I Wish I Had Hired An Agent
Not long ago I represented a buyer on a home that was for sale by owner. The seller had a limited service agreement with an agent who entered the listing in the MLS and everything else was through her. I knew it was going to be twice the work but, my client fell in love with the house so we proceeded.
It started off rough and continued that way until the end. The phone calls started from the seller when she had no idea how to read the contract or addendums. She didn’t know where to sign or even respond with a counter. She called me 5 times in one day to ask questions about what clauses meant and to see if she should add her husband to the contract. She bought the house without him but, thought because they are now married he should be listed too. All of her questions were something an experienced agent would know.
After we ratified I reminded her to order the resale packet from the HOA and setup a termite inspection. Her response….can you do that for me? I don’t know how. I was polite but, explained I don’t work for her and that’s something she needs to figure out how to do. We discussed that had she hired an agent they would be able to help her with all these questions she is calling me with and that my time is being taken away at no compensation from my clients every time she calls.
Ultimately, my client got a great deal for two reasons. The first, the seller priced the house too high to start with so it sat on the market for a month and then had a price drop. The second reason was that she had no idea how to negotiate when an offer did come in and in turn asked me questions that never should have been asked and told me information she never should have shared. At closing we all sat down and as documents were being signed she looked up and said "I wish I had hired an agent. I had no idea all that went into selling a house." Real Estate is not easy, and if it looks easy it’s because you have a kick butt agent working diligently behind the scenes making sure everything lines up. There are contracts, addendums, inspections, deadlines, repairs, title work, and loan documents that all have to be taken care of in order to make it to closing. This seller had used the same agent on 4 other transactions and thought it was easy so she decided to sell on her own and in the end admitted it cost her a ton of time and a lot of money.
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