Real Estate Agents.

[Super T.I.B]

I'm confused...

My house has been on teh market for a week and a half. Have had one open house and a few groups have come back & looked at the house again. Have had an offer but I feel that it's not enough, around $30K less than what we have listed it for sale for. The first offer was $4k less than the next offer they gave and they said that offer was the highest they could go.  They have the finance & are ready to buy.

The agent is saying it's a reasonable offer and asked us to consider it & then get back to him. We said no, we are not budging, we are really after x amount which is still $20K off the listed price. Now he is saying, "Geez I don't know, I will put that to them but I don't think they will take it" He is thinking that they will go cold & back off from the sale. We are having another open house this Saturday and hoping we will get something out of that.

Now, my question is, is it better for an agent to sell quickly at a lower price than to keep it on his books (paying for advertising, inspections etc) than to wait for a better price. The thing is, we've had one! offer & he wants to sell it. Get stuffed I reckon, we are paying you the big bucks, sell it for what we want for it!


Thoughts? Anyone been through this recently?

[EGAS1]

Yes, I was told once there's liars and there's liars and then there's real estate agents 
(hope there's not any in here if so sorry)

No on a serious note I  think they just want quick turnovers and considering the state of our economy at the mo it is probably the quick buck they are after.

I agree with you stuff them you have not been on the market very long and let them sweat

EGAS

[mattyvas]

I haven't bought and sold many houses but IMO everyone that I know who has had or dealt with an agent, has found them great
when they are trying to sign your house up on there books saying yeah I can sell it for what you're asking.
Then when it comes time to sell it turns into "well" I think this is the best off you are gonna get. And it's the first or second.

My view, don't jump at the first offer (if you're not committed elsewhere) give a chance on the market.
But then if the offer is $30k less than what you want, that also means less money lining the agents pocket.
Does it weight up that if you take a lesser offer you might end up with more cash due to the above highly technical mathematical equation.  

[bazz20]

as above have said  and simply the longer it takes to sell your house the more it cost the real estate and dont ever trust them been down this road a few times 

[The Don]

This C--t is meant to be working for you, F--K they shit me. Tell that slimy C*&T to get off his fat arses and do what he is paid for. Sorry for the rant, how about you tell the agent what your bottom line is, what he makes on top of that is his and he gets no commission.

[Super T.I.B]

This C--t is meant to be working for you, F--K they shit me. Tell that slimy C*&T to get off his fat arses and do what he is paid for. Sorry for the rant, how about you tell the agent what your bottom line is, what he makes on top of that is his and he gets no commission.

 

Well said Don. 

We did say that, no, actually we didn't. We gave him a bottom line and said for everything he makes over that, he gets 10%. Maybe we should change it to your way. 

[Palooka]

The agent obviously doesnt have your interests in mind. He's looking for a quick sale and get the house of his/her books. The difference in the comission at the lower price is so low that they done care. The whole systems is screwed in this way for the buyer. You could almost guarantee that the same agent is telling the potential buyers that you are ready to sign up at the lower price.

Ask yourself who loses out in selling at a lower price and it's only you. Then ask yourself what you're paying the agent for and try not to get angry that they're selling you short. It's their job to get the best possible price for the buyer because they are working for and getting paid by you. If anything they should be negotiating the price up rather than down.

Why don't you ask the agent to reduce their commission to assist the buyer get the house at the price they want and for you to be happy with the sale price. I' [evil]m fairly confident that that wont be an option for them  

Cheers
Palooka

[EGAS1]

This C--t is meant to be working for you, F--K they shit me. Tell that slimy C*&T to get off his fat arses and do what he is paid for. Sorry for the rant, how about you tell the agent what your bottom line is, what he makes on top of that is his and he gets no commission.

WOW wow

Remind me never to cross THE DON,
THE DON is good

[Spider]

I think a heap of agents have had 'the dream run' over the past 5 years....the stuff sold itself....now they have to work at it...and some are out of practise...but...I reckon they have got used to a very high amount of salary and with the market coming off the boil have shrinking income and therefore are dying for the quick turn around.

Don't sell yet mate. Be patient!

[mattyvas]

WOW wow

Remind me never to cross THE DON,
THE DON is good

And he is such a placid guy each time I've met him. Has someone stolen his log-on.

[Jukie]

i have worked along side with real estate agents and i would trust then as far as i could throw them. stick with want you want, if you can wait then do so.

[Betty]

Some good points raised for you there Mr Super.

I think the critical one is that it comes down to the impact on their commission. They will have a minimum just like you do, anything beyond that is a bonus ... but there is no real incentive. Any increase in sale price is only an incremental increase in commission.

In valuing their time versus any change in the commission it is easy to become lazy. You really need to set steps in the fee scale (there may or may not be an underlying percentage) but the steps are there for you, not them. It is to give them something to aim for which would really make it worth their while eg. 1% base which jumps to ?% at the milestone ... fall short, too bad. Then another % or $ change at the next milestone. Problem is they will never sign up to something which will make them actually work for their money.

Of course all this is for something which they have already promised you in their original proposal, so again they are screwing you ... the bastards.

Side note: A work mate has been going through a similar thing recently and the agents keep telling him to drop the price below what they recommended ... and we are talking hundreds of thousands ... and he is financially make the beast with two backsed as he has already committed elsewhere.

Disclaimer: I have never sold property so I don't actually know what I am talking about.

[techno]

The only time I used an agent was to sell a house several hours away from where I was living. Others I have sold myself. Its not that hard if you are prepared to put in the time. Think about it, no one knows your house like you do.

Agents get paid the same regardless of how much time they put in (provided it sells for the same price).

The other factor is probably the media focus on the global financial crisis. Potential buyers are probably putting in ridiculous offers to see how keen you are to sell. Nothing lost if you say no and they might get a bargain if you are deperate to sell.

Hang in there is my advice.

[goldFiSh]

Hang in there is my advice.

+1.

We were fortunate enough not to have to try to balance the buy and sell process - we'd already bought and had a window of time to sell before it got tight ( two mortgages is very depressing, even it its only for a short period of time)

We went through the same thing - offer right away, but not at the right price. Hold your ground. If you've done your research and have set a realistic price, and can afford to hold out, then stick to it.
And ride the RE hard. Set up a good cop / bad cop thing with the missus and execute the plan.

If the RE works out that you're not going to cave, they know they'll need to work it to get their money.
Did you sign an exclusive agreement with them? (I assume so) If not, then start talking to others and let em know you are.

Ours took longer than we wanted - bloody body corp strata title bullshit, and we had to resort to threatening them to go elsewhere after they're already spent their money on ads and labour at the inspections...
But we got there in the end, and got what we wanted, so happy ending.

[wraith]

As every one said supe,
They are lousy individual's that have never done a honest day's work in their lives, a quick sale for them is easy money, you need to push them quite hard to get them working for you. case in point I just sold a property (small unit in brunwick)which was on the market for one month had some interest but the whole campaign was a total screw up, no communication, bad tenants, heaps on mistakes on the agents part but we persevered in the end after getting a low ball offer (15 grand off what we wanted and 20 grand off what they appraised the property for) they started using scare tactics to force our hand, being naive we bit and took the next offer which was 10,000 off what we wanted.... coincidently another flat in the block was being sold at the same time, it went for 23,000 more than ours... man was I pissed then !!! dont give them money for nothing, make their lives a living hell make them get the price you want! and goodluck.