I am using a non-traditional agent from Help-U-Sell. We have listed our house and after 1 month we have held 3 open houses (1 of which was during a severe rain storm), and had Easter on 1 of the Sundays. We have had a total of 8 people stop by during the open house, none of whom expressed interest in buying the house. Not a single person has scheduled a walk through to date.Help-U-Sell doesnt use the MLS unless I request them to - and I am trying to save on the cost of the commission.What should a good agent be doing to sell my house? Do they do more than just list the house and wait? Need to know if I just need to sit and wait (and hope) or if there are more active ways to assist in the selling of my house.
I understand your frustration. The housing market across the country is flat and things are just not moving. You are absolutely correct your agent is suppose to be working for you, not just waiting for someone to come along and buy the house. If your house is being shown, your agent should be contacting you with feed-back on what the comments of those looking at the house are and if there are anythings you could do to help your house sell faster. If you truly feel that your agent is not working for you and doing things that you have contracted her to do, talk to the Broker who runs the office. Explain that you feel the agent is not doing their job and request to be released from the listing agreement. Most Brokers will void the contract when someone is truly not happy with their agent. Good luck, hope things work out for you.
the problem is the discount agents, after doing a quick read of the web site, few things: It really does not matter what the seller agent is going to charge you, they do some advertising but usually it will be a buyers broker scanning the mls where the real leads will come from then the question becomes how much are you offering a buyer's agent? anything less then the 3% of sale price unless of course your house is 1.5mil and up then 2% of sell price, you will not get buyer agents to bring clients no if and or buts, maybe illegal but happens frequently so now it is up to your broker to go out and find the clients by themselves very hard to do versus letting the thousand of agents from other agencies do the work for you by mls and offering 3% to buyer
The two answers above were excellent. Help U Sell out here does about the same as a regular agent. Seems like you need a new agent or a new company to work with especially if you are opening your own Open Houses. If you feel you are not getting what you need from your current agent than talk to the broker of the company and request to cancel the listing. Find another agent or company that will give you and your house what it needs. That would = closed. HAPPY LIVING!
Open okorder that lists houses from their MLS listing. Another realtor is the most likely person to end up selling your house, regardless who you list the house with. Your agent should market your house in a way that gets it noticed by other realtors. In a competitive market, price is critical, as is condition of your home. When you do list on the MLS, insist on plenty of pictures, consider a virtual tour, and spend time making any changes you can to make your home show better. Minimize clutter - rent a storage unit if you have to - fix anything you can, spruce it up, think curb appeal. The agent should make other agents aware of your property. He/she can distribute flyers to her own broker's agents and others. Your agent can call other agents he/she knows and see if they have buyers ready that match the profile for your property. But really, that MLS listing and pricing it right, maximizing the appeal of the property are the most effective things you and your agent can do. All properties will sell if they are priced right. The market determines the price. Your agent should have done a CMA comparative market analysis) to help you determine the asking price for your house. If done competently, this analysis will give you a pretty good idea of what your house will sell for. If it doesn't match your asking price (that is it is significantly lower than your asking price, you may be unrealistic in your expectations of what your house will sell for. Remember, it doesn't matter what someone else is askling for their house. What matters is the price of sold properties close to yours, adjusted for differences between properties (bigger, smaller, more baths, etc) in the past few months. You should also ask your agent for the average time a house is on the market in your area. Then, have your agent send you listings for homes for sale similar to yours in your area so you can see if similar properties are selling and at what price. Good luck.
