Does The House On Your MLS Listing Look Like This? Would You Buy This House?

The flat-fee listing agency type of service has been around for a while.  A flat-fee listing gives you the opportunity to have your house listed on MLS for a flat fee plus the buyer’s commission.  Usually a flat-fee listing involves the agent adding your house to the local multiple listing service (MLS), giving you a sign for the yard, a lockbox for the door and registering you in the centralized showing system that agents use to setup appointments for showings, if your local real estate market uses a scheduling service.  There are other options available to you but for those are the basic service you should insist on.  From that point, you’re on your own.  You market your house, conduct showings and open house tours, etc.  You represent yourself and take care of all the little details.  I’m not going to argue the pros and cons of flat-fee -vs- full-service listing services, because I believe both have their own merits.  However, I do want to ask flat-fee clients, are you too cheap for your own good?

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Two of the most common questions we receive at AgentHarvest is “how is the real estate market doing in my area” and “at what point in today’s real estate market should I sell my house?”  Depending on whom you ask, answers may vary.  Ask a real estate agent and they’ll all say “NOW!”  If you read the press releases from the National Association of Realtors, you’ll detect a “glass half full” optimistic spin on the market whether it’s going up or down.  If you read the newspaper or watch the news, they love to put a negative spin on it because disaster stories make great news, even if they have to sensationalize it a bit to increase ratings.  All three venues have their own motivation for their slant or spin so who should you believe?   ME of course!
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Beware of the Inflatable Realtor

A real estate agent that inflates a list price beyond reality just to get the listing is deceptive and may be harmful to the sale of your house.  The deceptive practice of inflating the list price is effective because the client wants to hear that their house is worth a high price.  Bad agents are more than eager to feed into this delusion.  Good agents base their suggested list prices on real conditions so they will be lower than an inflated price.  If you want to get the most for your house, and everybody does, you’d naturally pick the real estate agent with the inflated price.  Now you’re falling victim to the Inflatable Agent’s trap.
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When narrowing down the field of agents to interview, analyzing an agent’s track record helps to separate the agents that can sell a house from the agents that just interview well.  These stats will help you weed out the bad agents from your list of prospective Realtors. Continue reading » »