Dear Maine Home Seller: Does Your Agent Offer a Service Guarantee?
When you interviewed your agent about selling your home, did you ask about his or her service guarantee?
Last night I got a call from a woman I had been talking with for a couple of months about selling her home. Three weeks ago she listed her property with an agent from a different company. This is actually the second call I've received from her since she listed. Both calls have been because she was not happy with the service she was receiving from her agent.
When she called me two weeks ago, I told her to talk to her agent about the things she wasn't happy with.
Last night's call was almost the same - only this time she wanted to know what to do. My response was, "I'm sorry, I can't help you. I wish I could, but I can't. I can't give you advice. You need to have this conversation with your agent." She wants out of her listing with the other agent and asked me if she could get out of it.
This is what I told her - and this is what every home seller in Maine needs to understand. When you hire a Maine real estate agent, you are entering into a contract with that agent's brokerage. (In Appointed Agency, which my brokerage practices, when you sign a listing agreement with me I am your "appointed" agent through my brokerage...but that is the subject of another post...) That contract is binding for the term specified, and both the brokerage (through your agent) and you, the seller, are obligated to perform as described for the duration of the contract. There is no language in a Maine listing agreement that allows either party to terminate the agreement if one or the other is unhappy. A Maine real estate brokerage (or the agent) does not have to let a seller out of a listing contract.
I told her she needed to talk to her agent about her unhappiness and about terminating the listing agreement, not me.
So Dear Maine Home Seller, my message to you is this: to prevent this situation from happening to you, ask the agents you are interviewing what their service guarantee is. Understand what your options are if you are not happy. TALK ABOUT IT BEFORE YOU LIST.
In case you're wondering, I do have a service guarantee. I want satisifed and happy clients. My brokerage allows me the freedom to offer this guarantee: if for any reason you are unhappy with my services and performance in selling your home, you can fire me. Period.
And I'll put it in writing.
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