I'd Rather Be Last on the List!

A new agent presented a cma he did for a new customer and asked me to look it over before he presented it to the seller. He's new to my office, but has been licensed a few years and worked previously with one of our competitors, so I was confident that the cma would be of professional quality and up to par.

A quick review and I noticed right away that something was missing -- there were no solds to be found -- only currently listed homes.

I thought, well, I must be missing a few pages, so I asked. Boy was I surprised by the answer --"that's the way I was told to do them," he told me, "then when it doesn't sell in 30 days, we tell the seller we need a price reduction and if it still doesn't sell, we ask for another reduction."

"Huh??" I said in disbelief. Why are you NOT showing the seller what homes are actually selling for in this market? Isn't that the most important thing?

Yeah, I know that the other real estate company gets a lot of listings and I guess now I know why. "I can't believe that not one of the sellers questions what are the actual sales prices," I questioned. "Nope," he replied.

"What happens after a few months and a few price reductions if the property still doesn't sell?" I asked him, "aren't the sellers upset with the agent?

"Well, sometimes, they go and list with someone else for less then," he said.

"Aren't they upset with you then?" I asked.

"I dunno," he replied, "we never hear back from them."

Now maybe I'm naieve, but that's NOT how I want to do business. So my new agent and I had a talk.

"We've gonna provide the seller with useful information, " I said, "including an accurate picture of the real estate market, based on what has actually sold recently. Then we're gonna show him what is on the market currently, what was on the market, but expired without selling, we're gonna show him how long the houses were on the market too. Then, if the seller doesn't like our answer, he is free to go and list his house with that OTHER realtor for whatever he wants and when it doesn't sell and he is ready to be realistic about his home and the market and wants an agency that will work for him, we'll be here, " I said. "After all, isn't it the last realtor who sells the house?