Friday, November 2, 2007

Expert Advise

From this week's Dear Miki column Folsom & El Dorado Hills Telegraph:

"Last night our real estate agent came over to the house and showed us a comparative market analysis (CMA). After much discussion on the value of our home, "Marge" suggested that we wait until the market is on the upswing. Although Roy and I don't have to sell, we told her we wanted to give it a try. I almost fell out of my chair when "Marge", our agent for the past 20 years and the recipient of our referrals, refused to list our house. What kind of service is this? I'm so burned up that I am calling all our friends and telling them not to use her because she is just too lazy to work harder."

Response:

"A CMA is designed to give facts which can be qualified and quantified, by giving number of bedrooms and baths, approximate square footage, size of major rooms, amenities, home's age, property taxes, homes' currently for sale list price and those sale price of those that have closed escrow. Basically, it tells you in black and white how your home stacks up with the competition."

Ensuing random discussion about whether CAR telling people not to test the waters is legal issue.....then last paragraph.....

"Give her a break! She has no time to coddle your curiosity by spending money on marketing your home, when she must feed family and pay a mortgage. Who knows, she might even be working part-time at a department store to pay the bills."

8 comments:

Cmyst said...

For the life of me, I don't understand why anyone who didn't need to sell would be trying to do so now.
It frustrates everyone.
Good grief, are these people morons?? Do they not listen to any news reports on the housing market??

Anonymous said...

The agent will have out of pocket expenses on the house which probably won't move given The sellers have zero motivation to be reseasonable and will probably make the agent's life hell. I read the HGTV message boards and the sense of entitlement for a 300% mark up would make me postal. I'm starting to feel somewhat sorry for agents given the idiots they have to brown nose on a daily basis.

So yeah, I'd want to front the advertising costs for their albratros too - NOT >; )

G Spot1 said...

Funny, I had the opposite reaction to their agent that they did. I would have put her business card somewhere safe and told anyone who asked to use her. She sounds honest and realistic and I certainly don't blame her for not wanting to waste a bunch of her own cash trying to help people test the waters when they don't have any motivation to sell...

patient renter said...

Whoa, the department store exactly describes a Realtor I know in EDH...

Good luck waiting for that "upswing".

... said...

I like that agent.

Anonymous said...

Amen! Finally an agent honest enough to tell a seller the truth. This is the exact experience my agent has shared with me when she had told someone their asking price is unrealistic and she doesn't want to list it!

Anonymous said...

http://tinyurl.com/2eo87z

PeonInChief said...

Well, here's a moment where I agree with sippn. These folks should be giving thanks for their ability to choose someone as a friend/agent who tells them the truth.