When an owner of a home calls me to sell his property, it starts a flurry of activity. Each seller has his/her own goals as to what should happen with this sale, the most important being:
1. What the sales price will be.
2. How soon he wants it sold.
3.What does he have to do to get it on the market.
4. Wants me to guide him through the process.
5. Get it to closing.
With this information, we can sign a listing agreement between us and off I go to do my job as the "listing agent" representing him, the seller.
The seller, in my experience, doesn't want to know how you are going to do it, he just wants you to get it done.
But there are times when the seller is "shopping" for an agent. This process can stretch out and become very complicated. Obviously, the agent is doing his best to "sell" himself to the client-to-be to beat out the competition. In the end, the seller will chose someone either pretty arbitrarily or someone who has given him what he wants to hear. In this case it's not unheard of that the seller doesn't have total confidence in his agent and tries to micro-manage the sale.
Some agents actually want to have the seller there every step of the way, hear about every phone call or email, tell him about every showing and what the comments were--all the while waiting for an offer to come in. They will tell them about every bit of marketing put into place and how many responses it's getting. And on and on.
BUT DON'T YOU HIRE ME TO JUST GET IT DONE?
Why should you agonize over all of this? Luckily, most of my clients either know me, have been referred to me, or have found me in some other way and have a preconceived trust that I can get it sold for them. And if it is a hard to sell property, I will tell them upfront so that there are no false expectations.
When does the seller need to be intimately involved? When the offers come in.
When my marketing has paid off and serious buyers are circling either directly or through their agent, that's when the seller and I strategize how to:
1. Get the best offers in.
2. Counter offer in a smart way.
3. Get the best deal accepted, into escrow, and closed.
This is where you want your listing agent to shine, to give excellent advice so that the outcome will make you, the seller, happy. Often the buyer's agent will come "fishing" for information. The seller and I strategize what I can say so that offers include some vital stuff important to him. It can be something simple such as a short or long closing or more important like the offer is not contingent on an appraisal or certain inspections.
I am in a situation right now where we have at least two offers. In order to choose the better one, we need to negotiate a bit back and forth to see which of them is willing to stretch, to stand out over the other. Yet not drive either one away!
And, in the end, it helps that the "winning" buyer is also a happy camper, even though he is not my fiduciary responsibility in California. It makes for a smooth and easy transaction that will be closed successfully.
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