Listing Agent Roulette

I am continually amazed at the amount of "shuffling" of listing real estate agents that can occur for a given property. Let's see...the property goes on the market and the listing agreement period expires and the home goes off the market unsold. The seller is unhappy. The seller wants to sell their home and most likely, they have their sights set on their listing agent as to why it didn't sell.

So...what does a seller oftentimes do? They fire their listing agent. Your're outta there! Actually, they really didn't fire this listing agent, the listing period expired, the home didn't sell, and the seller gives the listing to another agent, perhaps in the same real estate brokerage or oftentimes, a different brokerage.

Contractually speaking: The listing agreement is with the real estate brokerage, not the listing agent.

So...the seller thinks that listing agent #2 may be the answer. Sometimes the home sells under listing agent #2, and sometimes it does not. If it does sell, the real question a seller should ask themselves is: Did listing agent #2 cause it to sell or did some other external reason independent from listing agent #2 cause it to sell? The answer oftentimes is that it had nothing to do with listing agent #2, the right buyer simply came along. Or the price was reduced enough where it attracted a buyer, which would have happened if listing agent #1 were still in the picture and the price was lowered under the first listing agent.

A seller who is considering a 2^nd, 3^rd or even 4^th listing agent when their home hasn't sold should ask themselves these few but very important questions:

1. What is the next listing agent I am considering to replace my current listing agent going to do differently that will cause my home to sell? Don't just listen to a bunch of hype, spin and get wowed by glossy brochures, but use the sniff test, and ask lots of questions - Does this actually make a lick of sense? Can I see where this actually makes a difference? How would this proposed change actually work? Do you have any #s to support your claims on by doing A, B and C is quantifiable and make a difference? News Flash: Most of what you will hear won't dramatically make it "a game changer."
   
2. What is it that generally causes a home to sell or not sell? See my companion post on what generally causes a home to sell or not sell. If this listing agent is not "changing the game" so to speak in terms of price and/or condition, then will these "tweaks" they are recommending actually make any difference? Use your common sense, use your intuition, ask for hard #s and bona fide seller references to back up their claims. Analyze what you are hearing.

The short answer is: Even if the home does sell the second time around, chances are it would have sold with the first listing agent unless there was a game change involved (ie. dramatic price and/or condition change).

This is not to say that listing agent #1 did not fall down on the job. In fact, they may very well have. They may have bungled things, been unresponsive, self-centered, lacking manners, lacking customer service, lacking communication regarding showing feedback, lacking communication regarding changing market conditions and market status updates and a host of other reasons. But overall, these previous reasons don't cause a home to either sell or not sell. In fact, some homes will sell in spite of the fact of the listing agent, regardless of whether the home is a gem or in very sub-standard condition. The right buyer simply comes along. It's not to say that innovative, stellar and cutting-edge marketing can't make a positive difference, in fact, it can. But I have seen stellar homes poorly marketed and by a fairly unresponsive agent and they sell. I have seen substandard condition homes only minimally (or not at all apart from putting in the MLS) marketed by a good (or not so good) agent and it eventually sells.

I have seen sellers ditch listing agents, and the next listing agent did essentially nothing different - in the MLS with some new pictures of average quality, same ol' marketing, and the list goes on.

The definition of insanity is to: Do the same things over and over and expect a different result.

Well...when a different result happens in real estate when there hasn't been a true game change in play, chances are, the right buyer simply came along.

So...while I know a seller can be angry, frustrated and stressed beyond belief when their home hasn't sold, the two real questions above should be asked, asked again, analyzed and a home seller should be able to objectively obtain answers so they can make an educated and informed decision instead of just throwing the baby out with the bath water.

While I give sellers innovative options (home staging, re-design and even minor to major renovations) to maximize their financial bottom line and to get their home sold in the shortest amount of time with the least amount of stress, along with taking exceptional digital photography, low fees, podcasting on iTunes and a host of other innovative techniques, I also tell sellers, if you are constraining the options I provide you to simply price, the rest of what I do is nibbling around the edges and there isn't that much of a difference (apart from expense reductions I offer) that is going to be "radically" different between what I will do for you versus what your current listing agent has done for you. That is not to undermine the "price" aspect of selling a home - it's huge, it's 90% of the game, but it's simply one tool if an agent brings "more" to the table to help protect a seller's financial bottom line.

I am not recommending a seller to stay with their current listing agent after their listing agreement has expired, nor am I recommending that they switch. What I am recommending is that they put things into proper context (what's the same, what's different, how do the expenses compare from one company to the next) so the facts are on the table and a seller can objectively compare service offerings to decide what to do next.

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