How long should you give your real estate agent

[Shaun @ Tru6]

to sell your home?

A friend has had her condo on the market for 6 months with no serious offers. She's considering taking a current offer where she actually loses a little money. 7 figure place, has it's own internal elevator but is lower level with no view.

[wilnj]

Originally Posted by Shaun @ Tru6

to sell your home?

A friend has had her condo on the market for 6 months with no serious offers. She's considering taking a current offer where she actually loses a little money. 7 figure place, has it's own internal elevator but is lower level with no view.

If it hasn’t sold, regardless of marketing effort, it’s overpriced.

But to your question, how long is her listing contract? 6 months it should be up for renewal anyway.

[Chocaholic]

Yes, that’s a contractual term. Simply tell her to look at her listing agreement.

[911_Dude]

Six months is a long time. If all the agent is doing is putting the house on MLS, Id say thats long enough. Some agents really go the extra mile with advertising and open houses. Also, knowing what the average time to sell for the comps in the area could help gauge if its time for a new agent.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by LEAKYSEALS951

The other key element is- "Is the seller being realistic?"
I've seen some sellers put an inflated price on a property expecting miracles, especially if the property has issues, or is in competition with better offerings. Happened to my dad. Not updated, full of hoarded junk, needed mucho work- but premium price. Peopled walked right into the house, turned around and walked right back out. It sat for years.

I tried to warn him. Big mistake. T'was a lesson he (and his new wife) needed to learn on their own.

That was my first thought as well.

"My place is worth $$$$." Which may be true if it's perfect AND well staged. If it's not selling fast (I would think especially now) then there's some problem, and that's likely price in my mind.

Condos may be different, but everything that I've heard from folks all over the place is that homes are going very fast, you have to make your offers right away and offers are often at or above asking. I suppose it's possible that the market is cooling off. I suppose it's possible that condos are sitting while homes are selling.

[cabmandone]

First thing is, you have to look at at the listing agreement. Many times you can cancel the agreement but there's typically wording that protects the agent in the event one of the people they showed the home to ends up buying the home. After 6mos in the type of market we're in, I'd have to question how aggressively the condo is priced vs others and what marketing the agent has done.

[stealthn]

In this market, 2 months

[1990C4S]

Zero offers. How many showings?

It is the agents job to show the place, regardless of the pricing. Maybe it's a terrible condo?

[LEAKYSEALS951]

I'm not saying that overpricing/dog listing is what Shaun's friend is doing, but it makes me wonder about how real estate agents should handle overpricing/unrealistic situations.

For example, if my dad's agent had of given him some truth about the house/expectations/market condition, my dad would have listened to none of it, and perhaps fired the agent out of his own stubborness. That leaves the agent in a bit of a bind.

One method would be to list the house, stand back, and let the feedback speak for itself (to talk sense into the seller).

When my grandparent's house sold in NOVA, it needed work. The agent gave strong advice upfront. Go lower, get the interest, create the sizzle. Sell. Go high, it will sit and stall. Better to go low and be done than wait for the high and have to come down anyway due to stagnation. The nominal gains in price would not warrant the extended sale time hassle.

Agents must deal with this all the time. Wonder what the best tactic is with an unreasonable seller ?(again- not saying this applies to Shaun's friend)

[Zeke]

Real estate sales people want 6 months but a Florida real estate lawyer and syndicated columnist, now deceased and whose name escapes me at the moment, advised holding it to 3.

He was also a big proponent of a lease option agreement for hard to sell properties. This is s very good instrument in harder times.

[1990C4S]

Originally Posted by LEAKYSEALS951

Agents must deal with this all the time. Wonder what the best tactic is with an unreasonable seller ?(again- not saying this applies to Shaun's friend)

The normal process is to pitch a fair price to the seller. When the seller is unreasonably high the agent can argue that the final price might be above the asking price, but starting too high is not a good idea. But in the end the owner sets the price.

If the owner is unreasonable they can either list the house with fair warning, or decline the business.

In this case, it sounds like the agent needs to give the homeowner some feedback. What has he heard from other agents, what feedback form people who did view the condo, what comparable condos are priced at, and what has sold recently?

It should not be a black hole with zero updates.

[craigster59]

I had my license years ago but never used it. If I remember correctly, it depends on the terms and length of the contract (usually 6 months). In the hot market right now I would expect a quicker turnaround, but higher priced properties (and condos) seem to move slower.

My Aunt was real estate savvy and years ago she had listed one of her homes for sale. It wasn't a high priced property and her agent wasn't pushing it hard at all.

My Aunt was a bit of a "conversationalist" and she ended up working a deal with a guy while standing in line at the bank. She tried to nullify the agent's commission but no dice, Calif Real Estate Law said she had to pay even though he didn't lift a finger.

I'm no Tabdullah but I can see interest rates rising and home prices dropping in the near future. She needs a quick sell.

[drcoastline]

In this market properties are selli ng almost imediately so, a property sitting six months has some sort of issue. Perhapse way over priced, structural issues? Ask the Broker to run comps and do a BPO- brokers price opninion.

[stomachmonkey]

In this market, 6 days.

If she has an offer then she needs to look at the totality of her cost to own.

As in, it's $xx less than my listing price but it's y/x per month to carry the place so if it sits another ?? months what will that cost and she'll probably still be selling under list, probably less than she currently has an offer for.

[icemann427]

How about sharing the listing link or give an address so I/we can look it up on Zillow or other website?

There are two main questions if it hasn't sold in a decent market. Has the listing agent marketed it, effectively? And/or, is it overpriced?

The quality of the listing is very important, especially for a high end product. Is the home staged, appropriately? If not, have it restaged by a professional. Are the photo's professional? If the photo's were taken by the agent's iPhone, that is not satisfactory. If the photo's are minimal, of low quality, and are not in an order that makes sense to a buyer, it can have a large impact. Is there an interactive walk through of the home (Matterport, or the like) included? If not, there should definitely be one for a seven figure home. Is the units written description well thought out and represents the home, appropriately? Has the agent marketed the property in collateral media?

It is my opinion that as long as the home is not wildly overpriced, and as long as the market area and sales absorption are normal, offers should have been made if the above was done, well, correctly, and appropriately.

[Zeke]

Even a 7-figure condo could be a lemon. The owner may have bought it because is was a 'deal'. Now, she needs to sell the same thing she bought. You get the idea.

BTW, the guy's name I mentioned was Robert Bruss.

[Nickshu]

I my market? 48 hours. LOL...but not LOL.

[Tidybuoy]

As far as the contract term, I think 6 months is reasonable. If it's taking too long to sell, either the price is too high or the realtor is not good at selling. At the 6 month point, I would consider a new realtor unless the realtor has been working hard and it's just not selling for various reasons. In that case, it may be time to lower the price. Personally, I think Condo's are a hard sell due to all the condo restrictions, rules, and regulations.

In my area(California), houses are selling in weeks, not months. Trying to buy a house is a nightmare unless you have buckets of money.

[ckcarr]

What cracks me up is when a person lists their house and it sells in a day... And they're all happy. My feeling is it was severely underpriced, and the agent made a fast buck...

[dad911]

Originally Posted by Shaun @ Tru6

to sell your home?

A friend has had her condo on the market for 6 months with no serious offers. She's considering taking a current offer where she actually loses a little money. 7 figure place, has it's own internal elevator but is lower level with no view.

Sounds like it's overpriced, flawed, or both.

If it is on Zillow, it's possible to see activity/interest.