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So You Need a listing Agent -- Now What?
| | Thursday, May 20, 2004 @ 03:24 PM EDT
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Contributed by: Nancy Chadwick
Nancy Chadwick Properties
Read more archived articles about Marketing
The right listing agent:
1. doesn't walk through the property and tell you "I think I can get you X price." Agents should prepare a thorough, honest and detailed CMA to estimate the probable sale value of the property within the time frame desired based on sales of comparable properties. This cannot be done on the spot.
2. doesn't estimate a market value that magically coincides with the number you came up with. This is called "buying the listing." You may be quick to blame your agent when your overpriced property doesn't sell.
3. gives you a specific, detailed marketing plan. This plan should lay out exactly what the agent intends to do to sell your property, including specifics for advertising, brokers' and public open houses, distribution of marketing materials, and a commitment to give you a status report at least weekly.
4. puts a provision for early termination of the listing in the listing contract if the agent doesn't live up to the commitments in the marketing plan. Talk is cheap. The corollary of this is "put up or shut up."
5. doesn't say "I sell my own listings." The job of the listing agent is to expose the property in the marketplace as widely as possible, and not to try to sell it themselves by denying other agents the opportunity to show and sell the property.
6. doesn't boast of having dozens of other listings. Sellers who list with "mega" agents run the risk of being lost in the shufffle--of being no-face, no-name clients, and of rarely having direct contact with the agent they hired. The listing agent is the seller's link in the marketplace. Servicing a listing effectively is labor intensive. Some of that work can be delegated to an assistant without hurting the client. Other tasks cannot be delegated. How can listing agents give credible advice to the seller when they haven't personally spoken with showing agents or have gotten information only through hearsay? If I were to choose an agent to represent me, I would be entitled to deal with that agent and receive that agent's time, attention and effort. My view is that I didn't hire the agent's assistant. I hired the assistant's boss.
7. doesn't ask for a 12-month listing contract where the property should sell in 90 days. You should agree to extending the listing contract only where the agent has demonstrated good-faith efforts in implementing the marketing plan. Time is generally like closet space. The more you give people, the more they need.
When you're interviewing potential listing agents, ask them for references of past seller clients who have referred other people to them. Contact those references. Quality listing agents are in it for the long haul. They want repeat business and referrals. They realize that they must be willing to work hard and put the seller's interests ahead of their own on a consistent basis. You don't want an agent who looks at your property as just another plate spinning in a long line of spinning plates. Sooner or later, the agent will forget to spin some plates and they will crash and break. You don't want your property to be one of those broken plates.
The best agents I've known over the 21+ years I've been in RE brokerage are those who are honest with their clients. They don't shirk responsibility or accountability or make excuses. They put themselves in the client's shoes. They give the client the best they have to give--whether the listing is $100K or $500K. They are the best there is at what they do because of who they are and how they treat their clients. They take their commitments to all of their clients seriously and do what has to be done.
Any business is only as ethical and honest as the people involved in it. You and your agent should treat each other with respect and loyalty. These are essential qualities of the relationship, but they must be earned by both people. Professionalism is a state of mind and not a job description. And it doesn't automatically "attach" because someone claims to be successful.
Note: Nancy Chadwick has developed two books about developing land and conducting research as an investor.
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