When should San Diego real estate sellers confront their Realtors?
There are some great real estate agents in San Diego County and throughout Southern California. They make the business great, and sometimes even better than expected. Then there are those that are pretty much the opposite. Even with today’s extensive lineup of online review sites and social media, it can be tough to tell the difference. Professionals go through cycles, just as businesses and industries do. However, selecting a good Realtor is absolutely critical and you need to make sure they are a good fit for your business.
Working with a dud real estate agent can be extremely expensive and detrimental to your business. It can not only mean the difference in how fast your San Diego home sells, and for how much, but could potentially result in either losing your home, financial ruin, and major lawsuits. On the other hand, a good Realtor can make everything better.
As a Southern California homeowner, what do you do when you think you might have been stuck with a less than ideal Realtor? Sometimes it is wise to cut them some slack for a minute, especially if you didn’t take the time to learn the process and timeline, or they are genuinely ill. If they are not performing, or are blatantly performing badly, it might be time to confront them and find another way to sell. If you check your paperwork and home listing agreement upfront, you should have seen whether you can sell the property yourself fast for cash without owing a commission, or can get out for a small fixed penalty. In many cases, when it is truly warranted, you may be able to negotiate your way out of the contract.
So what are some of the instances when sellers should confront, or at least question their San Diego real estate agents?
Failing to Show up for Showings
Believe it or not, many real estate agents fail to show up for property showings. This is a huge no-no, especially when others offer seriously discounted fees for taking out items like this. Buyer agents may prefer if they are the only one showing the property to their clients, but there can be advantages to the listing Realtor being present. The homeowner should certainly never be left to show a property. It presents immense personal risk, and has been proven to be counterproductive for selling and negotiating.
You Feel Like the Boomerang House in the Neighborhood
Some San Diego home listings will be taken and just used as a boomerang house. This means it sits, or may be shown a lot, just to make other, more profitable listings look better and sell faster. This could be a strategy, or due to poor pricing, or something else, like not enough commission being offered to the other side. Talk to your agent about it.
Your San Diego Real Estate Agent isn’t Responsive
In fairness, most California Realtors make themselves available far more than they should. It isn’t really reasonable that a single agent should be available by cell phone 24 hours a day. Even if they are, there is a good chance they’ll be too burnt out to do their best work, in spite of their best intentions and qualifications. Expect them to take a day off, work reasonable hours, and respond to texts and voicemails within a reasonable amount of time. Maybe they are terrible at answering the phone (they may get 200 voicemails a day), but instantly respond to email. Still, if they aren’t responding to you, there is a good chance they are not replying to prospective buyers and other agents with interested buyers either. You can’t afford that. Maybe they could use one less listing?
Poor Pictures
Your home’s pictures are normally the first thing prospective buyers and introducing agents see. If they are poor, they aren’t going to show, view or bid on the property. If buyers do, they will already be discounting the value and their offer in advance. It’s not that hard to take relatively good pictures. Of course, homeowners can help by cleaning up a little in advance too.
Promised Marketing is Not Being Done
Most home listings come about after homeowners are presented volumes of promises about all types of marketing efforts Realtors will make. So if they don’t happen, that is really a direct breach of trust, if not the agreement. If open houses aren’t being hosted, direct mail isn’t going out, listings aren’t up on the web fast, and signs aren’t up – find out why. Could the agent be keeping this as a pocket listing at your expense?
