Realtor 101–Selling a Home Edition

May 9, 2022 7:56 AM

I’m getting ready to put my parents’ house on the market. What can I expect from my realtor?

My dad passed away nearly a year ago, my mom has Alzheimer’s and has been in assisted living since shortly after my dad’s death (she is not capable of making any decisions about this process), their house is paid off, and I’m an only child with full POA. I’m finally ready to put their house on the market. I bought my own house but have never sold a house.

No one has lived in the house for nearly a year but I live about 30 minutes away and have been keeping up with the yard maintenance and have also been clearing out closets, cabinets, paperwork, personal photos, clothes, etc. Most of the furniture is still there, aside from what I moved to my mom’s assisted living place. The sale isn’t tied into buying a new house, so that’s a good thing.

I’m pretty sure I know which realtor I’m going to contact. What can I expect at our initial meeting? Is the first meeting generally at the office, or at the property? What info will I need to provide right away? I’m assuming she will guide me as to what repairs need to be made, what things a motivated buyer may be willing to let slide, et.—correct? What questions should I be asking her? Is it common to ask a realtor for referrals for a deep clean out service, etc? How will I know if she’s a good fit?

This isn’t the house I grew up in, but my parents lived there for 25 years so there are definitely some emotions attached to this—I’m really struggling with wanting this off my plate and then also feeling like this is a huge, final step to take. I personally feel more in control if I have an idea what to expect, so any info is appreciated!

posted by bookmammal to Home & Garden (7 answers total)

Some of this is pretty variable based on the market, both in terms of location and in terms of timing. For example, when I sold my condo in Toronto, all the realtors I talked to would have paid for the deep cleaning and staging if I didn't have a tenant in place, while I recently bought a place in BC and from talking to the realtor there, that would not be normal in that market or at least at the price point we were shopping in. They would happily provide recommendations or arrange staging, but it would be somewhat at the expense of the seller. They would pay to have the photography done, though how much photography would depend a bit on how well the place was going to show and how expensive it was. Because they couldn't stage my place in Toronto, the photography was pretty limited but still not at my expense.

My first meetings with realtors were actually all over the phone and only later at the property. I have never been in a realtors office despite buying, selling and buying again.

Realtors will give you guidance on things like repairs but some of it is a bit wink-wink-nudge-nudge because they're reluctant to make promises that doing X thing for Y money will increase your selling price by Y + Z and make you a profit. They've got their own ethical rules and butt covering to do with respect to their professional responsibility.

The good thing is, realtors are used to dealing with people who are not used to dealing realtors. They will guide you through the process.
posted by jacquilynne at 8:20 AM on May 9, 2022 [3 favorites]

Realtors are going to vary quite a bit in their approach and in how good their advice is regarding making your house more salable. Particularly check out or ask for their sales record in your particular area and in your particular price range; if you don't see much activity, move on to someone else, as well as if they do not seem interested or capable of advising you regarding pricing, repairs, referrals, etc. Look at the Realtor's current listings to see whether they are well done. You are the customer here, and for their 6 percent standard commission, you have a right to expect a lot of expertise, experience, and good judgment.

That said, you should also take charge of the process of creating the listing. I notice that in my area, many real estate listings are quite deficient in their lists of house features and their general description of the place. I suggest before your Realtor ever tours the place, make your own very detailed list of features, room sizes, and elements of the written description that is part of the listing. And review the agent's final draft before it goes live (including checking grammar and spelling, not a forte of many Realtors).

IMO it is fine to leave some furniture in the house as it gives buyers some idea as to how a room can be arranged, how much room is left over after you put a bed and a dresser in a bedroom, etc. Your Realtor should be able to advise in this regard. Unless it's a fairly high-end property, don't invest in a full-fledged staging.

Finally, the photos that go with the listing are pretty important in terms of attracting lookers. I peruse a lot of listings for various reasons, and I'm often appalled by the quality of the pictures. Shots of toilet seats left up and trash in basements are obvious problems, but so are pictures that focus on the furniture rather than the rooms. Many listings have photos that look like they were taken by the Realtor on their iPhone, casually in a five-minute walkaround. My suggestion is, spend a few hundred bucks to hire a professional photographer with some experience in taking architectural photographs, ask for 100 photos of the place, and then with your Realtor choose 40 or so to include with the listing. Make sure every picture tells a story about the house or about the room and that none of them are just shots of random corners or unclear details. (But do include closeups of nice architectural features!) Deep cleaning is money well spent but professional pictures is money even better spent.
posted by beagle at 8:33 AM on May 9, 2022 [6 favorites]

I’m pretty sure I know which realtor I’m going to contact. What can I expect at our initial meeting? Is the first meeting generally at the office, or at the property? What info will I need to provide right away? I’m assuming she will guide me as to what repairs need to be made, what things a motivated buyer may be willing to let slide, et.—correct? What questions should I be asking her? Is it common to ask a realtor for referrals for a deep clean out service, etc? How will I know if she’s a good fit?

I'm in the process of selling my childhood home so I can answer some of this. Agree very much that it depends somewhat on the market but also some decisions that you want to make. We were willing to take a (small) hit on the sale price in order to not have to do a bunch of touch up maintenance. But we also got the house basically empty before listing it. Because of various Massachusetts-specific reasons we have to install a new septic system before we sell it, but that's pretty outside the range of normal.

So before you talk with the realtor you should determine

- whether you want to sell it quickly or for the highest price possible
- how much time and effort you're willing to put in to your part of this

My first meeting with the realtor was at the house. We did a walk around, I pointed out some things she might or might not know (i.e. "Roof was replaced five years ago" that sort of thing) and she gave me some names for people to contact to do this or that thing. Some of her suggestions were good, some were terrible. Also I am really a "no phone calls" person and it was important to me that the realtor be able to email and text (I am selling this with my sister so we needed a paper trail for all communications) and we made that clear. She's not great at that and not great at remembering some of the things we've told her--it's been a long time--and so managing that has been a bit of work.

The process has been taking a while (for septic reasons) so we had to re-sign a contract with her. Initial one was exclusive, six months, I don't remember the rate but it was basically market rate. When we re-signed with her, we did have a heart to heart with her "Look, you don't seem to LIKE this house, which is fine, it's not fancy like the houses you usually sell, but it is in move-in condition and we'd appreciate if you'd reflect that to people." We had to nudge her to start her part of the whole process (taking photos, getting her "drone guy" in to take photos) but she also did a "soft launch" with some local agents both to show it around and also to get an idea of how to price it since it's a weird property.

I agree with others, there's a good chance a realtor won't necessarily tell you what to fix. If it's a good market they may have suggestions for staging and etc if you choose to go that route. I think the one thing you'll need to think about is what the plan is for the furniture and etc if you get a buyer quickly. I think good fit has a lot to do with local sales/knowledge and whether you personally get along with her.
posted by jessamyn at 9:17 AM on May 9, 2022 [1 favorite]

IMO it is fine to leave some furniture in the house as it gives buyers some idea as to how a room can be arranged, how much room is left over after you put a bed and a dresser in a bedroom, etc.

Conversely, I know some realtors that remove everything other than a few chairs and small tables because it makes the place look bigger and more impressive. The ones who staged the house I bought did that (which was fine because I'm aware of the effect it has).

Unless the target demographic is also elderly, they may also recommend taking out things that make the house look more attractive to younger buyers.

I’m assuming she will guide me as to what repairs need to be made, what things a motivated buyer may be willing to let slide, et.—correct? What questions should I be asking her? Is it common to ask a realtor for referrals for a deep clean out service, etc?

A lot of these will depend on the local prices and how hot the market is. They will definitely have contacts for various repair people, etc. but may recommend ones that work well for their goals (selling the place quickly) than yours (saving money, quality work). And per above, a lot of it will be out of your pocket.

One question is whether you want to try to optimize for saving money vs. saving time/emotional energy on it.
posted by Candleman at 9:42 AM on May 9, 2022 [1 favorite]

One option might to take a step back and identify two more real estate agents that you think might be worth considering. Have a phone call with all three and just ask them how they usually work and what their services are. Then share what you are trying to do in terms trade off between speed of sale, investing in fixing things up and final sales price as well as how much you want to be involved. They will often ask you the address of the house and look it up on line (think Zillow). You can ask them about the general market and how this house might fit in. All of this will give you an idea of how services real estate agents in your area generally provide, how they approach the market and hopefully either confirm your first choice is a good match or help you find an even better one. (When I will trying to sell a home in a market where I didn't know any agents, I looked on Zillow for the top volume agents in that specific area, read the reviews for the top 6-8 and picked from there. Worked out well both times.)

Once you have picked an agent you can trust, let them guide you on everything else. You don't have to agree with them, speak up if you don't, but you are paying a lot of money for their expertise so feel free to use it.
posted by metahawk at 10:48 AM on May 9, 2022 [3 favorites]

Look at some of their past listings and see if you like how they market places: the photos, language, etc.

Ask them how they approach setting an asking price. We're in a very weird moment right now, where asking (and going!) prices are still high but rising interest rates are creating some uncertainty. For a while, it seemed like there was a bifurcated strategy: ask high with the assumption you can get it because there's so much demand, or ask low to prompt a bidding war. Now some markets are seeing fewer bidding wars or houses staying on the market for longer than what had become the standard five days, and the sense I get is that setting the right asking price has become more important. Recent comps might also not be as valuable since those were at a lower interest rate. You want to get a sense that your agent has a thorough strategy for this and has clearly given it thought. (All of this is particular to the US, apologies if you are elsehwhere)

They will probably want you to empty the house and stage it before it goes on the market. They can help you do this in terms of hiring people. This will definitely be to your advantage. They may also recommend minor renovations but I would be cautious about that with rising uncertainty in the market.
posted by lunasol at 11:08 AM on May 9, 2022 [1 favorite]

I'm going through this process right now in SW Ontario, and my realtor covered the cost of the initial staging consultation (but not the staging itself). The stagers spent a few hours at our place and produced a report which addressed a lot of our questions about what to repair, replace, paint etc. - independent from our choice to hire them to actually stage the house. So if your realtor offers that service you might want to take advantage of it even if you don't think you want to do the full staging.
posted by Gortuk at 1:44 PM on May 9, 2022