[Evans, Marv]

I sold a piece of property many years ago when the market was pretty hot. Like many, I thought the going commission rate was not warranted, especially when the property would sell for around $1Mil. and move quickly and with little effort on the part of the agent. So I negotiated with an agent for a commission reduced by 25% and a 3 month contract. I wasn't in a hurry to sell. This guy listed the property and never showed it to anybody. At the end of the 3 months, we renewed the contract again. The results were the same. He would tell me he had a couple of calls a week but no takers. At the end of the second contract, I decided to try to sell it myself and put an ad in the real estate section of the paper for Friday through Sunday. During that time, I got 32 calls. I finally sold it to an agent as part of her personal portfolio and agreed to a one percent fee which she (said) would go to her agency and she would handle the transaction through them. It was sold and closed in 6 days after I advertised it. I felt OK with the deal and thought it was a win/win proposition for us both. I also ended up selling it for a decent amount more than the original agent listed it for. It was an interesting experience. About a month later the original agent called to ask about the property. I really enjoyed telling him about how the sale went. The dummy missed out on an easy commission of about $50K.