Realtor question - marketing fee?

[lecach]

we're planning to switch realtors since our house has been on the market for 6 months. We were in the process of signing the listing documents and saw a clause that if we pull our listing before the end of 6 months we have to pay a $1500 marketing fee. Anyone ever had to do that? It sort of threw us a bit.

 

[Robindianne]

we're planning to switch realtors since our house has been on the market for 6 months. We were in the process of signing the listing documents and saw a clause that if we pull our listing before the end of 6 months we have to pay a $1500 marketing fee. Anyone ever had to do that? It sort of threw us a bit.

Lapsed Realtor here. I woudn't agree to that fee. I'd X it out and initital. Realtor can agree or not. Just my $.02 worth.

 

[tvguy]

Lapsed Realtor here. I woudn't agree to that fee. I'd X it out and initital. Realtor can agree or not. Just my $.02 worth.

And a 6 month listing in this market is nuts.

 

[lesroi]

And a 6 month listing in this market is nuts.

I am a Realtor in Central Florida. May I ask why you think a 6 month listing is "nuts"? It's not that nuts in our market here. I certainly would not insist on a $1500 marketing fee (that seems a bit high and I am with RE/MAX so I know high fees, lol) but I would want to know, as a Realtor, that the seller is going to be realistic about how long it will take to market the property. It's very easy for your Realtor to let you know the average DOM (days on market) for a listing in your area. If this is close to 4 months, then a 6 month listing is ok. You should really understand how much your Realtor will outlay before they ever see a cent of commission. We don't work for free, just like you! If your home was on the market for 6 months and did not sell, it was priced too high. Simple fact. Price trumps everything and everything will sell for a price. Period.

If the OP is VERY REALISTIC about pricing and is listening to the recommended amount the Realtor is saying to list the house for (taking into account comps, short sales, bank-owned properties, days on market, etc.) then I would ask to see his/her marketing plan. (This is what you should have been shown before you ever listed with the Realtor in the first place.)

It does cost money to market a property. As a Realtor, I would also be wary to take a listing that had already been on the market 6 months. That's a stale listing and is much more difficult to market, especially if there has been no price change to warrant people taking a second look.

Best wishes with your sale! I know many of our listings do not last more than a month because we have a lot of investor-driven sales, but when we get a difficult seller or sometimes a difficult bank in a short-sale they do take awhile.

Tracy

 

[tvguy]

I am a Realtor in Central Florida. May I ask why you think a 6 month listing is "nuts"?

Must be a regional thing. I just called 2 friends of mine who sell real estate, both say 60 day contracts are the norm in their firms here in Northern California. These are independent companies, not ones related to national firms. Both felt 60 days was enough time for them to demonstrate to a client that they were aggressively marketing their homes, and say most of their clients up for another 60 days if the home hasn't sold. And as one put it, "if after 60 days a client doesn't feel I am doing everything I can to sell their home, they should find another agent."

 

[bicker]

It's typically six months here in the Northeast.

 

[ICF]

6 months is typical here in Indy as well

 

[lecach]

OP here. 6 months is typical here in NC. It's also easy to get out of. But the marketing fee makes that more difficult. We're going to talk to her about it. She's a top producer and is known for selling in a difficult market. She says we are priced right but could drop a bit. Our last realtor didn't really do any marketing and we went on the market at a point where the market in our area was historically bad.

 

[tar heel]

lecach -- It's not easy to get out if the listing agency is not agreeable. We haven't bought or sold for several years and the usual contract was three months last time we did. Our agent left the agency and we were not able to leave the first agency until the three months was up.

 

[simba20]

6 months is common here in GA.

We rented our prevous home from a friend. They were trying to sell the house and had it listed for quite some time. When we moved in, they had just signed another contract with an agent who would list it for 6 months. Yes, it was a bad move on our part as we might have had to pack up and move again, but the house never did sell. I also had relief the day the realtor pulled his sign out of the front yard. After that listing, our friends nenver did put it back on the market. We lived there from 2004-2010.

 

[shinysparklybubbles]

6 months is what our listing was for when we old our condo in June (we got an offer at 5 months 3 weeks!). There was a fee if we broke contract but I don't recall what it was but it wasn't $1,500.