If someone isn't responsive, that is just a no-go for me. I am not sure if a name matters as much as it used to, because people buy based on what they see online IME. The value of an agent is in all the other things they do, and I'd hire the hungry/hard working.

I could not agree more on photos. We took the unusual step of hiring our own landscape design photographer last summer, when our property was in peak form. That way we had 1) the very best quality, stand out really IMHO and 2) the pics in our back pocket so we could list in early spring if we wanted, before the foliage was in (well, we didn't but we could have!).

You may want to do that. Our guy does not do work for realtors. He does work for design magazines and such, all commercial. For a special property like your describe, I think it is worthwhile. If you want any more info. shoot me an email or msg.

Good luck!

PS the entire five years it was on and off the market. Oh my!

Use the hungry one and have her produce better photos. If the guy is nonresponsive at this stage it is unlikely to get better. Imagine if he's that way once it is on the market! No way I would take that chance.

Yes….I would just show the hungry one the difference in photography and tell her you want photos like big guy. I feel certain she will do that to get the sale.

Here the photographers are really independent of the agency and they are hired by the realtor just like any other independent contractor.

It's usually not the agents fault if a house is on the market for Years. There's something else going on. An inattentive agent who doesn't market a house well in a good market can be a problem. But if a house doesn't sell for years at a time, it's not just poor marketing.

I’ll bet the big guy uses a professional house photographer and the hungry girl does it herself. With a little asking around, hungry girl can probably get the name of the photographer Big Guy uses.

I was amazed at the photos and the photographer when DD put her house on the market in 2019. I happened to be there the day the two guys with a massive amount of photography equipment showed up. The photos were spectacular. They were so good, that someone from 2000 miles away bought the house, sight unseen for more than the asking price (although he did have his sister actually look at it).

ETA: non-responsiveness would be an absolute deal breaker for me.

I sold real estate for a few years way back . Go with a woman.

I gave that advice to my Son and his wife about 15 years ago and they (my Dil who is now my ex Dil) wouldn't listen. She had found a man who she was very impressed with. They were moving as soon as the house was on the market. Six months later , 6 months of mortgage payments, the house was still on the market. Then, they went back to the woman who had sold them the house. The woman advised them to repaint the living room to a more neutral color. The house sold in a couple of weeks once she had the listing.

One issue that I don't see mentioned is that some realtors have a strategy of suggesting a higher listing price to flatter you and get the listing. They do it because the difference between 1% of 500k and 1% of 475k is only $250. Which is still way better than a $0 commission.

In the meantime, your house just sits on the market and eventually ends up selling for a lower price. So, as an aside, I would be interested in what they suggest as a listing price.

I would not use the guy given everything you said. I am sure your gut is screaming NO at the thought of using him.

The woman can hire anyone for the photography. You just need to let her know that is one of your top priorities. Sounds like she will work hard for you.

I definitely agree to see for how much she would suggest listing it I am sure you have a approximate number already in your head.

Good luck and keep us posted!!

Amy

Yeah, I've decided to go with her. They both use a professional photograher. Her photos are good but I think the other guys are kind of "enhanced" which I don't think is necessary. So now that we are down to the wire, the topic of which house to sell has come up again. DH would like to keep the lake home because that's where anyone in their right mind would want to be in the summer. I want to keep the association-maintained villa in the city because I really like the place and it's the ideal "aging in place" home if something goes south with our health. So as always, DH has the fun and interesting perspective, I have the practical point of view. So I guess we will ponder this for at least a day before we decide what to do.

Would not use the man, period. He may think this will be an easy listing because he already ”knows” the property. In my experience people who are careless with details are careless with the big things, too.

I agree with those who suggested going with the younger, responsive realtor but insisting on better photos. I'd also ask if she will be the one to show your home or will other realtors from her agency and other agencies take buyers through. I guess that depends on how things are done in your area.

When we sold our home 6 years ago we signed with a local man in his mid-forties who grew up in our town and owned his own agency. We knew his family and he had great recommendations. He is a definite go-getter. However I didn't realize that he was primarily interested in getting listings added to his portfolio. He had the younger, less experienced realtors in his office show our property.

That's not necessarily a bad thing but most of the agents had never seen our house and were unable to answer questions from potential buyers. A few times they even called me on my cell phone to get answers. Many of the other agencies in our town have an open house on a Wed. afternoon just for realtors so that they walk through and familiarize themselves with the property.

In any case I really hope you get a great offer soon - it's always a little hectic when your house in on the market.

Maire

3katz - that describes the difference between me and my DH perfectly. Sometimes it's frustrating being "me".

Late chiming in, and you've already made your decision, but I thought I'd add my two cents worth and share our RE agent story.

We bought our house three years ago in a very hot market. By chance, I had called about another house I saw online and was really impressed with the agent who answered the phone. We felt so comfortable with him that we contracted with him to represent us.

He was new to the business and had recently left his previous job in a completely unrelated field to work with his wife who is an experienced agent. As it turned out, we were the first clients that he handled the transaction for from start to finish all on his own, with some behind the scenes input from his wife over the dinner table.

We looked at several houses over the next few weeks, but none was quite what we wanted. One day, he showed us a house we loved and we made an offer which was accepted. Then the problems began. The seller turned out to be difficult, if not somewhat unethical, and the big gun listing agent representing him spent more time on the golf course than he did in his office. There were times we considered backing out of the sale, but our agent talked us down every time. We always, always felt that he had our backs and was on our side. I know that more than once he was frustrated, but he never lost his cool and spent more time than should have been necessary negotiating/dealing with the seller and his golf playing agent.

Due to the difficulties, our escrow lasted longer than the original projected date, but we finally closed the deal and we love our house. I give full credit to our inexperienced, but highly motivated and "do the right thing" agent for making it happen. I truly believe without him, we would not have been able to buy our house.

I remember reading a review written by another client of our agent and the reviewer wrote that he not only trusted our agent to get the job done but that he would trust him with his life. When I read that, I realized that's exactly how I felt about our guy.

Besides working hard for us, he is the most organized person I have ever met. He responds to calls, texts and emails within minutes even on holidays or late at night. He is never late and he never forgets an appointment. If he says he's going to do something, no matter how minor of a detail, it gets done and it gets done promptly. I sometimes wonder if he ever sleeps.

Fast forward three years, and he and his wife are now owners of their own RE company, doing very well and are highly respected and successful. They have become friends whom we socialize with every so often. I often thank the fates for bringing them into our lives.

We sell our houses ourselves and we've always hired professional photographers on our own independently when we do it. Find a photographer you like (just google for .RE photographers in your area) and tell the agent you like that you want to use that photographer.

We will not even consider using a selling agent but we have always used buyer's agents just for convenience. We found our buyer's agent because when we went to different open houses, he was at several and he was the only one of the agent's we encountered who actually knew stuff about the house he was selling.

It's shocking how many agents have absolutely no clue at all about the properties they are selling... Like major questions like whether a particular house even has central air.

He was super attentive to us, followed up with us later, and gave us some helpful information about a plot of land that he knew was coming down into our price range (we were deciding between building and buying) and he became our buyer's agent.

If I was ever going to use a selling agent, I would go to open houses and ask questions and see how they do and make my choice from there.

Non-responsiveness would be an absolute deal breaker for me. Me too. My Dad hired a "been there, done that, know the area" guy. He was a lazy unresponsive jackass. Hire the hungry one IMHO.

Thanks all for the helpful perspectives. If we decide to sell out city house instead I know who I’d use for that.

You want a HUNGRY realtor. One with the want to work FOR YOU..let the "big gun" GO! They will make an inordinate amount of money off you. Good or bad they get the same percentage. The "big guns" sell cheaper to sell faster, let the listing sell itself, let other realtors do the leg work to bring people through. You want one that is aggressive about SELLING your place. One that will do more than list it on MLS, sit back and wait.

I wouldn't necessarily call 2% of most listings, or less if it is above a certain sales price as "inordinate" in most markets where fees are divided between a sellers agent, a buyers agent and their brokerages.

One thing to think about is that if an agent is busy they may actually be part of a team where the person at the top is not providing the services personally, someone else on the team is, and whatever their commission is, it's divided between a bunch of people. This means that there is an income stream for people on the team who are not selling as much, but the person at the top of the team can make a little bit off every sale. Some of the biggest producing agents here don't actually ever show a property or sit at an open house themselves unless it is a multi-million-dollar listing.

An agent who is not part of a team and has to earn all their own commission (minus fees to their brokerage) has more of a vested interest in selling their listings or helping a buyer find a listing because they don't have any income stream coming in from other sales on their team.

Of course this is going to vary by location: where my dad sold his house the house values are so low, in general, that there is only one agent for both sides of the transaction. And sometimes there is a minimum flat rate commission because the % of a 50,000 sale is not that great, particularly when many houses sit on the market there for months or years.

Having sold a few homes without a realtor, it does kill me to think about the real estate commission $. However the times I use an agent are when I don't think the property is going to sell easily and/or we don't have time to do showings, etc. The capital gains tax is even more of a killer as I don't get anything from that - one reason we are considering selling our primary residence instead of the second home.