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I called two more realtors this morning. The first one we called wanted 8% comission – which we thought was a bit steep. She kept saying that it was negotiable, which to me, gave me the impression that she wasn’t convinced that she was worth the 8% (yes, I read a lot into it, but after working for myself and setting my own rates – I’m starting to learn how second-guessing your rates can effect your customers).
One realtor is coming tomorrow morning at 10, and the other is coming Wednesday afternoon at 2. We’re sort of ‘comparison shopping’ – not for the lowest price, per se, but for the best realtor.
We’re hoping to get the house listed on the market by the end of the week. We’ll see!
Hey Amber – I really appreciate the long post! The first realtor we met with sounded a lot like the guy you’re telling me about…and I image she’s probably who we’ll end up using.
Thank you so much for the words of advice – it helps SO much!
Melody,
We have sold 3 houses and the one thing that I find most important is how THEY will market your house. Ask and then verify. With our first house, we went with the first realtor that we met with. Turns out she listed the house in the MLS and the occassional Sunday paper. Took almost a year to sell. Our second house we listed with the realtor who we bought the house with. She assured us that the house would be on the mls, in homes and land magazine and on the internet. We took her word for it and listed with her. Eleven months later and the month after she finally got the house in Homes and Land and on the internet it finally sold.
Our third house in comparison was a breeze. We searched the internet for who had the most exposure advertising wise in our area. We found a gentleman who actually worked with his wife. He was sharp … he dressed sharp, his car was sharp his assistant was sharp. The first question we asked him was “what are you going to do to advertise our house?” His answer was that he would put our house on the broker’s web page, on his own personal webpage which he bought advertising hits on, in homes and land, in cedar rapids homes, on the local channel 5 homes for sale station, in the sunday newspapers and would send out direct mailings and emailings. To be honest he didn’t do ALL of these things, but it’s because our house sold in 10 days and he just plain didn’t have time. He followed through though on every little detail. I looked at our home on his internet site and I had to log in to look at it. Within 24 hours I had a message on my phone from him stating that he noticed I had looked at this cedar rapids home, it was a lovely home and if I wanted to set up a time to see it he would be happy to make arrangements. My first thought was how could he not recognize my name as the owner of said house … but then I realized who cares … this guy is good!
We did pay 7% which was 1% higher then what other realtors would have asked for. But it was definitely worth the extra money in my opinion.
Praying that your house sells quickly and that Stephen secures a job in Indiana quickly!!!
God Bless!
Amber
p.s. sorry for the novel
I’m not sure what the norm is here – that’s a lot of why we’re meeting with other realtors.
By the way – I’ve enjoyed your moving series on your blog too – very helpful!
I’m glad you’re shopping for a realtor–it can definitely take a few tries to get the right one. Here a 6% commission is the absolute norm. I would be suspicious of anything over that–unless 8% is the norm for your area.