real estate agency, unless you
ask for a specific agent, you will be assigned the realtor
who is next in the queue. This allows those realtors who
aren’t getting listings or sales to have an equal chance.
It’s unsettling to think that your assigned realtor is the
default agent.
3.
Often they bring bodies through just to impress you that
they are doing
something.
I know that my realtor was bringing people to see my home
who did not want to buy a mobile home and didn’t even want
a home of any kind in my area. Why did she do this? It was
to show me that she was bringing live humans to see my
home. That’s not only unproductive, but also a waste of my
time. For every showing, I had to take a half-day away from
earning an income to dismantle my office and make my home a
showplace for a non-buyer. I don’t need dress rehearsals:
give me opening night! The simple truth is she had no
prospective buyers and she was trying to cover that up by
making herself look busy. I lost disrespect for her because
she disrespected my valuable time.
Here’s a marketing technique you may not know about.
Usually your home will be first on the list of a few dozen
homes the agent wants a prospective buyer to see. What
agents do is show the least desirable, or the least
expensive, home first and then show progressively more
appealing homes until the buyer is hooked on a more
expensive property. Your home goes into the discard pile.
4.
Open houses aren't to show
your
home.
Your open house
will probably be a waste of time. Not always, but many
times it will be. Often the realtor will try to get lookers
into a more expensive property than yours. Every open house
I've been to the agent tried to up-sell me to a more
expensive property, sometimes one of her own. One mobile
home I saw during an open house, the agent tried to “save”
me by telling me why I should accept Jesus. I came to buy a
home, not receive a sermon.
I recently tried an experiment. I invited 25 realtors from
different agencies to my open house, held from Noon to 6 PM
on Saturday and Sunday. I made sure there was ample time
both before and after the own open houses they may be
hosting which are usually scheduled 2-4 PM. Each one said
they would come only if first I signed a listing agreement
with him or her. I said just come see it first. What could
they lose to have a look? Even though the weather was mild,
not one of the 25 realtors showed up on either of the two
days. That tells me if they aren’t hosting the open house
themselves (with the owner absent) there’s no point in
seeing a new property.
5.
Listings aren't meant to sell your home.
They are bait.
Think: fishing lure. A listing’s real purpose is to hook
prospective buyers and reel them in to see more expensive
properties. Why would they want to sell a $20,000 mobile
home when the commission is bigger (for the same amount of
effort) on a $150,000 stick- built home.
Think about this. When I talked to those 25 agents, quite a
few recommended that I set the asking price of my condo at
less than the amount of mortgage I would have to repay. In
other words, sell it at a loss. When I explained that I was
denied a loan to cover the deficit because I couldn't
show earned income, the agents still wanted my
listing. They
wanted the listing knowing the transaction could never go
through. Read
that again.
If I were to do as they advised my home would be off the
market for 4.5 to 6 months with no chance of a sale. I
would be forced to endure countless people tramping through
my home knowing that no sale would occur for the duration
of the commitment. The only person to win would be the
agent who could use my listing to generate new buyer
interest in higher-priced properties. It would have been a
complete waste of time for me. I have no interest in being
a slave to someone so unconcerned about my interests.
Ever notice those ads realtors place for your home in
newspaper and magazine real estate sections that don't
carry your address? Bait.
6. You probably are better at selling your home than you
think.
When I had
$40,000 for a down payment on a home, a realtor took me to
see $40,000 homes. I had told her that I was new in the
country and didn't think I had enough of a credit history
built yet to get a mortgage. But I had cash. She could have
helped me get a starter mortgage and shown me decent homes
in the $80,000 to $100,000 range, but she didn't. Instead
she showed me derelict, flood-damaged homes with disgusting
odors in slum neighborhoods. She didn't even consider nice
mobile homes in nice, clean, well-manicured communities. I
asked her to show me some, but she wasn’t interested. But
you would have wanted her to think of your home, wouldn’t
you? And I knew her agency listed manufactured and mobile
homes, but her commission would have been too low for her
taste.
One day, not long after, I became lost while driving in an
unfamiliar neighborhood and discovered the mobile home I
eventually bought. It was perfect for me and I didn’t have
to spend anywhere near my $40,000. I contacted the owner
myself and we amicably worked out a deal without realtors.
To sell your home all you need to do are:
• see your home with the eyes of a buyer,
• recognize and point out the great features of your home,
• keep it well-maintained, clean, uncluttered and
presentable,
• use the marketing and selling tips we recommend,
• use online advertising that provides a wealth of detail
and photos, and then…
• when the right buyer appears, edit and adjust the
Purchase Agreement templates provided on this site to suit
your and your buyer’s specific needs.
Resources
Booklet: Sell Your Home in 60
Days
Templates: Purchase Agreement
Package
Profile: Your Home’s Virtual Open House
