What to look for in a realtor?

[Tractor Seabee]

Listen to what Neumann said. Pick the high producer. Check references, too many realtors are listers only then let the network of "hustlers" do the selling. That can also backfire. We picked the top producer to list out last sale, sold quick and for listed price, their agency was not the seller. Decided to go with them for our new purchase, same sellers market in play. They (husband/wife team). We were pretty set on our criteria, but that narrowed our market and several we were out fumbled with over list offers. They started to get frustrated with our turn downs on their recommendations and started bringing properties way out of our scope. They were successful in wearing done the wife playing on her anxiety to get out of the apartment we were in. I had an inspection done with resulting 21 items needing repair or out of code. Due to previous inspections they decided to replace the out of code electrical entrance ($1000 job), my estimate on the others was $20K. They turned down the revised offer with "take it or leave it". None of the items were things the mortage co would require to be fixed. Their inspector said the furnace runs, it is OK. My inspector said it had a cracked fire element. My wife prevailed, we bought a 30 year old house with a bunch of problems plus other remodels my wife wanted. I blame our realtor for not sticking to the established criteria and exploiting our weak point. They blamed it on the "sellers market". The seller also took advantage of us, there was a whole house sound and video network with 3 wall mounted TVs one a 60". They were going to take them out and leave all the holes in the walls, I negotiated a excess offer of $5K to leave them which was accepted. They promptly stole all the network equipment. I wanted to purse redress as the system was legally part of the building being built in. Again they went to my wife instead of me and convinced her to let sleeping dogs lie.

So what kind of market or you facing? This team was taking advantage of the market getting sales made quick and often above listing for there own interest instead of ours. That may change your approach by thinking about my experience as a buyer.

Lesson learned for me: Stick to your established criteria, establish a united front, and have only one contact point. I am now into the place $50K and counting and at 83 working my butt off doing what I cannot afford to contract out. Luck I have a lot of construction skills and it cost more to do it right.

Ron

 

[4570Man]

Just remember that the realtor is working for themselves, not you.

Well at the end of the day they need a paycheck but the common interest is the same. Do you go to work everyday because it’s fun or because you have a family to feed?

 

[dragoneggs]

I won't pick #1 vs. #2, but my last house sale was done with a husband/wife team. My house needed some things done and the husband was great at lining up handyman and a couple contractors to do a few things to maximize selling price. The wife was the energetic sales person that also had a keen eye on whether the buyers would be easy to deal with or not. We ended up not going with the highest bidder but the sale went smooth with no negotiations after the offer came in.

There is unfortunately a lot of trust one must put into your realtor to do best for you but in the end you will never know. If you don't get along or have a good vibe with the realtor up front, when they are trying to get your business... move along!

 

[HillStreet]

Interview the realtor to see if you like the person. Must be a realtor full time, not a part time job. Contract for 60 days max. Negotiate commission down (if market is hot). Maximum MLS exposure. I have mixed feelings about 登pen houses? many just drive around on weekends looking for ideas. I have sold 6 houses through different realtors. I also told them that if I don稚 hear from you for a period of two weeks they are gone.

 

[MossRoad]

Well at the end of the day they need a paycheck but the common interest is the same. Do you go to work everyday because it痴 fun or because you have a family to feed?

Both. I liked my last job of 30 years and all of the people I worked with. I like my current job and look forward to going to work each day. Yes, I smile on my way to work. I only had one job that I didn't like in my life, and I quit after 1 day. That was about 35 years ago.

 

[HillStreet]

One more thing, you have to trust their knowledge and instinct of the market. Ask questions about that just to see how they handle it. My good realtor friend, Randy, rest his soul used to say “it only takes one”. In a very bad market one time he showed my house to a 26 year old man with custody of his two kids. I asked him why would he waste my time on this guy and he said I think there is some money there? Well, we closed in 4 weeks and his mother wrote a personal check for full amount at the closing. Lawyer said “check is good”.

 

[MossRoad]

We bought our first house at a funeral of a dead relative. No realtor. Just a lawyer and a mortgage lender.

11 years later, we wanted to move, and we contacted a realtor to help us look for a house. She explained that when you sell a house, the realtor is working for themselves, and the money comes out of the seller's pocket. When you hire a realtor to look for a house for you, while yes, you are paying for the house, the looking realtor finds houses, and the selling realtor has to split the commission with the purchaser's realtor. The selling realtor hates that, because they'll only get half the commission. The buyer's realtor loves it, because they don't have to do anything but call up listings and drive you around to look. They're looking for you. She helped us find our 2nd house.

So once we bought our 2nd house, we sold our first house with that same realtor. She was our age, told us what she'd charge, what she'd do for us, and why we should pay her the percentage she charged. We tried it. The house sold in 1 day for exactly what we were asking.

When my father died, my siblings talked me into using a well-known local high-end realtor to sell both of his houses. She did little, suggested nothing, and kept telling my siblings she could sell the houses for much more than they were actually worth if she just gave them time. 9 month later, I put my foot down, fired the realtor, and looked up our old realtor. She had changed jobs, but came back just for us, told us what she would do for us, how much she would charge, why she was worth it, and how much the houses were worth realistically from a buyer's viewpoint, not my siblings sentimental viewpoint. She told us what to fix, what to leave for the buyers, what to disclose if we knew about it, and how to handle anything that the buyer's inspections turned up. Some we paid to have repaired, others we told them it's as-is. And another we knocked off some money to cover the repair if the buyer wanted to do it themselves.

She sold both houses at the market rate in just a few weeks and the ordeal was over. We didn't make a killing. We didn't get screwed. We got fair prices in short order and were satisfied.

If I were you, I'd go with the #1 realtor.

 

[Welshman]

a bullshitter, a negotiator. and at the same time someone who will be straight up with their clients about what needs to be done and what will help sell a house.

I have been through a few that just want to put a sign on it and let it sell, they don't work for it. our current friend and realtor is a bit crazy. He works hard and sells a lot of properties, knows the market better than anyone and has helped negotiate great deals on several properties for us.

# 2 for sure, but make sure they are not getting kickbacks from the suppliers on the upgrades. always get your own quotes. Realtors that work for themselves want to get your house sold for top dollar to make more commission in less time. I really don't see how that is different from your own interests as a seller.

i really meant # 1 sorry.

I definitely disagree with this. Realtors want to get the house SOLD. No sale - no commission. Price is secondary. A successful realtor makes his/her living on volume.

 

[Hozzie]

It's all about payback. How much is the house worth as-is, and how much is the house worth with a list of items fixed/upgraded. A $100,000 house with $5000 in extra work that will bring $150,000 is worth it. A $500,000 house with $10,000 worth of work that will bring $550,000 isn't.

Any good realtor should have provided comps to start. It may be worth selling as-is at a fair price and be done with it. It can limit your pool a bit, but a fair deal will have people buying and taking the risk. A lot depends on the market in that area as well. Do the math and don't let either of them talk you into doing something you don't want so they can make a little more money.

 

[EddieWalker]

For a few years, I was flipping houses for a living and had quite a bit of contact with realtors. What I've learned is that very few of them are worth hiring. The vast majority will not last very long, don't have a lot of motivation, and haven't sold enough houses to have a solid grasp on the market. The vast majority will focus on saying what you want to hear to get the listing, and then do pretty much nothing after putting it out on the MLS. They will agree to your price and after nothing happens for a month or so, suggest that you lower the price. This is about all they will do for you to sell the house. They are lucky if they sell 5 to ten houses a year.

There are a few really good realtors in every market that know exactly what the house will sell for, and what you can do to improve on how quickly it sells, and how to get the most money out of it. They tend to sell 50 houses or more a year.

Hardest thing when hiring a realtor is listening to the truth. Most people are attached to their home emotionally and they tend to believe that what they did to the house will make it worth more money, when in fact, it's usually the opposite. Since moving on from flipping house, and now remodeling, them I get a lot of job from clients that are doing what their realtor suggest in order to sell their house. Those houses always sell in weeks after I'm done with what the realtor suggested. A few have been on the market for over a year, and the new realtor comes in, sees the problem, and hires me to fix it.

First thing to do when hiring a realtor is to find out how many houses a year that they sell. If it's a farm with acreage, then find out how many of those that they sell per year. The good ones know how to market a house, but also what people are looking for. They will tell you what is wrong with your house. Not so much what a home inspector will find, but what a buyer is wanting. Ugly wall paper, bad paint color, dark room that needs more light, nasty bathroom tile and so on. But also what needs to be removed, things like family pictures, too many clothes in the closets, too much furniture and whatever else that they see when they look at the house that the home owner doesn't see. My parents where horrible about this and it cost them a lot of money. They hired the neighbor to sell their house, who did nothing. She didn't tell them that my moms nick-nacks all over the place made the house look cluttered, that they had so much furniture that it was hard to walk through the rooms, and that her closets where overflowing with clothes that there was not storage. After a few years of this, they hired a good realtor that brought in a dozen other realtors, and they wrote up a list of whey the wouldn't buy the house. Once all those things where addressed, and we hauled a huge trailer full of Mom's junk here, the house sold in a few months for exactly what that realtor said it would. It just took somebody to stand up to my Mom and tell her what needed to be done.

Talk to at least five different realtors. Never hire the first, or anybody right after talking to them. Sleep on it, google them, ask around after you meet them. Never hire family or friends, or the spouse of a friend. If anybody says to hire somebody because they need the work, RUN AWAY from that person. You want to hire the best, the person that is the busiest, and the one that is selling a house a week, or more. Here in Tyler, I bet we have about 200 realtors, and probably 3 that sell a house a week.

Do not make friends with the realtor. This is business. They want your money, you want them to provide a service to earn that money. Most people hire the person that is the friendliest, the one that they like, the one who agrees with them. Then you are stuck with a friendly person that doesn't do anything for you.

And I really have to repeat this, do not hire anybody the day you meet them. Wait at least a day, or even better, a week. Worse mistake that you will make is hiring somebody right away, on impulse, or just to get it over with.

Good luck