View Full Version : Handling unethical real estate agents when selling your home
Since most of you will be selling your homes in the near future if you haven't already I thought this would be a timely thread. It certainly would have helped me to avoid some anxiety if I had known what to expect.
Our house has just sold and it was one of the worst experiences of my life even though we got about 98% of the ask and sold the house twice in 2 weeks.
Since there are probably real estate agents who are also homeowners in Mill Pond I thought it might be helpful to your neighbours if you would share some tips on handling agents who don't play by the rules (which is probably 90% of them).
Since the seller pays all of the real estate commissions you must remember that no matter what any agent says or does you control the outcome.
Real estate is weird. Anybody can make an offer and claim that they have the means to buy your house and you can't ask for proof because it's a violation of their privacy. You are supposed to take the word of the buying agent that his client is qualified. Some of the buying agents I met couldn't be trusted to tell you what day it is.
You may not be able to see proof of qualification but you can ask friendly probing questions about the buyers. Questions like:
1. Tell me about your buyers.
2. Are they married?
3. How many kids? How old are they? Do any of the kids go to university?
4. How old are the buyers?
5. Is there money available for a larger deposit?
My personal favorite is: Do they have jobs??!!
List your house at a price that is reasonable having considered market conditions. Don't under price it or over price it. Your house is probably going to sell for very close to the appraised value. Everything else is just BS. If you price too high it will sell for even less.
Agents are desperate to make a sale. If your house is listed close to what it should logically sell for you will get more buying agents bringing people to show your house. These days they're probably having trouble putting gas in their cars. Most of these agents haven't made a sale in months.
In this market you have to dress your house like a hooker that has 10 competitors and there are only 2 Johns. I'm serious. It worked for my house. I had Ethan Allen furniture all over the house. Why do you think hookers wear such expensive shoes? Because it works! It worked for our house twice.
My favorite and most annoying tip. Wash the kitchen floor before every showing. It drove my husband and son crazy but people think if your kitchen floor is clean everything else must be clean.
Your first offer is probably going to be the best even in this market. It might not initially be the best but you can probably negotiate that buyer close to the ask. If he was eager enough to want to be first in line he's probably eager enough to bid it up. We thought you needed multiple simultaneous bidders to get the price up but you don't.
The one mistake we made is we listed too early thinking it was going to take much longer to sell the house and with the idea that Mattamy was going to be late on our closing date. We had not had our framewalk yet and based on that I calculated that they were already 2 weeks late from the schedule.
The very first buyer came in strong and tried to keep bidding it up but he needed a fast closing because another offer he had made fell apart and he was getting a little desperate. He actually wanted to make an offer the very first day but our agent held him off because we had so many showings lined up for the weekend. When he saw that we were completely inflexible on the closing date he stopped bidding. We couldn't be flexible on the closing because I run a business from home and we carry inventory and the idea of doing this out of a hotel for a month was a real turn off for me. By the time the first sale fell apart due to a delay in the buyer getting financing the first bidder had already locked himself into another offer.
The psychology in real estate seems to be the opposite of everything else. The real buyers show up first and the bargain hunters show up later.
The benefit of selling an amazing house even in a down market is that you can usually talk up the bargain hunters to your asking price too. The problem with bargain hunters is that your asking price is usually too far out of their reach and they will probably have problems closing the deal.
Joanne
02-03-2009, 06:38 PM
The one mistake we made is we listed too early thinking it was going to take much longer to sell the house.
When do you suggest listing? Everything I have read mentions spring, yet the agents I have spoke to say now is the time, b/c the market is expected to worsen and it will take longer to sell and if you wait until the spring you will be up against more competition. But I think waiting unitl spring brings potentially more buyers around. If I list now and the right buyer does not come around, and my house is left on the market when more buyers come around in spring, they will wonder why has my house been on the market so long. It just seems slike a catch 22 situation.
I have also heard that more serious buyers shop in the winter, and that they are looking for bargains especially in this market.
I too am very firm on my closing and cannot negotiate that. My closing is in July. If we follow the agents advice and list now, our buyers will be looking at a long closing. I'm not sure how well that will go over.
Joanne, I think your instincts about this market are better than the agents. I found most of the agents to be a bunch of paranoid freaks! The buyers and sellers are not as desperate as the agents.
I think you should list 60 to 90 days prior to your closing. Spend the next few months getting your house ready to sell instead of getting on the market and fretting over why you haven't sold the house yet. My staging books said it's all about walls, floors and lighting. So I had the house painted, cleaned the hell out of the carpets and put in lots of high wattage bulbs. I rented some furniture to fill in the gaps and rented 4 stand up lamps for the basement. It looked like the sun was shining down there! We also put most of our excess stuff in storage in preparation for the move. The house shows much better that way.
Waiting has a number of benefits:
1. You can monitor fresh listings to see how long they take to sell and how much they sell for.
2. The more interest rates go down the higher the offers will be. Waiting a few months would actually be beneficial to potential buyers. Even the talk of the bank rate potentially going to zero would make an intelligent buyer wait a bit longer.
3. Yes there will be more competition in the Spring but all those sellers are also buyers which greatly increases your pool of prospects.
4. Even apartment dwellers looking to buy for the first time all want 60 day closings because that's all the notice they have to give these days. I couldn't believe how eager they all were to ditch their apartments once they saw our house.
Never reveal your emotions to the buying agents unless the emotion you're feeling is "this guy is an idiot why am I here?". Even then try to remain friendly and bear it till it's over. You'll probably never have to see that guy again.
Don't talk numbers with the buying agents ever. Let your agent do all the negotiating. That's what you're paying him to do. If your agent is a bad negotiator wait until you are alone and give him a good spanking.
Don't tell them why you are selling the house or that you have bought a new house that is being built. They're looking for points of weakness. For all they know you are just testing the market. Smile more and talk less. I learned this from the Mattamy framewalk guy. I've never seen anybody smile as much as he does. It works for him, it'll work for you.
One thing that I noticed about pretty much every buying agent is that they are very bad negotiators. They revealed too much information about their buyers that could be used against them and they almost blew the deals right near the end because they are incompetent.
Your agent should never reveal any personal information about you because even good information can be used against you.
Be on the lookout for agents who are going to try to shake you down even after the price has been agreed to. Always have a backup buyer lined up for when the buying agent tries to renegotiate the price. Continue to show your house if you can even after the offer has been signed by both parties pending financing and home inspection. They will have wasted 3 to 5 days of your marketing time and some of them will not respect what you have done for them.
One trick that unethical buying agents seem to like to use is strategically make low ball offers. They will make an offer that is good for more than a few hours (usually a few days) because then other agents can probably see that there is an offer on the table and they will not bring their buyers in to compete against it to make the price go up. Get yourself a fax machine to use at home. The investment will be worth it. Turn the machine off during open houses and showings so the agents can't mess with you via fax. Also lock up any paperwork to do with the house and the offers so a potential buyer doesn't find it.
We had one guy who would make an offer good for a few days just before an open house to discourage other agents from bringing in their buyers. My response was to respond back to him in writing right away with a very high sign back and a time limit that ended 1 minute before the open house started. He would then come back 1 minute after the open house and say that now his offer was much lower. It was comical!
One trick that unethical buying agents seem to like to use is strategically make low ball offers. They will make an offer that is good for more than a few hours (usually a few days) because then other agents can probably see that there is an offer on the table and they will not bring their buyers in to compete against it to make the price go up. Get yourself a fax machine to use at home. The investment will be worth it. Turn the machine off during open houses and showings so the agents can't mess with you via fax. Also lock up any paperwork to do with the house and the offers so a potential buyer doesn't find it.
We had one guy who would make an offer good for a few days just before an open house to discourage other agents from bringing in their buyers. My response was to respond back to him in writing right away with a very high sign back and a time limit that ended 1 minute before the open house started. He would then come back 1 minute after the open house and say that now his offer was much lower. It was comical!
Wow, what a total dirtbag.
Wow, what a total dirtbag.
And he wore a pinstriped suit ... Mr. Overdressed!
Adjusting to market conditions is something that comes easily to me. I was prepared to take the best offer we could get. I wasn't prepared for the kooky buying agents. I gave my agent hell for exposing us to these unsavory types.
anxious_f
02-04-2009, 01:43 PM
When do you suggest listing? Everything I have read mentions spring, yet the agents I have spoke to say now is the time, b/c the market is expected to worsen and it will take longer to sell and if you wait until the spring you will be up against more competition. But I think waiting unitl spring brings potentially more buyers around. If I list now and the right buyer does not come around, and my house is left on the market when more buyers come around in spring, they will wonder why has my house been on the market so long. It just seems slike a catch 22 situation.
I have also heard that more serious buyers shop in the winter, and that they are looking for bargains especially in this market.
I too am very firm on my closing and cannot negotiate that. My closing is in July. If we follow the agents advice and list now, our buyers will be looking at a long closing. I'm not sure how well that will go over.
There are so many variables that affect when the "best" time to list is.
What type of house do you have? Starter? Established? Fixer Upper? This makes the biggest difference as to WHEN you should list.
* If your home is a starter home, you will have the easiest time selling it. There will ALWAYS be people looking to get into these kinds of homes and they are not as greatly affected by market fluctuations. These buyers also are usually more flexible with closing dates, since they are mostly renters or people that still live at home. They will also be the most eager to please the seller, since they are less experienced buyers, overcome with excitement for buying their first home and more trusting of what their agent tells them.
* If your home is $300K+ (depending on where you live, this number could move up or down slightly) you should definitely give yourself a bit longer to sell. If you give yourself 6-8 to sell and a 60 close from that point, then you should be safe. K.C. is accurate in the 60-90 day range, but anything that is on the upper end of the price scale is sitting on the market a bit longer right now and so people have more to choose from. That's why 90-120 days would be the safe approach right now.
* If you have a house that would be considered a fixer upper (or "investment property" as real estate agents like to put it) then PRICE is the most important factor. Buyers need to see a profit in your home. If the houses around you are worth $250,000 and your place needs about $10,000 worth of work to be at the same level as them, then you will need to sell for less than $240,000...for a QUICK sale.
The most important factor is ABSOLUTELY how your home shows. I have some friends that are agents and spoke with them back in the fall about listing my home. One of them (and he is considered to be one of the best in the area - by volume) told me to just throw the house up on the market in January for an April 1 close. He said that the fact that our home is a starter home in a good part of town would allow us to sell it quickly. Come January, I called him back and told him that I was ready to list. He told me that it would difficult to sell for the price that I wanted with a close for when I wanted. I listed privately (through Property Guys) and sold my house for full asking price in less than 2 weeks, with only 2 couples coming to see it. The first couple was interested but waited and the second couple came back right away with a completely clean offer (no conditions). The biggest difference is that I went through the house and made some cosmetic updates (door/kitchen hardware, paint, etc) and made sure it was clean. Secondly, I priced it well and, therefore, didn't need to worry about negotiating. I was confident that they were already getting a good deal and had info to back it up.
If your house is the best looking of what's available and is priced right, the buyers will always be willing to work with whatever conditions you may have...in any market.
anxious_f
02-04-2009, 01:48 PM
One thing that you should do to educate yourself on how to price your home is to go on to the MPAC website and look at what houses have sold for in your neighbourhood. If you can find your assessment, there should be a username and password located on it for their site. Once you go on, you can pull up your assessment and that of (I think) 25 other homes of your choice. That's one of the things that we did for our home.
You should also look at whats available on the market right now (through MLS AND privately) and see how your place compares. The biggest thing is to be realistic anout it. Pretend you are the buyer and remove all bias and ask yourself what you would pay, knowing what else is available on the market for a comparable home.
The most important factor is ABSOLUTELY how your home shows.
If your house is the best looking of what's available and is priced right, the buyers will always be willing to work with whatever conditions you may have...in any market.
I think I would have had less anxiety if I was left to deal directly with the buyers instead of going through buying agents. Unfortunately, these agents are a necessary evil. But they don't protect their buyers against anything because they don't seem to know a whole lot about judging a house.
The only purpose the buying agents served was to drag bodies inside the house and they were not very discriminating. I wonder if I would have done better if I hired a clown to stand on the street and give away free prizes.
The Internet has changed many industries. I've worked most of my career in the semiconductor business. I used to own a semiconductor rep company and the business model was wiped out by the Internet. I think buying agents will soon become dinosaurs ... thank God for that!
anxious_f
02-04-2009, 02:56 PM
The Internet has changed many industries. I've worked most of my career in the semiconductor business. I used to own a semiconductor rep company and the business model was wiped out by the Internet. I think buying agents will soon become dinosaurs ... thank God for that!
I think that soon both buying AND selling agents, as we know them now, will go by way of the Dodo. There is an evolution happening where agents have less to do with searching for or selling homes and more to with marketing them. Commissions will start to change very soon and I think that we will see a drop in agent commissions from 5-6% to maybe 2-3%. With the average home price in Ontario now around the $300K mark, most agents should admit to you that they make too much.
Most of the purposes I hired an agent for didn't seem to have been met. My agent was good at figuring out what price the house would sell quickly at. But I also expected her to act as a barrier between us and the shenanigans of the buying agents and that all the buyers would have been properly qualified before they were allowed to start bidding on our house ... they were not. I think the reasons she couldn't do the things I expected from her is because the law forbids it which makes having an agent pretty pointless.
I think that soon both buying AND selling agents, as we know them now, will go by way of the Dodo. There is an evolution happening where agents have less to do with searching for or selling homes and more to with marketing them. Commissions will start to change very soon and I think that we will see a drop in agent commissions from 5-6% to maybe 2-3%. With the average home price in Ontario now around the $300K mark, most agents should admit to you that they make too much.
I think if I ever sell a house again I'm going to take the cash I would have paid in commissions and tell the buyers I'll contribute that amount towards their down payment. That should make for a quick sale!
Your selling agent's hands are tied by the fact she is legally obligated to present all offers to you even ones she might suspect to be fraudulent because she doesn't want to risk being sued by you if her hunch is wrong.
I have pretty good instincts about people and I knew within the first minute of talking to every buying agent which strategy they were going to use to get out of a fraudulent offer they made should you choose to accept it. The problem is not the buyers it's the agents who are so desperate to make a sale they convince their buyers there is always a way out of a contract. What you don't see is all the hard selling they're doing to their buyers. If the buyers don't show up to the negotiations that's a good sign that there is some hard selling going on.
The real estate system is wide open to agents who choose to engage in fraud. This is usually what happens when a business model nears its end. Be careful out there. If you see a man in a pinstriped suit ... run!
This one gets me every time. I made several mistakes during this process because I allowed a personal bias to affect my decision making. I like families, I don't like divorced people.
Because the first buyer was so aggressive I started to back away from him. His agent said that he was a single father of two and that it would be a conventional mortgage. Why don't agents understand that some women might have a negative reaction to this? I assumed he was divorced and that the kids would almost never be at the house. If he had a conventional mortgage that meant he had some money and I was going to squeeze every last dollar out of him. He may have been a widower in which case his agent was an idiot because he didn't mention that part.
I also assumed he was a flipper because my house is the kind of house Barbie would live in. Since there was no woman in the picture he wasn't going to get in a bidding war for it. I decided he would pay close to the asking price and sell it 6 months later for $50K more than he paid for it because our house is the kind that starts bidding wars when the world isn't going to hell.
My second mistake was I started to melt when the second buyers' agent said they were a young couple with 2 kids, an 8 year old and a 1 month old. I was concerned about their ability to qualify but my agent convinced me if they were recently qualified there would be no problem. We sold to them and then I became emotionally attached to them because we met and they told me how much they both loved the house and they weren't going to change a single thing about it. 8 days later we had to go back on the market. That's when the pinstriped suit showed up. By now I was starting to miss the divorced guy.
I'm not sure what the psychology behind this is but it works. Never meet at the house or the buying agent's office or anywhere else. Find a good excuse to always meet at your agent's office.
All of our negotiations were held at our agent's office. We had a good excuse ... she couldn't walk ... she was on crutches. I think this gave the buying agents the false impression that she was weak but she was calling all the shots. The only time her immobility became a problem was when an agent tried to shake us down and she couldn't defend us because the false accusations they were making were things she had not seen because she couldn't go up and down the stairs. This was the point where I lost my temper and threatened to walk away from the deal and go back and sell the house to the first buyers or somebody else. The agent who tried to shake us down caved and got his buyers to waive the home inspection and stick with the original sell price.
Also meeting at your agent's office makes it possible to put multiple bidders in different rooms without the buyers knowing what they're walking into and creates a sense of suspense. But you don't want them to think they've been ambushed. You will probably never have multiple bidders in at the same time but it's good to keep them guessing who might be in the other rooms.
Slumping real estate market may be behind brokerage freeze orders http://www.cbc.ca/consumer/story/2009/02/09/gta-brokerages.html
I hope this is not the beginning of a hot new trend.
I used mostly my own furniture for staging but there's a well priced furniture rental company in Toronto that I used as well. Most of the professional stagers use them.
It's called Executive Furniture Rental http://www.execfurnrent.com/ The website is not very good, you'll need to go there to see what they have.
They're only open during the day Monday to Friday and for a few short hours on Saturday. Call (416) 785-0932 so check their hours before you go.
The prices are very reasonable compared to all the other rental companies and the selection is much better. The earliest you can reserve is 3 weeks in advance. They deliver and place it for you. The delivery fee is $100 each way no matter how many pieces you rent. You can also rent bedroom suites and mattresses and box springs but no bedding.
I dealt with a lady named Flo. I also bought my office suite from them. I got a $9000 office suite for $2500. It belonged to their company president and he wanted to get rid of it after only a short time. I love it.
For accessories like baskets and bathroom stuff, I shopped at a store called Magnolia's in St. Jacobs. They have really cool stuff like Pottery Barn does but their prices are about 75% less all the time.
Finally some good news ... if I had it to do all over again I would target this demographic ... they're easier to negotiate with because they are naive and when they find the house they like they want to please the seller ...
http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5iWWz-Im1c2vUIjXZD9k8AI1wgloA
For those of you who will be in between houses for a short period of time, I thought I would post this link to the Staybridge Suites in Guelph: http://www.ichotelsgroup.com/h/d/sb/1/en/hotel/yguhp?rpb=hotel&crUrl=/h/d/sb/1/en/hotelsearchresults
We're going to be staying there for a week between this house and the new one.
A 2 bedroom suite with a kitchen, living room and 2 bathrooms is $140 per night with a discounted rate. I think if you're a member of CAA or some other organizations you should be able to get this rate. It's a good idea to book in advance for a long term stay.
I'm going to be running my business out of there and my husband will be working out of the hotel as well. The second bedroom has it's own ensuite bath also. I didn't want to share my bathroom with our 24 year old son so this is going to work out well. Both bedrooms have TVs in them. All three of us work at home so we needed the space to get away from each other.
Men don't fall in love with houses, women do. If you have her, you have him. Unless he doesn't like his wife ... if that's the case move on ... you can't win that war. We had a couple like that too.
1. Make the outside of the house inviting so they want to come inside and get a closer look.
2. Massive amounts of PILLOWS are the secret to my success. But there should be very few cushions on the sofas and chairs. Pillows and cushions belong on BEDS.
3. Stage dining table with simple arrangements using your best dishes. Put a small vase with a few FRESH FLOWERS on it. Don't forget to water it at least once a day, bring the water almost to the top of the vase.
4. Make your house Q-tip clean. The first buyer whose financing didn't come through on time told me he thought I'd cleaned the house with a tooth brush. I said "I did!".
5. HIDE all your GARBAGE. You don't exist! This is a must for the bonding process.
6. All toilet lids should be DOWN, you got that guys!
7. All lights should be ON.
8. All blinds should be UP. Make sure your windows sparkle on both sides. Take out the screens and hide them in the storage room.
9. If you have a whole house humidifier, turn it OFF. It fogs up the windows and the buyers will say you need new windows!
10. Stage your garage. Put all boxed stuff in a nice pile on one side. If at all possible it should look like you can actually park a car there.
11. Stage your closets. Empty is best.
12. Stage your kitchen cabinets.
13. Stage your bathroom cabinets, the emptier the better.
14. Fluffy white towels and black towels work wonders. If you have a bathroom that doesn't look it's best, use BLACK towels. They are distracting and look upscale. Make sure they are new and never used otherwise it just looks like a ghetto!
15. I accidentally discovered that using excessive lighting hides cosmetic flaws on walls and ceilings. Pointing the lights at the flaw highlights it but pointing it at something else distracts.
16. Stage the insides of your appliances. The fridge should be sparse and organized. Every other appliance should be clean and empty. Yes I know I'm nuts but I'm the one who got 98% in January in a nightmare market.
17. Lock up your valuables and important papers. Password protect the operating systems on all your computers. If enough agents come into your house there's bound to be one guy who is going to try to break into your desk or your computer. Remember I said some of the agents were creepy!
18: Make your laundry room sparkle.
19. Buy expensive magazines and books to stage with. I'm a big fan of Williams Sonoma and Pottery barn books. Chapters has a great selection of magazines and books good for staging. Hard cover books are best. Remove the book covers, they look more upscale without covers.
20. Declutter and depersonalize. Get rid of all pictures and religious symbols.
21. Air out the house for at least 30 minutes before a showing, that includes the basement. Make sure the house has enough time to warm up before the buyers get there.
22. If you have windows in your bathroom, make sure you open and clean them of any signs of mold. We have a brand new window in the bathroom and an agent tried to knock off a few thousand dollars because I didn't clean the part where the outside of the window meets the house. There was alot of heavy snow piled up outside and I didn't want to risk damaging a brand new window by forcing it open. You wouldn't believe the tricks agents use to try to get a better price.
23. Replace all the toilet seats with brand new plastic ones, don't buy the heavy ones. They cost $6.95 ... it will be the best money you ever spent.
babymaeby
02-26-2009, 03:02 PM
Wow - I'm exhausted just reading your list :)
Wow - I'm exhausted just reading your list :)
I've been cleaning every week since May, 2008! I skipped Christmas because I was too busy cleaning.:mad:
Joanne
02-26-2009, 08:01 PM
RE: Tip No. 10: Make the woman fall in love and form a bond with your house
OMG KC, If I need to do all that I am going to have to quit my job to sell my house! LOL!
I'm listing this weekend.
RE: Tip No. 10: Make the woman fall in love and form a bond with your house
OMG KC, If I need to do all that I am going to have to quit my job to sell my house! LOL!
I'm listing this weekend.
Yes it is excessive isn't it? I put my business on hold to do all this. I could be selling more microscopes if I wasn't so obsessed with cleaning the house! Next summer is going to be the year of the microscope. This was the year of selling the house.
I'm so glad it's over. I still have flashbacks every time the doorbell rings. I think it's somebody coming to see the house. Then I remind myself the house is already sold. I think I need therapy!
Well hurry the hell up!
http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/Ipsos-Reid-957014.html
well I'm certainly getting enough requests for showings... more than 10 min. notice would be nice though. :mad:
We were lucky. With the incredible number of showings we had there was always a day's notice. On the weekend they were lining up every hour on the hour. One agent would be in the house and the other one would be parked outside waiting for him to leave. Because I was such a clean freak we started staying at a hotel nearby on the weekends.
We told our agent we were able to show at a moment's notice but that never happened. Maybe because they knew I was ready!
I think it's a good idea to show on demand. You never know when the right buyer will show up. When we bought our Mattamy house, I went there with absolutely no intention of buying anything for at least 3 to 4 years.
It must be really hard showing on short notice with little kids.
We were lucky. With the incredible number of showings we had there was always a day's notice. On the weekend they were lining up every hour on the hour. One agent would be in the house and the other one would be parked outside waiting for him to leave. Because I was such a clean freak we started staying at a hotel nearby on the weekends.
We told our agent we were able to show at a moment's notice but that never happened. Maybe because they knew I was ready!
I think it's a good idea to show on demand. You never know when the right buyer will show up. When we bought our Mattamy house, I went there with absolutely no intention of buying anything for at least 3 to 4 years.
It must be really hard showing on short notice with little kids.
try impossible. Same agent two days in a row now has given us 10 minutes notice. Yesterday was even worse as no one was home at the time, the house was not ready to be shown and we have 2 small dogs... um, no you cannot just go in when there are dogs in the house.
The phone has been ringing off the hook today with potential showings so we've got our fingers crossed.
justmed
03-04-2009, 02:34 PM
just takes the right one to walk through...
we had it written to have at least 4 hours notice, with a dog at home to be tended to with people coming over.
MIL house sold in 2 weeks... still such a nuisance to get out on a moments notice... especially with people showing up late
try impossible. Same agent two days in a row now has given us 10 minutes notice. Yesterday was even worse as no one was home at the time, the house was not ready to be shown and we have 2 small dogs... um, no you cannot just go in when there are dogs in the house.
The phone has been ringing off the hook today with potential showings so we've got our fingers crossed.
Sometimes the agent with the worst prospect gives you the least amount of notice. The guy who kept lowballing us would call really late after the Royal Lepage receptionists had gone home for the night for an early morning showing. He did that 3 days in a row. I kept wondering don't his buyers have jobs?!
Play the buying agents off against each other. They're all doing a hard sell on their buyers so be careful which buyer you pick. Make sure they have the resources to pull it off and that they're really excited about the house.
smartsexystylish
03-04-2009, 02:57 PM
The phone has been ringing off the hook today with potential showings so we've got our fingers crossed.
Good luck Dave :)
This may explain my obsession with staging and cleanliness.
http://www.canada.com/business/fp/Global+slowdown+take+heavy+toll+mental+health/929917/story.html
"There is a lot of insomnia, depression and anxiety. More people are depressed with the money they have lost, worried about the security of their jobs and the financial situation of their families," said Dominic Lee, a psychiatrist in Hong Kong who counts investment bankers among his patients.
http://www.thestar.com/Business/article/596951
Duguay says Canada should be prepared to hear a string of alarming economic news in the next few months.
What?!
http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/toronto/archive/2009/03/05/toronto-house-prices-down-just-5-suggesting-a-more-stable-market.aspx
GTA home sales were down 32% in February compared with this time last year, but prices appear to be stabilizing, according to the Toronto Real Estate Board.
Good luck Dave :)
Thanks it worked! We sold in under a week for 100% of our listing price. :D
Thanks it worked! We sold in under a week for 100% of our listing price. :D
Awesome! Congratulations Dave. Now you have one less thing to worry about. :)
smartsexystylish
03-10-2009, 08:51 AM
Thanks it worked! We sold in under a week for 100% of our listing price. :D
:eek:WOW Congrats!!!
I'm so happy you sold your house and you'll be able to move into Mill Pond without any worries :D
babymaeby
03-10-2009, 09:38 AM
Congratulations...that's wonderful news.
Thanks to all. I must say that our agent was a fantastic negotiator and he charges 1% commission. http://www.minmaxx.com/
Even better. You really did well Dave ... I'm so happy for you.
Usually these 1% guys only take on sellers so they can collect business cards from potential buyers who might be selling their own homes. Our lender discouraged us from going this route.
You hit a home run with him. You da man!
Joanne
03-10-2009, 07:53 PM
Thanks to all. I must say that our agent was a fantastic negotiator and he charges 1% commission. http://www.minmaxx.com/
I interviewed this agent, he wanted to sell my house for rock bottom!
Was the buyer through minmax? That is unusual, lucky you! Otherwise the rate is 3.5% which is better than 5% still...but with the low ball listing he wanted me to go with I'd be better off paying 5%.
But it worked for you, you sold very fast! I'm jealous!!!
I have been listed for a week, I have had two showings and one offer I refused to hear because they wanted condtional upon sale of their own home.
I interviewed this agent, he wanted to sell my house for rock bottom!
Was the buyer through minmax? That is unusual, lucky you! Otherwise the rate is 3.5% which is better than 5% still...but with the low ball listing he wanted me to go with I'd be better off paying 5%.
But it worked for you, you sold very fast! I'm jealous!!!
I have been listed for a week, I have had two showings and one offer I refused to hear because they wanted condtional upon sale of their own home.
Well it was certainly less than we would have listed for last spring. We interviewed a few agents and they all wanted to list at essentially the same price. Considering the market we listed at about a 5%-6% discount on what we would have listed for last spring. All in all we are very happy. We got a good price (for this market) and a fast sale... if the market continues to slide then a longer listing could also equal an even lower price.
I think you did the right thing Dave. There's always the chance you left money on the table but right now there's also a chance that people will get too scared to buy if more bad news keeps coming out. You stopped your potential losses.
I thought we listed too low as well. We listed about 3% less than we would have last May and got 98%. May of last year was probably the top of the market where I live. I think the fact that you sold in about the same amount of time as we did and priced close to what the market thinks the property is worth means you did the right thing.
If you price 3% too high, there's a pretty good chance you may get 6% less than what you are asking and you lengthen the amount of time it takes to sell adding more risk to the transaction. In this market you can't afford any more risk. Pricing right is a big part of good negotiating. A good negotiator always leaves some money on the table.
Joanne
03-18-2009, 08:53 PM
After three showings my house is officially sold! This was quick and relatively easy. Some problems in the end with some surprise findings from the inspection - Greenpark did not install an exhaust duct from our bathroom fan, so we have been exhausting moisture into the attic! Thankfully we have no mold, but we have to get this fixed as part of the sale. We will definitely make sure we get an inspector this time around. Live and learn.
Congratulations Joanne. I'm really happy for you. :)
Only three showings ... that was a fast sale.
I felt like I was in the Olympics when we were showing our house. It was exhausting! 16 showings in 8 days, 4 open houses, sales that fell apart and lunatic buying agents who invented problems that didn't exist ...
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