How do we get our realtor to talk?

June 8, 2009 10:22 AM

In January we moved across the country and put our house on the market. Our realtor is a friend of the family. I had misgivings about using a friend, but, he has helped us a lot in the last few years and I felt we should go with him. Since January he has contacted us twice, once to tell us about an open house and another time to ask a few questions from potential buyers. I email him about once a month and usually have to wait 2 - 3 days for a response. Often the response does not address our questions. Instead we get a brief personal greeting followed by what feels like a form response. I want to address his lack of communication, but, as this is the first time I've sold a house, I don't know what is reasonable to expect from a realtor. What level of communication is reasonable to expect given our location/situation?
posted by a22lamia to home & garden (21 comments total)

Fire him and get another realtor.
posted by unSane at 10:27 AM on June 8

It's not the amount of time that he spends on you as much as it is the quality of the response he gives when he does so. If you are not in synch then your needs are not being met. Also, I think you should be getting a response by next business day at the latest, even if it's a complex problem and the response is just, "Hey, wow, that's a doozy, give me 'till Thursday to get what you need."
posted by mrmojoflying at 10:32 AM on June 8

I don't know if you're going to get him to talk. Moreover, you should not have to force your realtor to be communicative with you, especially where you're not present. I understand the market is slow generally everywhere, so there might not be much in interest to update you on without prompting, but he should at least be answering your damn questions.

So I'd say cut ties and go with a different realtor. You are going to need to actually discuss this with him and cite his lack of communication as a huge issue... And that discourse is going to depend heavily on your level of friendship with this guy.

Friends and business rarely mix well without some consequences. I speak from experience because I used a former co-worker as a buyers agent and I don't speak to him anymore...
posted by jerseygirl at 10:40 AM on June 8 [1 favorite]

Maybe you should try calling. Some people really suck at email.
posted by scottatdrake at 10:43 AM on June 8

I hate to say it but he may have put you at a lower priority because he may consciously or unconsciously feel like he has more "slack" when dealing with you. I don't think that's something you can afford right now. I agree, find someone else who will treat you like an actual customer.
posted by amethysts at 10:44 AM on June 8

I don't think 2 to 3 days to respond to an email is acceptable. If he's that uninterested in responding to you, it's safe to assume that he's not being very proactive in other ways.
posted by diogenes at 10:45 AM on June 8 [1 favorite]

I'll echo the sentiment of cutting ties and looking for a new realtor. I have dealt with realtors in multiple transactions over the past couple years, and my experience has been that most realtors are exceptionally timely and responsive. I don't think I have ever waited more than 24 hours for a response from my realtors (with Blackberries now, I got some responses 10 minutes after I sent questions). One of my realtors even was courteous enough to inform me of an upcoming vacation a month in advance and provide contact information for another lady in her office who could assist me in her absence. Combined with the level of competition in the troubled real estate market, I don't think you should have to tolerate any level of sub-standard representation from your realtor. Selling your house is a big deal; you should feel 100% comfortable that your realtor has your best interests in mind and is responsive. It sounds like this is not the case, and you would be better served by switching to a new realtor.
posted by galimatias at 10:52 AM on June 8

Quite a few years ago, I moved and put my house on the market with a friend. It sucked. I got no progress for 6 + months. Then I yanked the listing and went with someone else, and he sold the place in less than a month.

You don't owe this guy anything. If he's not meeting your needs, get a new realtor.
posted by miss tea at 10:53 AM on June 8

Okay, so there is a general consensus about cutting ties, but what exactly should I expect from a realtor?
posted by a22lamia at 11:00 AM on June 8

Maybe you should try calling. Some people really suck at email

I hate to sound harsh, but as a realtor in today's market, they need to not suck at email and communication. Furthermore, if he prefers calls, he should have communicated that to them. I think there's a general consensus that he sucks at communicating.

So what to expect from a realtor? Especially from a realtor that is handling a listing for owners that are far away? You should expect updates on what he's doing: Where's the house listed? Any new venues for advertisement? Have there been any inquiries? He needs to show you that he's being as aggressive as he can be. He needs to demonstrate how he's trying to sell your house. And if he has ideas for ways to sell the house, he should be communicating that as well.

At the very, very least he should be answering your questions completely and answering them in a timely fashion.

When/if you find a new realtor, explain to them at the onset that you were very unhappy with your previous realtor for X, Y and Z. Let the new realtor know your expectations - if they can't meet them, let neither party waste their time and energy on a listing agreement.
posted by jerseygirl at 11:08 AM on June 8

My realtor contacted me no later than 24 hours after I would email him, and sent me weekly updates on how things were progressing. (I was on the buying end, not the selling, so that might make a difference, but I don't know.)
posted by sperose at 11:11 AM on June 8

Speaking of an agreement, did you sign any exclusivity agreement with him entitling him X amount of months of sole listing rights to the property?
posted by jerseygirl at 11:12 AM on June 8

A realtor should help you price the place competitively, keep you informed about who's seen it and what they thought of it, and if it doesn't seem to move, regularly check in with you with information about market conditions, comparable sales, and suggestions (if appropriate) for price reductions or ways of making the property more attractive.

It sounds very much as though this guy has given up and is just hip-pocketing this listing in the hope that eventually someone will randomly buy it. DTMFA.
posted by unSane at 11:13 AM on June 8

Fire him and get a new realtor. It doesn't cost you any more to actually have a GOOD realtor - so there's no reason not to hire the best one you can find.

A realtor should return calls and emails by the end of the business day.

Every time there is a showing, your realtor should follow up with you and let you know how it went. When we sold our house a couple of years ago, our realtor would call the other realtor after the showing to get feedback as to why the people were/weren't interested. This allowed us to continually refine our staging techniques.

There should be a sign-in sheet at every open house, and your realtor should be able to fax you a copy.

In your case, you realtor should also be overseeing the jobs done by the cleaning crew and lawn service as well, and let you know if there are any problems on those fronts.

Even in this economy, if your house has been on the market since Jan. and it hasn't sold, there IS a problem. It might be the pricing, it might be the staging, who knows. But it definitely shouldn't be taking this long.
posted by Ostara at 11:21 AM on June 8 [2 favorites]

Going over the correspondence history I guess the thing I find most disturbing is his lack of initiating correspondence.

jerseygirl - the exclusivity agreement ends at the beginning of July which is why we are trying to plan our next steps.

How often should a realtor do an open house? Is there anything else I should be looking for?
posted by a22lamia at 12:32 PM on June 8

An experienced agent with a decent reputation in the community and is hungry to sell your house. Find out what their internet presence is like. Ask about communication. Ask for referrals. Make sure the agent will be the person showing the house and actually conducting the open houses. Get them to talk about themselves. Realtors generally seem to love to talk.

When you find a couple candidates you like, start asking them for their opinions on when they think the house will sell, get them to give you several comparisons (comps) for the property, ask how they plan on marketing your home, ask how they will handle the listing if the property hasn't sold with X amount of days -- is it going to languish on their desk waiting for the buyer to find it or are they going to keep up an aggressive pace?

Angieslist.com actually has a section on real estate agents.
posted by jerseygirl at 12:47 PM on June 8

It sounds like your agent is bad, so I would plan on firing them once your window is up. But of course if you can light a fire under the agent and get the house sold in the next month that would be even better!

I will only address the further point about what you should expect/can do next --

Based solely on reading I've done on the web this year, while we were buying a house - open houses are much less important now than they used to be. (Probably varies by region of the country) I was told that open houses actually serve as a way for selling agents to pick up new clients, because buyers walk in without their own agent, and the selling agent gets to chat them up. So, number of open houses isn't such a critical point, though if you want the agent to do more, instruct him to do more! Or ask him why he isn't doing more.

By far the most effective thing your agent can do to get your house sold is to PRICE IT APPROPRIATELY. With the house we eventually bought, the seller had a friend as an agent, and she spent a YEAR with the house priced $100K too high with no offers. If you can afford to wait, sure, but are already paying another mortgage? Be realistic about what you need to do to get the house SOLD. How did your agent determine the asking price for your house? Have you lowered the price since you put it on the market?

Figure out what your price should be. Look at the Zillow.com map for your area, and click through a bunch of houses to see recent sale prices on comparable houses. Zillow's own pricing algorithm is hit-or-miss but looking at the actual sale prices gives you some kind of starting point to figure out your own price. It shows what houses have sold for near yours recently (with comparable number of bedroom/baths). Your local knowledge may help you to refine their ratings since, for example, similar sized houses may be cheaper in a crummy area or more expensive in a lovely area near a park and you can figure these plusses and minuses into your price comparison.

Be sure your agent has taken good pictures of the house and put them up on real estate websites, since so much of the buyers' pre-screening is done by web searches now. Could the pictures be improved or updated? (eg do you have barren exterior winter pictures up, when you could have lovely spring pictures? is the house interior clean and inviting in the pictures?)

It might be helpful to pick up a copy of House Selling for Dummies from your library. We used the buyer's version of this, by the same authors, and found it *extremely* helpful -- clear, practical, made us understand the process and foresee problems, etc.
posted by LobsterMitten at 1:54 PM on June 8

Especially in today's market, regardless of whether I had a contract with a realtor for 30 days or 90 days, if my house didn't sell I'd get a new realtor - and probably adjust the price in the process.

When we bought/sold our homes in 2005, we used a couple who were long time personal friends, despite my own desire to use one of two other Realtors with whom I had business relationships.

Our friends started by suggesting that we price the home we were selling about $100K higher than I ever thought we'd get. It sold in six days at the asking price, the buyers waived the inspection, had financing in polace, and the whole thing went swimmingly.

I'm really glad it worked out, because I like our Realtors a lot, but had things gone south I know it would have cost us our friendship.

And yes, I do realize that it's no longer 2005 and the market is way different.
posted by imjustsaying at 2:54 PM on June 8

I'd expect a Realtor to research sales in your neighborhood, respond within a day to inquiries, and keep you informed about visits and offers.

But above all they should sell your house. If it didn't sell in six months, either he's doing little to promote it, or he's failing to advise you to lower the price.

(We sold our house near Boston a little over a year ago. The market was bad and we didn't get what we wanted for it, but we didn't lack for offers. Maybe it's different in the area where your house is, but no offers at all sounds like a bad sign.)
posted by zompist at 4:21 PM on June 8

Houses rarely sell at open houses, it's mostly a good way for agents to find buyers.

I was taught to contact sellers once a week minimum to report any news and just to check in if there's no action on the listing. A realtor should get back to you as soon as possible - within a day at the very most, and address your question.

I would be looking around for someone else as soon as the contract is up and maybe ask if you can be released sooner and let them know the reasons. It may spur them to action if they realize there is a time limit for them to sell it.
posted by Melsky at 6:40 PM on June 9

Just a follow up - a few days after I posted this question we got an offer. The house closed last month.

Thanks to all of you who responded. Looking back it is pretty clear that our relator felt the sale of our house was more of a favor than a business transaction (even though he got his full commission). Oh how we live and earn.
posted by a22lamia at 8:39 AM on September 4