I don't think you're being too overly critical of her. (Maybe let the lock box issue drop? Seems a little petty.) Is she new to real estate? She sounds a little distracted or absent-minded. In a slow market like this, your house should be well advertised both online and in print. I've never met an agent who didn't want to do an open house. It's a great way for them to meet people who might be looking for an agent. I'd maybe meet with her face-to-face and go over these issues or find a new agent. I do think it's strange you have not had one showing in five weeks. Yes, it's a slow market, but it's not that slow.

Something does sound a little off here. No showings on a brand new listing is a concern, either the price is way off or it's just not out there enough.

Would you consider posting your pics so we can take a look? No offense, but sometimes clients send me the most awful photos of their houses to use and I have to very tactfully steer them away from using them. Or it could be something simple like your photos being 'portraits' when her systems only allow for 'landscape' shaped pictures.

Is your home showing up on line? Are you on your local MLS? Realtor.com? With photos? Is an agent lunch planned?

I put my listings in the paper, but only so I can tell client's that it's there. I get next to no interst from the newspaper - it's all about the online advertising.

Are your brochures appealing? That helps too.

Try and post your pics (yours and your RE Agents) so we can comment.

Think you may be being a bit difficult about the lockbox.

I know that I will get all sorts of comments about this, but are you being difficult in your dealings with your agent? I try to treat all my clients equally as much as possible, but it's tough to want to work for those clients who are a PITA all the time.

Good luck with your sale!

Yes, please do post a link to your listing so we can give suggestions.

As far as your agent - I agree with her not taking the backyard pic with the playset if it will not convey. If something is pictured that prominently and "the set is located is the ideal place for a very flattering backyard picture" it had better convey or just don't focus on it.

Also, agree with above - let the lockbox/paint issue go.

The rest of the stuff.... you have a problem. Advertising is key. Are other houses for sale in your area getting lookers? Have you gone to your competitor open houses to see if anyone is going? If no one is getting any lookers, either your market is really, really dead or you are all overpriced. If the others are getting lookers, you need to get your house advertised better. In my area we have a Saturday weekend home magazine that is part of the local Saturday paper. The Home Finder does attract people as an easy way to search for open houses that weekend. OH in my area sell houses. The Home Finder is not obsolete (although the free booklets in the supermarkets are). Are there brochures in your outside box? What do they look like? Are they being taken? Are you keeping them refilled (don't depend on your agent for this, you want to sell more than she wants to sell your house)?

How did you choose this agent? Did you interview at least 3 agents first? Did they each go over their marketing plan and show you examples of their other listings? All of this should be discussed before signing the listing agreement.

We're in the same boat. We fired our first agent because he did no advertising, just plunked an OH sign and hoped people would show up. No one came. Their website was horrid, there was a problem with it and our listing was not appearing. I wouldn't have discovered that had I not posted the listing here for critique. The realtor also didn't change his email address in the system, sent out a postcard with his old email addie from his previous RE company. We lost the crucial first few weeks of the listing because of that.

The realtors we have now are doing their best. All OH's are advertised and they've had them almost every weekend. They have had two Agent's Opens and I have no qualms about how they are marketing our home.

We had no showings until we reduced our price the first time with our new realtors. The AO the other day suggested we do another decrease.

If you're not getting showings, it's either because the photos are bad and/or the house is overpriced. If you're going by comps, you're making a mistake as you have to go by what has sold in your area.

Even for us, that's not too helpful because one house smaller than ours closed at the end of Sept for $242K. We are listed at $229K and most likely will do another drop to $219,900. We paid $238 two years ago in the height of the seller's market.

It's a tough pill to swallow and thank goodness we have alot of equity, although, it's hard to see it going poof every single day.

In your case, it sounds like you have cause for concern. Your agent should be aggressively advertising your home and having OH's. That is the only way we have gotten people in here.

We've had 2 showings and while I'm not holding my breath, we are a finalist in the most recent one. However, the parents are buying the home for this newly married couple, so they have to see the house and approve it. I'm not sure I want to have to deal with such a situation as the parents could be ruthless, but if it sells our house, we'll have to make the deal work.

Please post your listing. We will be able to provide objective feedback.

Hmmmm...doesn't sound like she's going out of her way to keep the listing. I was all prepared for an unreasonable seller rant, but I feel your complaints are legit in large part, and her lack of response would be infuriating.

I hope that you made sure it doesn't cost you anything to cancel before you signed. If not, get in touch w/ her broker (or is she the broker?) and let him/her know either you get the service/performance level you need or you want out at no cost.

Bad photos are bad news. She's right that a lot of buyers are starting their home search online (IMHO) and bad photos will get you eliminated FAST. Get those fixed ASAP.

On the other hand, had you taken a look at her photos for her other listings? How are her virtual tours? Are her other listings also poorly photographed, or could it just be she goofed a bit this time? Additionally, do you have a copy of her marketing plan for your home? Is she doing all she said she would?

Mags do take a bit to get your ad into...if it hits 2 months though, and you're still not in there, I'd start to feel somethings up.

If she's not aggressively marketing your home, chances are she's not aggressively keeping your price competitive. Prices are dropping rapidly. Try to get just ahead of the drop, and not chase it down, if you can.

Good luck, and hope things turn around for you.

My husband just read the title of your post and said "yeah, if you are asking the question than you should fire the agent". He didn't even read what your problems with the agent were. Bottom line...you aren't happy with her performance as of yet, you don't think you are getting what you should from her, you aren't communicating well with her. Fire her and move on to someone that will do as you ask and actively sell you home. NancyLouise

Thanks for the feedback - it's reassuring to know my thoughts are, at least, somewhat justified.

How I found her: The agent sold me the home, she was my buying agent and I really, really liked her - I felt she was more than competent to sell it. Evidently, she went out of town earlier in the week because she has a family member that's very ill and hospitalized. I don't know when she's to return. Perhaps that's the issue and why she's not gotten around to changing photos, etc.? Benefit of the doubt, and in the meantime, my home flounders unattractively on the internet :) I just see the DOM ticker clicking away...

Re an agent caravan, she told me that agents and brokers are innundated with them and she gets so many email notices that she merely deletes them - hence, she wouldn't do one for my home.

Yeah, I know I'm being petty about the lockbox, it's a non-issue, really, but mentioned it cuz it was bugging me on top of the other stuff.

Price-wise, I feel it's where it should be. It's priced under what I paid for it 1 year ago and I also dropped about 15K into it (fencing, painting, etc.) So I'm taking a hit coming out of the gate - I paid 250K, it's listed at 235K. I know my agent has an issue with that, she continually remarks, "I can't believe you're willing to lose 30-40K and sell the house. You should stay in it for a couple of years..." I figure that's my concern, not an agent's.

Unfortunately, I cannot figure out how to upload pictures - I did a quick search of the threads here for help, but was only directed to picasa. Is there a simple way to merely upload a couple of pictures?

While I have sympathy for your agent's personal trouble, doesn't she have a back-up? I think it's not only reasonable, but necessary, to ask who minds the store during emergencies. When my home was on the market, my agent went on vacation for two weeks but her very competent assistants covered.

Regarding the caravan...Did she present a detailed marketing plan during her intitial presentation? If not, I'd ask for one now.

You have the right to the best representation possible and if you are not receiving it that's a problem. What does your listing agreement say about releasing her? If it were me, I'd be looking for a way out. At a minimum, I think a call to the broker is in order...today. Time is $$$

Dixisdix, the easiest way I found to upload pictures on here is photobucket.com Just register and upload. (Its very easy and free).

This was on another post. Its step by step directions on adding photos.

http://starpoohonline.com/wordpress/how-to-use-the-kitchen-forum/adding-pictures-and-links/

Obviously, you dont want to add the pictures to the "kitchen forum".

I've asked my agent repeatedly about advertising and she says the listing will be in one of the upcoming homes magazines, evidently she missed a deadline for the previous month's issue - she also stated that the bulk of interest lately is online (!) Regardless, I've been adamant about it and have yet to see it anywhere on paper. I specifically mentioned the local papers, too. I want her to deluge the market with my home - visibility is important.

FWIW, most of the mags can be accessed online. If she told you which mags she'll be advertising in, look them up online, then do a search for a house like yours in your area. Does your house show up? Can you see if agents can log in online to upload and edit their listings?

Depending on where you are, she could be right. Do you have a good retiree's house? If so, more paper advertising may be necessary as a lot of older people I know don't have computers.

With online advertising, I've said this before & will say it again...

What I always suggest to someone selling their house (I do this myself) is I will sign up at all of the major real estate sites (this will be c/p from a post I made elsewhere)
Major real estate sites
Realtor.com main search - click advanced search to get more options
Caldwell Banker
Century 21
ReMax
ReMax find an office
Prudential Fox & Roach
Weichert
Yahoo Real estate You can check foreclosures there also. It's a pretty decent list. You can also find an agent through their Home Gain.

Make an account at all of the sites. Put in your search criteria (which is similar to your house on beds/bath, give a generous price range for high and low) then save the search. You will get emails when new listings come on as well as price drops. Every site is different and in order to find a house, you may have to sign up at all of the sites so that you can see what buyers see.

For someone selling, you then want to put your MLS number in their search box, if your house comes up, save it to your profile. This will allow you to see every time your agent does something, such as price drop or new photos. You will now see what other buyers searching in your area sees.

This is especially helpful if you are not getting a lot of traffic, because now it becomes a question of why.

My favorite site is Remax for ease of use. I actually save all homes I'm interested in from other places in my Remax home finder. I will copy the MLS # searching at Remax.

How much longer is your contract? Does your agent give you the option to cancel due to not being happy? If so, you might want to consider it. You should also go to realtor.com and do a search of your area / similar homes. You want to see what your agent is doing for your house there (a lot of people use it to look at houses) as well as seeing what other agents offer. If you truely are not happy, you can use it to find a new agent.

My agent didn't want to do an open house, but when pressed, did. Surprise, no one showed up. She said she advertised for the open house but suggested after the fact that I check the paper to see if it was there (ummm... isnt that her responsibility?)

There could be a few reasons for this. Open houses are not popular in my area. If anyone shows up agents are surprised. With our Open houses (old agent) they were not advertised to my liking. The 1st one was rushed, I don't recall it being advertised on the MLS and it was only in the Sunday paper.

If I were to do an open house again, I would do 2 weeks notice, have the agent add it to the MLS, and since I have an agent with enhanced listings on realtor.com, it will show as open on the online page. I would also ask for weekend advertising, Friday to Sunday in the newspaper. I would also advertise on craigslists.

Her lockbox has scraped some paint from my front door & I asked her 3 weeks ago to please place a rubber pad under the lockbox. She said she would - hasn't. (Minor, I know, but Im irked.)

This is the reason we don't have it on our door. Do you have a bench outside? Ours is attached to the bench, there is nothing to get ruined with it hanging like that.

I asked about a brochure box for the front, she stated that shed prefer people call her. I agreed to that (shes the pro, not me). Two days later, theres a brochure box in my yard. *shrug*

What is on the brochures? Our front page is nicely done with a bulleted blurb about the house, and a few photos. The listing agents info is on the 1st page. Our 2nd page is the MLS print out, which can easily be changed if there is a price change. It's very important to have the price & MLS number on the flier as people will throw it away if it is not. This is a peeve of mine. I can't tell you how much time I do not have to look information up online only to not be able to find it, or to find I have to join an agents site just to see the info. Forget it. I also do not have time to call an agent, I do not want to give them my name / number just to find out how much a house is.

I detest some of the pictures she's taken

Have to agree with everyone, if you post your MLS number we can give you feedback on the photos. You do not have to link to the agents site, finding the house on realtor.com is fine.

Re an agent caravan, she told me that agents and brokers are innundated with them and she gets so many email notices that she merely deletes them - hence, she wouldn't do one for my home

Depending on your area, agents may or may not come. We had 3 agents come to ours, hardly worth the time / effort / money to even have one.

Price-wise, I feel it's where it should be. It's priced under what I paid for it 1 year ago and I also dropped about 15K into it (fencing, painting, etc.) So I'm taking a hit coming out of the gate - I paid 250K, it's listed at 235K. I know my agent has an issue with that, she continually remarks, "I can't believe you're willing to lose 30-40K and sell the house. You should stay in it for a couple of years..." I figure that's my concern, not an agent's.

The house still may be over priced depending on what else is out there. If you don't know your MLS, you can give us your zip code as well as price, beds & baths.

Unfortunately, I cannot figure out how to upload pictures - I did a quick search of the threads here for help, but was only directed to picasa. Is there a simple way to merely upload a couple of pictures?

Picasa is easy to use. All you have to do is make an account, upload the photos, then link to your public album.

I'm with NancyLouise, if you don't like what she's doing (or NOT doing) and you certainly aren't getting any results, fire her.

Re an agent caravan, she told me that agents and brokers are innundated with them and she gets so many email notices that she merely deletes them - hence, she wouldn't do one for my home.

My agent told me she just put the house on the weekly agent caravan (it's not like that they get emails about individual agent open houses - in our area, three realties work together to put together the caravan) and made sure other agents knew there would be food there. Voila - free food, lots of agents.

Price-wise, I feel it's where it should be. It's priced under what I paid for it 1 year ago and I also dropped about 15K into it (fencing, painting, etc.) So I'm taking a hit coming out of the gate - I paid 250K, it's listed at 235K. I know my agent has an issue with that, she continually remarks, "I can't believe you're willing to lose 30-40K and sell the house. You should stay in it for a couple of years..." I figure that's my concern, not an agent's.

Uh-oh. Prices may have gone down in the intervening year - from 250K to something below $235K. Did you or the agent do a CMA to see what has sold within the last 3-6 months and the sold prices/closing costs? (In my area, we have a very very aggressive real estate agent who puts out flyers every 3 or 4 months showing what houses have sold in the neighborhood and all the gory details, so it's pretty easy to see what's happening)

It really sounds like while the agent may have been a great buying agent, she's not so good at the selling end.

Is there a simple way to merely upload a couple of pictures?

Yes. Upload your pictures to Photobucket. It is free and easy to use. After you have uploaded your pics simply copy and paste the "HTML Code" into your post.

Dixisdix...I, too, hired the same agent who sold me my old house to try to sell it. She did all the right things--held agent open houses (2, I believe), held public open houses, and showed it many times. But she never brought me one offer. After four months, I "fired" her and hired an agent from a bigger and more well-known agency. She sold the house in three weeks after getting the listing. I don't know...maybe some agents are better as buyer's agents than they are as seller's agents???

Price-wise, I feel it's where it should be. It's priced under what I paid for it 1 year ago and I also dropped about 15K into it (fencing, painting, etc.) So I'm taking a hit coming out of the gate - I paid 250K, it's listed at 235K. I know my agent has an issue with that, she continually remarks, "I can't believe you're willing to lose 30-40K and sell the house. You should stay in it for a couple of years..." I figure that's my concern, not an agent's.

Unfortunately, what you paid for it a year ago doesn't figure into the equation in this type of market. What determines the sale price is what a buyer is willing to pay. Comps are not helpful, even recent solds can be useless as I described above.

Since you've had zero showings, no calls, zippo interest, your house is overpriced. The poor pics could be a factor, but as our realtor has told me, your price range is the toughest one right now.

what sparksals said.