Any Realtors Out There? Advice Please

[barkley]

o.k.-we've decided we want to sell our home. we have the most popular model of home built by the most respected and desirable builder in our town. in prior years we and neighbors with the same model have been solicited to death by realtors (mailings, cold calls, knocks at the door) wanting to sell our homes.

i've seen the "how to select a realtor" lists, but honestly what is the best way to weed through all of the realty companies in a particular town and determine who is going to be the most reliable, ethical realtor to deal with? is there any type of data available to the public that can provide some insight into who is doing their job right?

if you, as a realtor could not represent a family member in a sale (lives in another state, whatever...) what questions would you instruct them to ask of any potential realtor and more importantly-what do you believe an appropriate answer from a profession/reputable realtor should be.

i look forward to and appreciate any information you are able to provide.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

When we sold we did our homework. We check out all homes for sale in the area, went to "Open Houses" to see what we were up against.

Then we decluttered our home and staged it for sale. After that then we allowed the realtors in. Don't let them in until your house is ready for sale.
They will tell you no big deal, blah, blah, blah....baloney. The first impression they get will set the price in their mind.

We interviewed 3 realtors and one of them knew what we had and she was able to sell our house in 8 days.

Do your homework first...very important!

 

[marlasmom]

If your home is desirable and comparable models are selling fast you may wish to consider one of the very low commission brokers - i.e. Assist U sell, etc. It is certainly more work for you and there are some downsides in that you have to show the house yourself and therefore do not have the advantage of pre-screening potential buyers, but you can save substantially. Assist U sell is very popular here. They help you price your house, take videos for their website and do the paperwork.

 

[malibuconlee]

Ask around, ask friends, family, neighbors that have recently bought or sold.

Go to Open Houses. Agents like to use these not so much to sell houses, but to make contacts. Talk to a couple of different ones and ask if they've worked with properties in your part of the city.

 

[safetymom]

I agree. Watch a few shows on how to stage your home and then have the realtor over.

 

[barkley]

If your home is desirable and comparable models are selling fast you may wish to consider one of the very low commission brokers - i.e. Assist U sell, etc. It is certainly more work for you and there are some downsides in that you have to show the house yourself and therefore do not have the advantage of pre-screening potential buyers, but you can save substantially. Assist U sell is very popular here. They help you price your house, take videos for their website and do the paperwork.

thanks for the info. but there has been a huge backlash with these companies in our area. you get an uneducated (real estate wise) buyer who does'nt know what to ask about, a seller who does not meet the spirit of california disclousure laws and end up with a civil suit (and a real estate company that offers no back up). also the help u sell places (out here) are the last houses anyone using a realtor will ever be shown cuz the realtors end up having to answer questions for both the buyer and seller and end up with a seller who won't pay a comission/a buyer who is does'nt feel they should pay a comission. we have neighbors who bought this way and are only finding out now that they should have found out if a permit was used to build that patio the city is now screaming about, should have been told that our tract has certain building exclusions that the rest of the city residents are not subject to.

i would rather use a realtor who will make sure i'm covered.

 

[lazarru]

I'd be careful with the low commission brokers. The house were buying was listed by a low commission broker and it's impossible to get anything done with them. We made an offer through our realtor, it took 2 days before she could get in contact with their realtor then he was going to wait a day before reaching out to the owners because he had something else to do. Our realtor said fine, I'll call with the offer then and he suddenly changed his mind and contacted them. In talking with who we are buying from she said they had nothing but issues with them and would never do it again just to save a few bucks.

Of course on the other hand we had a full commission broker, told out house in 9 days and she did nothing other than list the house but that's another story.