Should we change realtor???

16 years ago

Ill make a long story kinda short...6 months ago we put our house on the market with Century 21...the realtor we have known and delt with for over 12 years (she is there top seller for many years and knows her stuff)so we had trust...anyway...She advised us to list our house for 580,000.00 so we did and not 1 person looked at the house over the 6 month contract nor did they even have an open house...every time we called she said hang tight the market stinks right now,she was well aware that we needed a quick sale to move 2 miles down the road to the house I grew up in to help my dieing father and sister who is at wits end caring for him. So last week the contract was up she called and said lets not renew until springtime,my hubby asked "We need to move this house,should we drop the price?" Her reply was "Yes" Hubby asked "What should we list it at?" Her reply "450,000.00" WHAT????????? 130,000.00 loss all we see now is RED FLAGS!!!! ANy advice...we are in East Islip Long Island New York. PS...we know the markets not good right now but 580,000 was a right on price for where we are and what we have in the house. We were willing to drop our top dollar asking price but this drop seems rediculous!!

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Comments (9)

Carol_from_ny
16 years ago
First off I'm sorry about your dad. It's tough at any age to know you are losing a parent. Call hospice to get your sister some help.They are a wonderful organization and top notch at what they do. It will help with everyones stress level.

What do your recent comps say about houses in your area? Have you looked at them in the last 30 days? I'd start there to see if you have solid grounds for being upset. I don't know what your market is like. Have prices dropped? Have you done your homework?
Just cause you have 580,000 invested in the house does not mean you are going to get it. A house is only worth what someone else is willing to pay for it at any given time and with many markets right now they just aren't worth what they use to be.
sweet_tea
16 years ago
Time for a new agent and list pronto with the new agent.Your current agent should have been advising about a price cut (with comps to you) before 6 months passed. Also, why did your husband have to ask her about a price cut. Also, the fact that she wanted to unlist your home for a few months shows that she does not have your best interests in mind, since you need to move asap.

New agent should give new comps for your new price. If you aren't 100% what new price should be, spend a few hundred dollars for a certified appraisal. They do appraisals for sellers that want to know what their home really is worth in today's market. They are more trained in this than a realtor that gives you comps.
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chisue
16 years ago
Absolutely change agents. Here, a 90-day listing is the norm. Interview three realtors and see what sold comps and pricing they bring you. Get out and LOOK at your competition yourselves!

My sympathy to you in this doubly trying time. (Heed the Hospice advice if you can.)
xamsx
16 years ago
Ok, as far as your house...

Not one showing in six months at $580K? Either you were grossly overpriced (and what were your pictures like?) or nothing is selling in your market. If you didn't have any showings, why didn't you re-evaluate the comps at 30 days, 60 days, etc and drop then?

To me, the big red flag here is the agent did not want to relist with you. What happened? No showings? No open house? You needed to sell fast and yet you did nothing to prod the situation? We're missing something here.

Do find a new agent. Find out what the average DOM in your area are. Make sure you are priced according to the most recent comps, and then price 10% LOWER then those recent comps if you want a quick sale. Make sure your contract is spelled out crystal clear with the new agent for advertising, open houses, and a definite out if s/he is not pro actively marketing your house. The agent's broker will need to sign off on the out clause. DO NOT take the agent's word for "Oh sure we let you out of the contract if you are unhappy." Get it in writing.

Harsh but true the market does not care what you "need" to get for your house. The market is the market and you may very well be selling at a huge loss if you sell right now. Find out before you relist.

If the financial loss is too great, you may want investigate other areas of care for your Dad including hospice, in-home nursing care, nursing home care, a move to your house, etc. Consult with an attorney who specialized in Senior Care law. That will be the best money you could spend in this situation, and it may help to expand your options in this very sad time.
littlebug5
16 years ago
I agree that a red flag is the fact that the realtor doesn't want you to relist and her new suggested price is, perhaps, a clue. Maybe she realizes now that the original price of $580K was WAY too high and she has ruined any chance of selling your house for you because #1 - she led you into thinking that $580K was a reasonable price (and therefore your expectations are unrealistic), and #2 - any buyers who may have had fleeting thoughts of looking at your house won't because it was priced too high.

She will probably be relieved when you list with someone else.
terezosa / terriks
16 years ago

Should we change realtor???

Yes, if you want to sell your house. I would definitely interview at least 3 agents. Get a market analysis from each of them and have them go over their complete marketing program. I would suggest hiring an agent that has a Realtor.com enhanced listing subscription. It's pretty easy to find such an agent. Go to Realtor.com and do a search for your zip code. Sort the listings by # of pictures. Call agents that have multiple pictures. They have paid for enhanced listings.
sweeby
16 years ago
My first thought is that there appears to have been a definite lack of communication. You say this agent is the top seller in the area with 12 year's experience and that she knows her stuff.

If you didn't get even a single showing, that's a loud and clear signal that no one was interested in that house at that price. That should send off alarm bells to both the Realtor and the Sellers, and trigger the question "Is it overpriced for this market?" Yes, she should have called you. But you should also have called her. Did you? How often? And what were your discussions? Did either of you suggest that Plan A wasn't working and that it was time for a new plan?

Why didn't she suggest lowering your price before now? It's such an obvious strategy that it must have occured to her. Did you give her any reason to believe you were unwilling to budge on the price? Was it clear to her that you needed a "quick sale" more than you needed "top dollar"? Because one of them's usually got to give in a weak market.

I can understand a Realtor's unwillingness to invest a lot of time and effort trying to sell a house that she knows won't move. (due to price, condition, market, etc.) But if reducing the price could sell the house, I can't understand why she wouldn't have suggested it. Did she give you any other advice you didn't take? Painting, decluttering, repairs? Look for things that would be visible on the photos or evident from the listing.

Yes, interview other Realtors. But also look closely at your own conduct to see if there is something you may want to do differently to hasten the sale.
mfbenson
16 years ago
"we needed a quick sale to move 2 miles down the road"

wow. around here people think nothing of commuting 50 miles each way every day.

"Her reply "450,000.00" WHAT????????? 130,000.00 loss"

Its not a $130,000 loss unless you paid $580,000 when you bought the house. And a 23% price decline, while steep, still only gets the national average price of a house back to what it was in about early 2004. From the sounds of it you're still way above average.
theroselvr
16 years ago
Ill make a long story kinda short...6 months ago we put our house on the market with Century 21...the realtor we have known and delt with for over 12 years (she is there top seller for many years and knows her stuff)so we had trust...anyway...She advised us to list our house for 580,000.00 so we did and not 1 person looked at the house over the 6 month contract nor did they even have an open house...every time we called she said hang tight the market stinks right now,she was well aware that we needed a quick sale to move 2 miles down the road to the house I grew up in to help my dieing father and sister who is at wits end caring for him. So last week the contract was up she called and said lets not renew until springtime,my hubby asked "We need to move this house,should we drop the price?" Her reply was "Yes" Hubby asked "What should we list it at?" Her reply "450,000.00" WHAT????????? 130,000.00 loss all we see now is RED FLAGS!!!! ANy advice...we are in East Islip Long Island New York. PS...we know the markets not good right now but 580,000 was a right on price for where we are and what we have in the house. We were willing to drop our top dollar asking price but this drop seems rediculous!!

For one, open houses don't sell houses in every town but some times you have to try. If you do an open house, I feel advertising for close to 2 weeks minimum would be what I would do. This is on realtor.com & the agents site as well as any other site I can advertise on. I usually like the newspaper the weekend of from Friday to Sunday.

You have to understand that people can;t just go out and get a mortgage for that much these days like they sued to so there are less buyers for a house priced that high.

You also should go to realtor.com, type in your info and see how many houses come up and in what price range.. very well that you could be off. I did a search from $400K to $700K, there were 40 houses, same thing for $300K to $550k

If you are going to relist, please find someone else. You may lose the friendship but since you need to sell, if she doesn;t know how dire this is, what kind of friend is she? She would be doing everything in her power to try to get the house sold.

Did she have an agents open house?
Did the 3 of you not talk about the house in all of the time it was listed?

Should we change realtor???

Comments (9)

Carol_from_ny

sweet_tea

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