One of the things I've learned over this past 2 months or so is that no 2 Real Estate Agents are alike. I also have found out that when something sounds too good to be true, it really, really is.
First, the agent who listed our place for sale seemed so nice and sincere and totally interested ion our well being. She also talked a great game. The problem was, she was a lazy, useless bum. If anything needed to be answered, we had to follow up on it many times. If we needed something, we either took care of it ourselves or badgered her incessantly until she did her job. It was like she forgot that we were paying her to do a job, not paying her to watch us do her job. She even went so far as to insult Nicci once when she confronted her about her lack of help.
The problem was, I think, that we tried to save a buck by going to one of those "fixed payment" real estate teams. (I'm not sure if I can say who without some kind of slander suit, so if you want to know who, e-mail me.) The kind where you only pay a flat fee of $2995.00 when your house sells. The thing is (this is the part where you learn that you get what you pay for) they not only don't charge you full commission, they don't even bother trying to sell your home. They don't need to. There are hidden clauses in their contracts that state that they get paid no matter what. If you decide not to sell after an offer is made, they still get the full commission. If your buyer bails out on you in the middle of a deal, they get 50% of the ex-buyers deposit (I know that’s not the correct term). Either way, they get paid. Why try hard?
The only way you get to only pay them the $2995.00 is if they find a buyer and close the deal. The odds of that are astronomical, since they don't bother. The way they get around that is to have you allow them to list your home on the general listings and when another buyer that another real estate firm is representing buys the house, they automatically get 4%. There is absolutely no reason for them to find a buyer for you. They just wait until someone else does all the work. All they have to do is make a few phone calls. Neat, isn't it? Explains why the agents are so rude and lazy. Beware; you really do get what you pay for.
On the other side, we found a real estate person who bent over backwards for us and she was actually representing the sellers of the home we eventually bought. She was in constant communication between us and the sellers, arranged for all the details like the home inspection, radon testing etc... She was always there helping. She even drove to the lender and dropped off paperwork for us and came to our house when something else was needed in a hurry. (There is about a 50 mile difference between places.) She was great!
Another thing about her that amazed me was during the 2nd night we were in the house, she called and asked if I would take her signs off of the for sale post because the worker dudes were coming to remove it in the morning. When I mentioned that the sump pump wasn't working, she asked her husband (who remodels homes, btw) some questions trying to help us out. After a few questions, he just said "I'm going to have to look at it." So they came to the house at 10:00 at night and he worked on the pump for an hour to fix it. Is that service or what? Needless to say, they will be on our friends list from now on and I will absolutely recommend her to anyone for real estate help.
Funny how 2 people in the same business can be so different.
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