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By Bill Petrey, Realtor
 In this highly competitive market real estate agents jump on expired listings. So, when your listing expires you can expect a flood of calls from real estate agents eager to win your listing starting the morning your listing expires or gets canceled. Unfortunately, this is going to be a vulnerable time for you because you are probably not happy with the real estate agent you’ve been working with over the past few months and are ready to make a fresh start with a new real estate agent but don’t want to make the same mistake of picking an agent that can not sell your house a second time.
Expect calls from lying real estate agents trying to weasel their way into your home to steal away your listing. Failure to see through their lies may result in hiring a real estate agent that you will not be happy with. Here are a few of the most common lies you’ll hear from real estate agents when your listing expires.
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By Bill Petrey, Realtor
 Is this your agent? According to the “2009 Profile of Texas Homebuyers and Sellers” study conducted by the Texas Association of Realtors, 8 out of 10 sellers said that they would not use the same agent again to sell their house. The survey doesn’t mention why sellers wouldn’t use the same agent again, but the Texas Association of Realtors speculates that it could be attributed to sellers no longer living in that agent’s area or that agents do not spend enough effort staying in contact with past clients. I think there are other reasons the article doesn’t want to admit.
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By Bill Petrey, Realtor
Rarely is it a good idea to use the same agent that sold your last house to sell your current house. You should focus on finding an agent that is successful in your new neighborhood instead of using your old agent that was an expert in your old neighborhood. Successful real estate agents focus on a targeted area and because of that focus, they perform better in certain areas than they would in other areas. So the same agent that you used to sell your last house may not perform as well selling your current house.
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By Bill Petrey, Realtor
 The real estate market fluctuates every year regardless of the state of the economy or the current condition of the real estate market. These cyclical fluctuations have traditionally fallen along the seasonal calendar year. Spring and summer are the best times to sell, fall is okay and the winter months are usually the slowest time of the selling season. Another way to look at this cyclical selling season is by comparing it to the seasons of flowering plants and convertible cars. The time of the year to sell your house is when plants are blooming and pretty, and when you have the urge to drive around in a convertible. « Continue reading article »
By Bill Petrey, Realtor
 Most people will tell you that real estate agents are all the same so it really doesn’t matter which one you decide to hire. If you practice that philosophy, you are guaranteed to have a hard time selling or buying a house.
Top producing real estate agents know the market and know how to position your house to sell in that market. They sell houses like chefs prepare exquisite cuisine in high-end restaurants. On the other end of the scale are real estate agents that overprice their listings, don’t market them correctly and don’t aggressively sell their listings, relying solely on fate to sell their listings. Bad agents are like cooks, shoveling greasy food in fast food restaurants. Do you want to hire a chef (top producing real estate agent) or a cook (bad real estate agent)? You should focus on hiring chefs. « Continue reading article »
By Bill Petrey, Realtor
Not every real estate agent is worth having. How can you tell a good agent from a bad real estate agent? Here are the top 10 signs that you might have hired a bad real estate agent…
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By Bill Petrey, Realtor
 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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By Bill Petrey, Realtor
 Imagine this scenario. It’s been 120 days since your agent put a for sale sign in your yard. On the day you hired your Realtor, she promised it would be a successful working relationship. Weeks later, this “relationship” somehow turned into a “one-night stand.” She doesn’t return your phone calls, she never drops by and now there’s a bird’s nest occupying the empty Info Box that use to hold your house’s brochures so many months ago.
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By Bill Petrey, Realtor
 According to the book Freakonomics, written by Stephen Dubner and Steven Levitt, real estate agents sell their own homes for 3% more compared to what they get when they sell their client’s houses. The authors suggest dishonesty and double-standards as the reasons for this finding, but I think there’s a more honest reason why Realtors may be able to get a higher selling price for their homes compared to their clients’.
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By Bill Petrey, Realtor
 The biggest mistake buyers and sellers make when hiring a Realtor is that they do not do their homework before hiring a real estate agent. They end up with a house that sits on the market longer, sells for a lower price, and the time spent dealing with that agent is a nightmare. AgentHarvest helps minimize the chance of these things happening by finding agents in your area that are currently selling houses like yours, in your neighborhood, for you to interview. We don’t make you sign contracts and you are not obligated to use any of the agents we connect you with. So basically AgentHarvest is a free service requiring no obligations on your part.
Here’s what our customers have to say about our agent finder services.
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By Bill Petrey, Realtor
 The Amazing Jonathan, a famous comedian/magician, once said, “There are three types of people in the world, those that can count and those that can’t.” You may have to read it a couple of times before you catch the joke. I believe real estate agents can be similarly categorized too. I rank agents according to the title of a Clint Eastwood western. I believe there are three types of agents in the world, the good, the bad, and the ugly. You want the good agent, you should avoid the bad agent and you should live in fear of the ugly agent.
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By Bill Petrey, Realtor
 In the real estate education curriculum, there are probably more seminars that teach an agent how to give an interview presentation than there are classes on how to sell a house. Sadly, most homeowners fall for the highly polished, highly rehearsed presentation and hire the agent without really knowing if they can sell a house. If you follow these interview secrets, you can find out the true worth of your prospective agent. « Continue reading article »
By Bill Petrey, Realtor
Due to the anti-real estate agent sentiment and the promise of saving lots of money, selling as a FSBO seller has never been more popular. Over the past 10 years, selling the home yourself, or FSBO (For Sale By Owner), became popular and marketing companies selling FSBO kits and promotional materials have quickly cashed in on the craze. Internet shopping for homes has increased in popularity and it’s much easier now for the do-it-yourself home seller to promote their own house. But I don’t think that’s the reason FSBOs became popular.
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By Bill Petrey, Realtor
You also need to interview an agent to learn about their background, to see what they know about your neighborhood, and to find out if they are a good fit with you and your lifestyle. Here are some important questions you should ask an agent and the type of answers you should expect if they are a good agent. [Read More...] . . . → Read More: Effective Real Estate Agent Interview Questions
By Bill Petrey, Realtor
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. Use these stats to eliminate the bad agents before you start interviewing. [Read More...] . . . → Read More: Analyzing a Real Estate Agent’s Track Record
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