Choosing the right real estate agent

Is the purpose of a real estate agent to market your house, represent you or find a buyer?

All three, right?

If I was a real estate agent and someone contacted me with interest to list, I would pursue them like I would the sale of their house: prompt to reply, looking for opportunities to explore, readily available and like I always do, make people tell me no, twice. I would show this prospect client that I’m serious about selling their house. Creativity, attentiveness and persistence are the keys to sales, so when opportunity knocks, it’s show time. It’s time to show them that I am the guy for the job.

Makes sense, right?

If you are a real estate agent in the Nashville area and you want to sell my house, I invite you inquire within. Sell me on your selling ability, don’t just tell me about your template marketing plan.

For the three other agents I recently contacted, I’m sorry it didn’t work out. It’s not because I wouldn’t have hired you, it’s because you didn’t bother to ask.

http://www.afreshspace.com Liz Jenkins

sent this post to several agents I know that are really good – one or more should be contacting you – best of luck!
http://chriselrodproperties.com chris elrod

Hi Kyle, I'm Chris Elrod in Frankin with Village Real Estate. My twitter name is realchriselrod. Where exactly is your home in the Nashville area that you would like to sell? I would only pursue listing your home if I know the market in your area. I utilize social media for a major part of marketing the properties I list. FaceBook, Twitter, Tweetlister, Tweetdeck,Twitterfon and my blog, chriselrodproperties.com. I also place all of my listings on Trulia, Zillow, and about 6 or 7 more sites. I use craigslist and MyEmma for eblast usually to other Realtors. Realtors have a great network within the industry. So the best marketing I can do is to other Realtors, because they will have buyers and buyer needs. reachriselrod
http://intensedebate.com/people/francophile francophile

Not so sure if I agree; somebody who chases me for a response migh short thrift. I guess it depends on your personality and the "agent" will have to make a judgement call.
http://www-so-cal-dreamhomes.com Brad Coreell

Just happened to read your blog and I totally agree with you. I am an agent (although not in your state or area), and I have seen so many agents nto even bother to contact their clients/prospect. They try to communicate via email only and you will never build a relationship or sell yourself and your qualifications unless you talk to them in person or at least by phone.
http://www.shopforinsurance.ca ShopForInsurance

The best Real Estate agent you can hire is yourself. (no ofence to the many quality realtors out there) The problem with hiring a Real Estate agent to sell your house is this. Her or her livelihood does not depend on getting you the best price, it depends on their ablility to convince you to accept a certain amount of money for your property. Example: If you are asking $250,000 for your home and someone offers $245,000…at 3% commish, the differencee in pay for fighting for that extra $5000 for you is a mere $150. Not much incentive in the grand scheme of things.

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Patrick Parker

The best real estate agent you can hire is yourself…yeah if you are a PROFESSIONAL real estate agent. I must say, I never respond to other peoples comments but I couldn't let this one go.

In fact, Kyle, I wasn't intending to ask you for your business. I would never do that through an email.

Ok, before I get ahead of myself, Shopforinsurance, I will assume that you have a profession/job. Do you think other people outside of your profession/job are more capable of performing your job than you are? Based on what you are saying I would assume so. You see, the problem is, most people have "JOBS". While others have professions, or shall I say are professionals at what they do. I can say with absolute certainty, that there are many real estate agents who have JOBS and are not professional and I will assume that those are the agents you unfortunately came in contact with. However, to make a blanket statement saying. "the best real estate agent you can hire is yourself" is ridiculous (despite the "no ofence (offense) to the many quality realtors out there")

In reference to your example, the problem with most homeowners including myself, we think our home is worth more than it is. We do not determine the value of our home, the market does (real estate 101). If you list your home for 250K and receive an offer for 5K less, Short of being at the absolute bottom of your price point, at which you will then need to bring money to the table to close, you would be crazy not to accept an offer 5K less than asking price. That is what it is any way… an ASKING price. Let me explain.

Take for example, (and I don't know your market unless you are in Nashville)
you owe 200,000.00 on a 30yr 6% MTG.
Your payment would be $1,193.14 not including your taxes and insurance. So you would probably have a payment of around $1,400 per month. This does not include all the monthly bills i.e. phone, cable, electricity, gas…etc.
The average home on the market lets assume is 90 days (it is 87 in nashville from the most recent statistics).
So when you receive your offer of 5K less than asking, you are then convinced/persuaded by your agent to accept. Lets say you don't and make a counter offer (for full price I assume, cause what else are you going to counter) and the buyer walks. Which will probably happen because there are plenty of homes on the market and you are showing no willingness to work with the buyer at all. If I was the buyers agent in this instance I would tell my buyers to walk cause you would probably be unwilling to work with the buyer on anything in the future such as repairs.
So now you have lost a potential buyer. Lets say your home will now sit on the market for 3 months. Not including you monthly bills you are looking at $4200 in mortgage payments. So you are easily at $5,000 with everything included.

Not to mention the up keep of a home being listed for sale. The STRESS of selling a home the STRESS of finding a new one, the STRESS of not knowing if the home is going to sell. The fact is you will probably end up having to reduce your price and now you will have lost more money. So while you think realtors are just out to get their commission, professionals understand the market and looking out for their clients best interest.

Sure, 3%, or whatever the realtor and the client agree to (yes, realtor commission is always negotiable. There is no industry set standard or requirement. It should always be determined prior to listing the home between the sellers and agent.) is a lot of money. That being said, realtors in most cases, always pay out of there own pocket to market your home. This could include a tremendous amount of money, in which there is no guarantee that your home will sell. And if it doesn't we are out that money.
So while you may think 3% commission is to much to pay, keep in mind this. 3% of 250K is $7500.00.
On average your home will sell in 90 days. That comes to $2500/month they worked for you. Paid all their own expense. Marketing, gas, all office supplies, monthly fees to brokerage company..etc. Then when your house closes they are almost always splitting that commission with their company in some form (80%-20% split for example). After looking at it that way, you can see how an agent who just has a "job" could probably do better working at the local fast food joint.

I say all this cause most people have the same perception as you. Unfortunately it is because they have worked with an agent who had a JOB and not a profession. It is important to meet your agent. Ask questions and know who you are dealing with prior to having them list your home. I hope in the future you have a better experience.

Lastly, Kyle, would love to meet with you in person to discuss your needs and how I may help you with the sale of your home.

Patrick Parker
615.293.8243
patrick@avertonproperties.com