Tustin Ranch We finally had enough equity in our home to afford to move. My husband had just received a promotion and our debts where paid off. Now was the time to begin looking for our dream home. We really wanted a new home and it wasn't long before we found it. But now we had to sell our existing home.
The new home tract said that they would give us three months to sell our home. If we hadn't sold it within that time frame we would loose our dream home. We immediately contacted three Realtors® to get the process started. The first one was from a nationwide franchise; the second one was from a very large local company; and the third was from a small local company.
The first Realtor® stressed the importance of her company and that they had a strong connection with a relocation company. They had buyers moving here on a daily basis. She also suggested that we test the market for the right price. " We don't want to leave any money on the table" she said. The second Realtors® conveyed the importance of their companies advertising and all of the open houses that she and her partner would do. I wasn't comfortable with the open houses but I did not want to loose my dream home. When I asked them the price the home should be listed at they replied "we are experts at that and we will determine that for you, don't worry about that". The third Realtor® was very low key. He was very knowledgeable about our tract and about Tustin Ranch. He suggested a price that he felt would get us a buyer within our time frame. He even gave us guarantees on everything that he did. He said, "His goal was to get us moved into our dream home".
Now we had to choose which Realtor® would get our house sold. After careful consideration we choose the nationwide franchise. We felt that the larger company would have more access to buyers and we needed one soon. Boy did we make a big mistake. First of all the nationwide company required us to sign a six month listing agreement. The agent suggested we list the property $10,000 over the last sale because the market was good and her company had plenty of relocation buyers. We were excited and could not wait to move into our new home.
The first month passed and no buyers, about half way through the second month I called our Realtor® and asked her to lower the listed price. I had not spoke to her since she listed our property. At the end of the second month the new home sales agent call to tell us that we only had thirty days before they were going to cancel the purchase of our dream home. They also suggested that I consider listing my property with Sherman Smith & Associates. As it turned out this was the small company that we had considered. I called my Realtor® to see if she would cancel our listing agreement. "No way" she said, "I have worked to hard to let it go"
The next day I was reading the Sunday Los Angeles Times. In the real estate section is a real estate lawyer-real estate broker (Robert Bruss) who writes a column every Sunday. This week's column was on Should I list my home with a National Franchise, large local office or a small local office? The answer was it does not matter the size of the office. What matters is the ability and the success record of the individual agent with whom you list your home. The agent should have a great knowledge for your area and real estate in general.
We were now determined to get out of our listing agreement and list our home with Sherman Smith & Associates. We had to do this quick or loose our dream home. I had very long conversation with my agents broker and he canceled the listing agreement. We then listed the property with Sherman Smith & Associates. The activity immediately picked up and the property sold within three weeks. We learned a valuable lesson that almost cost us thousands of dollars. First never sign a listing agreement that can't be canceled. Second the size of the real estate company has nothing to do with selling my home. If you ever need to sell your home I highly recommend Sherman Smith & Associates.
Before you list your home with anyone you owe it to yourself to review Sherman Smith & Associates 6 home guarantees.
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