Months ago I had and old friend call me about needing to put his house on the market. We met for dinner that night to talk about what was going on and he told me that his company was moving him and he had to be gone in a few months. I set out to put his home on the market and get things started.
A couple days later he called to tell me that his company had a referral service that sent him an agent. I tried to explain that he could use whoever he wanted and needed to find out a little more about the agent before allowing them to take on the sell of his house. He works hard at what he does and thus wanted as little to do with the sell as possible. The other agent promised the sky and the moon and told him how easy it was going to be for him.
A couple days ago he called me. No one has given him an offer on his home and he is now paying for his mortgage here and rent in his new town. He couldn’t buy a new home there because he still has this one. He sounded exhausted and told me all that he had been doing to “help” his agent. Right now his house is $25,000 less than it was originally.
It still astounds me that people think all agents are the same and that going with the cheapest one is the only factor to care about. “You get what you pay for.” is more true here than anywhere. You’re giving your largest investment to someone and trusting that they are doing all they can to sell your home for the most money. I’ve been at this a little less time than some, BUT my longest house was only on the market for 113 days. How many agents do you think can say that?
I may be taking over the sell of his house, but odds are had he hired me to start with he would be happy in his new home and not still dealing with the sell of his home here. And if i take it, it will be harder to sell for the best price since it has been on the market now for so long and the price has been lowered so much.
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