Agent Will

It can be pretty tough facing the prospect of expiring. Just think back to how excited you were when you listed the place. Remember how you interviewed the agent and they came in all full of confidence and how that confidence was so infetious you were buying every word they said? Remember how they told you that it would be sold in short order and you started making plans to move? Remeber how thrilling it was to be telling everyone that you were selling and were looking to get $X?

Now so many weeks/months later it’s gotten stressful. The agent you have/had and you aren’t getting along. You feel like you’re butting heads and that they aren’t doing their job. You feel it should be sold. You are right. You are right that it should be sold. You are right that your agent is not doing their job. Now, you face the dreaded “Expired Listing” dance.

What is the Expired Listing Dance? That is when, all of a sudden, your phone will start to ring and it will not stop. All of a sudden all these agents who didn’t bring you a buyer and didn’t sell your home before are calling you up and saying they can sell your home. They will call and call until it is listed by one of them or they give up. There are always the plucky few who won’t give up and good for them. You see, likely one of them can sell your home. The question you need to ask each and everyone of them (instead of answering “Not another one”) is, “how can you sell it when my last agent failed so miserably?”

Here’s a tip: Accepting that there are no barricades to selling (ie lawsuit, liens, strata issues which affect financing) then any home can sell. And every home has the right price.

So now you’re probably thinking that I am going to tell you that your asking price was too high. That may be the case. Or maybe the home was not presented right. You can do two things to sell a home. Reduce the price down or fix the home up. The question then becomes which is right for you.

Here’s another tip: Neither you, nor the agent, sets the selling price. The market does.

When I go on home tours I do not look at the price. I look at the place first and foremost and then, after considering everything, look at the price. There are a lot of poorly priced homes out there, I tell ya. There are also a lot of homes priced super sharp and they sell in a week (or less). Then there are the homes that, either with intention or negligence, are priced too low. These homes attract multiple offers which may or may not reflect a fair value (I’ve seen some go well over fair and others fall short… pricing too low is not a good tactic in my opinion). Ultimately offers from qualified buyers will show what the market thinks of your price. No offers? Time to reconsider what you are doing. Only low offers? Time to reconsider how you priced it or presented it.

So as you answer the phone for the 20th time the morning after your home expired do not dismiss all the eager agents and their ideas for getting your home sold. Ask how they can sell your home and listen. You just may find your next, much more qualified agent coming to you and getting the job done. And please, please, please do not take the convenient “I already have an agent (who failed)” approach. Fire them. They failed. They failed to present the home properly or they failed to guide you in pricing correctly. An agent who willfully accepts an overpriced listing (or worse, “buys a listing” with a ridiculously unattainable pricing strategy) does no one any service, least of all you. Interview others. It is to your benefit.

And when you find that honest, earnest, progressive agent who can understand your desire and can communicate with you and the marketplace how to sell that home, well, you’ll be excited again. Especially when the offers come rolling in.