Helpful Agents or Cheesy Marketing Tactics?

November 11th, 2009 by Kim Moldofsky in Features, Have I Got a House for You

Last week Kim Tracy Prince and I touched on the complexities of a buyer or seller’s relationship with their real estate agent. I talked about two agent archetypes, the shark and the therapist. Now I’m adding one more: the passive or aggressive agent. Or maybe the frenemy, someone who claims to support you as they exploit your doubts and insecurities.

You see, my home is currently listed by owner, though it’s on the MLS thanks to one of those boutique-y agencies that sells services a la carte. From time to time, I get calls from potential listing agents who have nothing but my best interests in mind, at least that’s what they tell me when they try to convince me to list with them.

Last week, I received a letter instead of a call. Mrs. Moldofsky, it began, I wanted to offer you some assistance with selling your home on your own, the agent wrote. She included a “helpful” brochure to assist me. Indeed, the glossy, full-color eight-page document was titled, Helpful Tips on Selling Your Own Home.

The brochure included useful tips like reminders to change my address for magazine subscriptions and cancel the newspaper prior to moving out of the residence. But it also listed “helpful” reminders like the fact that my home will sell for a higher price if I use a real estate agent. Better yet, it cautioned me against putting a For Sale By Owner sign on my property. Huh?

In some sense, the ploy worked, I mean here I am writing about it, but the whole piece reeks of a bait and switch approach. At some point we may choose to list our property with an agent, but it’s not going to be with the woman who sent me this brochure.

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  • gkpropertyman
    Hi Kim,
    Interesting approach you are taking. Actually, it is the same approach that FSBO's have taken for the last 31 years that I have been in business. It seems as if you feel that selling yourself will net you more than dealing with an agent. Could be, but %'s are against you. Usually, a buyer for a FSBO is working with you because they know they can get it for less. HMMMMM, seems that both of you have the same purpose in mind.

    While you wait to try to get a price higher than most agents tell you that you can get, the market continues to drop, and when you do put it on the market, the buyer's are still trying to grind you for a lower price. Why? Fear. The same motivation that many (probably not you) are focused on, and that is that you might not get the best price possible.

    Are you offering a full 50% commission to the selling agent? Or did you perhaps drop it a bit, expecting the Selling Agent to do all the work for you AND for their buyer, since your Botique company will not work really hard to protect you. The Selling Agent may not have your best interest at heart, and then, if a problem arises, the SA may not work as hard to keep the transaction together, since the SA is not really getting paid to do it, and there are a bundle of homes on the market now, anyway, for a qualified buyer (whom a good SA will make sure is REALLY qualified, not just walking around with a letter from a lender they have never met).

    I would say that there are a lot of pitfalls facing a FSBO, unless, of course, the FSBO, like yourself I am sure, has been in the business and really knows what they are doing, and will carry their portion of the load of the transaction.

    Best of Luck to all of you and
    Blessings and Joy to all.
  • We may at some point use an agent. Regardless, our pricing will be flexible, as it must be in this market, and we have an experienced real estate attorney on our side. At this point the 6% commission seems like a lot to stomach-- close to $20K. Having friends in the business, I understand the various ways a commission is split and passed along within an agency, not to mention the way the income is taxed for the agent--maybe this would be an interesting topic for a future column?-- but the nearly $20K figure is what stands out in my mind.

    When you say 50% commission you mean 3% of the traditional 6% commission?
  • Oh, and to be clear, my issue is not whether a real estate agent can help with a sale, but the tone of the piece. The brochure professed to give me tips on selling my house by owner, but was clearly designed to make me question my decision.
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