Having decided to list our house the old-fashioned way with a hard-working agent who will do the heavy lifting and negotiating for us, we set out to find an agent.
I interviewed several last year, but I left those meetings feeling like a disheartened Goldilocks- none of them felt like the right fit. And, of course, I had visions of selling the house without having to pay commission. Le sigh.
Listing on our own, we averaged one showing a week up until the winter holidays. I have no basis on which to judge the traffic, but I know we failed when it came to finding a buyer. We’ll do better with an agent, right?
Having kept track of who stopped in for showings, I reviewed this list of agents and started making calls. We met with three of them to assess their fit as our listing agent. They had already seen our place and obviously had buyers looking in our neighborhood. Last summer, I met with the agents alone. This time, hubs joined in. After all, we’re ready to move, literally and figuratively.
At each meeting, we asked the agents to look into their crystal balls and predict the year ahead in real estate. We pretty much heard the same thing, the same depressing news.
- Yes, houses are selling, but not for much; the market is still depressed.
- Yes, the tax credit is helping the market.
- No, we don’t know if the credit will be extended in 2010.
- No, you won’t get a better selling price if you wait out the market, unless you’re willing to wait several years.
- And by the way, there’s going to be a record number of foreclosures in 2010.
- Oh, and the commercial real estate market might crumble, too.
Oy.
We should have just sucked it up, signed on with an agent last year and sold the damn place. Truth is, we may have even gotten a teensy bit more money back then considering that there’s been three foreclosures on my block and goodness knows how many in my town.
But hindsight is 20/20. I know agents deal with clients like me all. the. time. The ones who have some grip on reality, yet a fairly strong sense of denial, or call if pride of ownership if you will.
As we toured the house with one agent, she remarked on the many updates and improvements we’ve made, few of which will actually factor into the sale price. By contrast, the previous owner did virtually nothing to improve the house, but had the good fortune to sell it during a rising market and as a result, made gobs of money.
Ah yes, timing is everything. Which is why we really want to seal the deal before the tax credit expires.
I know many agents read this blog. What do see when you look into your crystal ball?
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