Dealing with Real Estate Agents
Agents that want to show your home
It is inevitable that a real-estate agent will call you when you sell your home privately. You'll get the call saying that they have someone who is extremely interested in seeing your home and they want you to list it with them. We all know this is just there way to get your listing and is pretty "old school" tactics. Other more innovative real estate agents will call and ask if it is OK to come and show your home, but if they sell it they will want a 2 - 3.5% commission.
Don't be too quick to turn the offer down. With all the For Sale by Owner web sites, more and more people are selling privately, so agents have little to show on MLS. They are forced to show private homes if they want to find the right home for their clients.
Many buyers will use a real-estate agent, but will also drive around looking at private For Sale signs. If they see a private home for sale, they may tell their real-estate agent they would like to look at the house. Most people feel obligated to the real estate agent they are using. This is OK.
The real-estate agent may call you requesting to look at your home with his clients. This is a great opportunity that you should not turn down.
It is important that you are up front with them and say you still intend to sell privately.
Personal Experience:
The first home we sold privately was actually closed through a real-estate agent. The people that bought it were dealing with a real-estate agent but bought our home. The real-estate agent was good enough to make the offer and do all the paperwork, and we paid him $500.00 for his troubles. It was a great deal for us considering this was the first time we had ever sold a house before. In this regard, working with a real estate agent benefited us.
Personal Experience:
The second home we sold privately was also closed by a real-estate agent. We had shown our home to the buyers privately (in fact we showed it twice). Then we received a call from their real-estate agent. I told the real-estate agent that if he were to get involved, I would accept nothing less than the asking price. And, guess what, we sold if for our asking price. So, we got more than we had expected, but we had to pay some real-estate commission. But the bottom line was that, despite the small commission, we got what we wanted...a WIN-WIN-WIN situation. And because we were moving from Medicine Hat to Regina, we were able to claim the real estate commissions on income tax and received some money back from Revenue Canada. Again, in this instance working with a real estate agent was a benefit to us.
HINT: Try to make sure that the real-estate agent doesn't try to get you below your acceptable level.
PROS
- more buyers may see your home, and at the least you'll still save the 3% listing commission
- you may find it easier to negotiate with a middleman than directly with buyers.
- the realtor will handle the offer, the legalities and make sure your buyers are qualified
CONS
- 3% (or whatever the agent charges) is still a lot money.
- assuming the buyers are legitimate you may end up being pressured by an experienced negotiator to accept what, in effect, is his only shot at a commission
- In the end, it's up to you. If it's worth, say, 3 percent (or whatever the rate is) to you to let realtors help you find a buyer and you're confident about your price, by all means let them know you will consider any offers they might bring.
The realtor can be your friend, if you can find the right one. Don't discount what they can offer.
Agents that want to list your home
You will get two types of calls from Real Estate agents. One call we have dealt with in an earlier section, where an agent will call asking to show your home. The other, which we will deal with in this section, is the agent that does not want to show your home, but wants to list it.
You will get the call asking if you want to list your home with them. These agents will take different approaches, but most approaches are annoying and they won't give up. They will call you every day, send you brochures in the mail and drop off pamphlets directly to your home.
Most people get very frustrated with this intrusion by the real estate agent. I am not sure why people list with these agents, but they do, for some reason or another.
If these agents don't give up, continue to call, and send you information, there are a few things you can do.
No Call List
Call the office where the agent is calling from and ask that you be put on a No Call List and that if someone does call, they will get a letter from your lawyer. They will be obligated to take you off their call list and any agent in that office is bound not to call.
Conditional Listing
You could also sign a conditional listing with a real estate agent. You are in essence signing a contract with an agent to list your home, but it is an open date. You are not really listing, but what you are saying is that if you do list with an agent you already have an agent. Once an agent knows you have signed an agreement with someone else, they will not call
Get Call Display
We have heard many clients tell us they get call display and don't answer calls from real estate offices.
