Posted by admin | Posted in vacation rentals | Posted on 17-12-2010
Tags: blog, housing, local condos, local condos com, local condos for rent, local condos for sale, local condos sale, maps, realestate, search, search local condos
What questions should I ask when choosing a seller’s agent for my condo?
I already have: (1) Do you hold open houses and how often would you do one for my property? (2) do you advertise on the local cable channel? (3) what type of brochures do you produce (4) would you make use of digital photos and video? (5) How many homes have you listed in the last 6 months and of those how many have you sold? (6) Do you run print advertising, and if so, when and where. (7) are you willing to put the specifics in writing (one agent had a marketing plan that was full of “the company MAY hold open houses, MAY listing in home section of Sunday newspaper. Which DID make me nervous about what they MAY NOT do….
What else? What do recent home sellers wish they’d have asked their agents? Is For Sale By Owner hopeless. I’ve had it listed on Craigslist and Owners.com, but only showing was people who already own within the condo assocation showing looking to buy for her mom to be nearby.
Advice appreciated…..
The questions you have are not bad but I have a few things you should keep in mind:
1) Don’t worry too much about open houses, it’s pretty rare that they’ll sell your house at one anyway. It’s a bigger benefit to the agent than you, they’ll find new buyers who aren’t ready to buy yet to fill their own pipeline. Broker tours are of more value to you.
2) Local cable channel, nice but won’t likely sell it either.
3) Print is nice too but internet is where it’s at. Ask about inclusion in Realtor.com (no it isn’t automatic), ask about other web advertising. Ask how many pictures they’ll put in the MLS and Realtor.com (it is unbelievable how many use one pic still). Ask about a virtual tour. 80% of buyers look at properties on the internet before they every even talk to an agent. Unless your target buyers are over 50 print makes little difference.
4) Don’t pick a top selling agent. I know that seems strange but think it through. If an agent is carrying 40 listings how much attention are they paying to your condo? If they generated $40 million in sales a year what are they mostly selling, condos? Probably not, probably they are selling big commercial stuff, multi-family etc. Also, many of the top listing agents I’ve met never even think about their listings after they get the agreement signed. Their goal is just get as many listings as possible and talk you into lower your price to move it quickly. Take someone who has a reasonable number of listings and experience.
5) FSBO for a condo is pretty much hopeless unless you are willing to be very creative. Things that come to mind are offering to carry financing, lease option sale, and contract sales. Those things will attract some buyers from places like Craigslist. Be very careful with those sorts of deals, they can be good but most of the people who want them can’t get a loan. There is a reason they can’t get one. Believe it or not if you want to sell and you aren’t an expert real estate investor (sometimes even if you are) paying an agent is worth the money. They can get your place exposure you will never get on your own and navigate you through the deal, screen “buyers” to find out if they really are buyers or not, etc.
6) Choose an agent that does a real comparative market analysis (CMA) and doesn’t just look to you for pricing. It is ultimately your decision of course, but you want someone who really goes through the numbers with you.
Miami Beach Condos Foreign Buyer Report on Local 10 News
