# Should I Be Perturbed?



## Mensa (Oct 19, 2010)

My listing expired just over a week ago. I had expected my agent to be in touch to discuss re-listing, etc., but have not heard a peep from him. 

In your experience, is this normal? I'm trying to decide if this is poor service, or if my expectations are too high. 

Feedback???


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## Dmoney (Apr 28, 2011)

No experience with selling but I was working with several realtors trying to rent a place and was amazed at how poor the majority of them were in terms of communication. It might just be my expectations, in that when I receive an email I reply immediately, but I found I was constantly having to follow up, and would often call and email several times before I heard back. 

Long story short, your best bet is probably to stay on it and contact the agent until you receive a response.


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## kcowan (Jul 1, 2010)

I would shop for a new agent and then stop returning her calls if she ever makes any!


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## mrcheap (Apr 4, 2009)

I'd wonder if this is maybe the agents way of dropping you as a client... Were there any disagreements you had with him?

Regardless of why you haven't heard from him, I'd vote for finding a new agent (or, better yet, sell yourself!).


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## Addy (Mar 12, 2010)

I would fin a new agent. Pros of a new agent is they are more willing to work, vs complacent realtors who go off their experience only. Experience is good, but when it does you little good because they won't communicate, time to look elsewhere.


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## larry81 (Nov 22, 2010)

Btw, who the hell need an agent in the age of the internet ?

list of yourself !


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## Homerhomer (Oct 18, 2010)

larry81 said:


> Btw, who the hell need an agent in the age of the internet ?
> 
> list of yourself !


Agree, just pay someone to list for your on MLS (propertyguys for example) and work for yourself.


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## marina628 (Dec 14, 2010)

have you considered that maybe you are overpriced?Has the agent made any recommendations to you to get it sold?


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## mrbizi (Dec 19, 2009)

marina628 said:


> have you considered that maybe you are overpriced?Has the agent made any recommendations to you to get it sold?



+1. If the agent thinks the seller has an unrealistic expectation of how much his home should sell for and can't get him to adjust to market realities, that agent will quickly lose interest in investing his time and resources with you.

But it could also be true that you simply just hired a lousy rep. Either way, it's best to find another agent.


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## Mensa (Oct 19, 2010)

Thanks for the replies, all.

There have been no disagreements with the agent. We listed the house at the price he recommended & dropped the price at his recommendation when he suggested it. 

I have had a good relationship with this agent for a number of years, so I'm very surprised by not hearing from him. My husband believes I should call him, but I'm stubborn enough to wait and see how long it takes for contact to be made by him. 

Perhaps this _is_ his way of firing a client, but it seems like an outrageously unprofessional way, if so. 

I don't think we're going to re-list in any case, having decided that we missed the market. Certainly when we DO list again, it won't be with this agent. We have considered trying it ourselves, but not very seriously. Maybe we'll re-think that too.


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## financialnoob (Feb 26, 2011)

Why not consider listing yourself? The one big advantage of an agent is they know the market and what similar places have gone for. But since you know now, you can at least save the commission you would have paid him.

I do agree that it is pretty unprofessional that he didn't get in touch about the listing though. I would be pretty annoyed.


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## dagman1 (Mar 3, 2010)

Step one: calculate agent's commission;
Step two: reduce price by agent's commission;
Step three: relist at new price without agent.


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## m3s (Apr 3, 2010)

financialnoob said:


> The one big advantage of an agent is they know the market and what similar places have gone for.


You can find this out yourself with very little effort or you can hire an appraiser who is actually qualified to price your house unlike the agent who is just going but what is best for his/her commission (ie fast sale) An appraisal costs a mere fraction of a fraction of what an agent's commission is..


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## kubatron (Jan 17, 2011)

the #1 most idiotic response in the internet era is?

D I Y

I hate it.

I post a question about rebuilding a deck, needing a contractor. 

DIY!

I post a question about fixing my blown engine in my car?

DIY!

I post a question about applying to NASA to go to the moon?

DIY!

Thank you for continuing the trend, *larry81*.


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## Jungle (Feb 17, 2010)

The reason why people say DIY for selling? Housing prices have risen so much that the standard 5-6% commission based pay no longer equals a realtor's labour. The housing prices in most desirable areas has doubled or tripled in the last 10 years, however everyone's pay has not (except realtors). 

As for the OP, anything will sell if the price is right. Like others have said, you are probably overpriced. Every home owner thinks their house is worth more than what the market will pay for it.


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## Berubeland (Sep 6, 2009)

Kubatron the reason people DIY is because the cost savings associated with it. 

There are many advantages to selling your own property, who knows the most about your property? You do.

Who is more likely to know the benefits of living in your location? You do

Who knows the area schools inside and out? Probably you. 

When I helped the owner of an income property finally sell his property after being listed 6 times by an agent, this is what it was. In fact when an agent was marketing the property, I still had to attend every showing because even after having the property on his books for several years he still didn't know the first thing about it. 

Rent roll? no
Property Taxes? I'll get back to you.
Vacancies? Uhhh dunno

An ad in the Star with the cap rate and the place sold saving the owner commission on $2,200,000. 

Nobody cares more about selling your place than you do and no one knows more about it. Couple that with the cost savings involved and it's a no brainer.


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## dogcom (May 23, 2009)

Get a new agent or list it yourself if you are comfortable doing that.

I would however try to talk to your agent and ask why your house didn't sell or what went wrong. Since you are not going to rehire her then ask her to be honest and give you all the reasons why even if you don't like it. Then when you list again you won't repeat the same mistakes.


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## kubatron (Jan 17, 2011)

Jungle said:


> The reason why people say DIY for selling? Housing prices have risen so much that the standard 5-6% commission based pay no longer equals a realtor's labour. The housing prices in most desirable areas has doubled or tripled in the last 10 years, however everyone's pay has not (except realtors).
> 
> As for the OP, anything will sell if the price is right. Like others have said, you are probably overpriced. Every home owner thinks their house is worth more than what the market will pay for it.


5-6% is absurd. Nobody pays that. 3% is what's going around, and at that rate, I'd still pay over DIY.

I recently tried to sell a home myself and let me tell you - it ain't no walk in the park, not even close.


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## kubatron (Jan 17, 2011)

Berubeland said:


> Kubatron the reason people DIY is because the cost savings associated with it.
> 
> There are many advantages to selling your own property, who knows the most about your property? You do.
> 
> ...


All circumstantial. Sometimes people do know a lot about their property, and sometimes they know so much they think it's worth $50,000 more than what's on the street.

I get what you're saying, yes it can save you money, but the poster was asking if they should be pissed with their agent, not if they should sell the place by themselves. Let's focus on the question at hand. Yes, you should be pissed with your agent.


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## financialnoob (Feb 26, 2011)

kubatron: BTW, if you think DIY is the most idiotic response of the internet era, you have not been on the internet long


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## HaroldCrump (Jun 10, 2009)

kubatron said:


> the #1 most idiotic response in the internet era is?
> D I Y


I reckon most of us are on this board because we said _hop it_ to the financial services industry when it came to our investing, and decided to DIY.
Ditto for all the other stuff you listed.
It is impractical for any one person to DIY for every one of the things you listed, but most of us can DIY at least one or two of those things, including investing.


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## Mensa (Oct 19, 2010)

Thanks for all the responses. It would seem the consensus is:

1) lower the price; and
2) sell it myself.

Fair enough. However, my question was not about whether the house sold or not, it was about whether my agent was crap for not being in touch with me at the end of the listing.

Since it's now been three weeks since the listing expired and I still haven't heard from him, the answer is obvious...YES HE IS CRAP!

I'm now interested to find out just how long it takes for him to call...or perhaps I'll come home one day and the lockbox will be removed and the keys in the mailbox. I guess that will tell me where to rate him on the "crap-o-meter".


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## GeniusBoy27 (Jun 11, 2010)

Mensa:

I think I would have been on my agent for an update at least twice a week. If you want my business, you need to communicate either by phone, email or some other means. To me, it's a service industry and if you want my business, you have to provide appropriate service. I love my agents -- both residential and commercial. But if they don't properly do their business, they know I'm leaving and taking my next 30 years of business elsewhere.

Yes, I understand you have multiple properties, but you better have my interest at heart, and react quick enough, or I'm not going to be a happy camper.


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