If you’re working with a real estate agent in the sale of your property or have in the past – you’ve probably been haunted by this issue. Unless your home sells quickly, it can often seem as if the agent has just given up on actively marketing your property.
Sometimes that only seems to be true. At other times, it’s what’s really happening. There are several reasons why this may be the case.
The Standard Marketing Package
When a real estate agent lists your property for sale, there is a standard marketing package that is generally provided to all listing clients. This package commonly includes the following services:
- Your property is placed on the local and/or regional Multiple Listing Services (MLS)
- Professional looking flyers – complete with color photos – are provided for buying prospects who visit your home.
- A standard agency “For Sale” sign is provided for your front lawn, sometimes with directional signs into your neighborhood from the main road.
- Your property is placed on the agency’s website, and commonly on Realtor.com to draw Internet traffic.
- The agent will typically sponsor an open house event early in the sales process.
- The agencies used to advertise the property in the local newspaper classifieds, but this practice is declining rapidly due to the high cost of print media ads, and the public preference for the Internet over traditional media sources.
That’s an impressive package, except for one thing – it’s the exact same marketing package that they provide to all their clients, and the same package every other real estate agent in town is providing to every other property seller in town.
Translation: Your property will not stand out among the hundreds or thousands of other homes listed for sale in your community or region. So the agent’s marketing effort doesn’t stand out in the sea of competition.
There’s Only So Much An Agent Will Do – Or Can Do
When you hire the services of a real estate agent, it is often your hope that he or she will go above and beyond standard marketing. In other words, you hope that they will work extra hard to sell your property.
In reality, there’s only so much of the agent can or will do. The vast majority of real estate agents will employ the standard marketing package to sell your property. Only the very best agents – perhaps the top two or three percent – are true sales innovators, or even capable of finding some special angle to make your house stand out above the competition.
Since there are literally hundreds or thousands of properties for sale in virtually every major market in the US, trying to come up with that winning formula for each and every home is very difficult to manage even for strong agents.
In addition, the price is a major obstacle. Many agents, anxious to get the listing on your house, will accept it with an above-market price. They will get the listing with the hope that you will eventually drop the price down to a realistic level. This may be a good strategy in the mind of the agent – more commission dollars; however, it is not a good strategy for the seller! And if it sits on the market for too long – because the price is too high – the house will become “stale” and and less salable with every additional month that it sits on the market.
The agent knows that, and that will put a limit on how hard he or she will work to sell the property.
You’re Not Your Real Estate Agent’s Only Client
When you list your property with a real estate agent, you are not so much a customer – you’re a deal. That is how real estate agents frequently perceive the homes they list for sale. And as every agent who is worth his or her salt knows, you never work on just one deal at a time. The secret to success in the real estate business is having multiple deals going all the time. That is because the reality is that some deals will close, and others won’t.
That’s a dilemma for you as a property seller. You are not your agent’s primary concern, but one of several. This will put a limit on your agent’s time and resources. More significantly, an agent will always spend most of his or her time working on the deal that is in crisis. Since these are usually the ones that are close to closing – which means, close to providing a paycheck to the agent – they will get priority over the listing of your home.
The Agent Expects You to Participate in the Marketing of Your Home
When people list their homes for sale, they are often turning the entire job of selling the property over to the agent. But because of the factors above, the agent may expect the property seller to participate in marketing the home.
For example, the realtor may suggest that you place sales flyers in different public locations, such as grocery stores, apartment complexes, or Laundromats. And while they will often host one open house for your home, they may suggest that any subsequent open house events are hosted by you.
You’ll also be expected to set a reasonable asking price, and to maintain the home in showroom condition. Should you fail to cooperate in any of these efforts, the agent may classify you as an unmotivated seller, and lose interest in marketing your property beyond the standard package.
The Ultimate Real Estate Listing Reality
On top of all of the limitations on marketing your property that I’ve already provided, there is still the Ultimate Real Estate Reality: The agent who lists your house probably won’t be the one who sells it.
In most real estate transactions, there is a listing agent – the agent who is responsible for listing the property for sale – and the selling agent, who is the agent who brings the buyer(s) into the transaction. It is very rare that the listing agent is also the selling agent. In most cases, what one real estate agent lists, another will sell.
Your real estate agent is keenly aware of this arrangement. No matter how hard the agent works to sell your property, it is more than likely that some other agent will actually bring in the buyers. With this in mind, and so the agent can keep their “deal flow” full, many agents will spend their time trying to find buyers for properties that are listed by other agents.
This isn’t some kind of conspiracy; it’s simply the way the real estate business works and always has. But on a practical level, it’s difficult to accept when it is your property that is hanging in the balance. You want to believe that your agent is fully committed to the sale of your house – after all, that’s what you’re paying a 6% commission for, right?
Sometimes yes, sometimes no. But that’s why you might want to give some serious thought to selling your house yourself and save the 6%.
I’ll help you do that.
( Photo by TheDigitel Myrtle Beach )
