| Joe Clemons |
| 248-890-4428 |
What to expect from your real estate agent:
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
They get your listing...Hooray!
"This seems like a piece of cake", they think..."put
the property on multiple listing, put a sign in
the ground, and collect a commission check...WHOOOHOOO!
Right?...
Wrong!
Not if they want longevity as a real estate practitioner.
Here are 10 things your agent should do to develop loyalty from you their customers and
word-of mouth referrals which are the backbone of any good Real Estate Agents business:
1. Deliver. Deliver what They said they would at your listing presentation. Credibility is everything in this
business and should never be put at stake. You should expect them to do what you say you will do.
2. Honest recommendations. Your agent should take the time to make honest recommendations to you
about “getting your home ready to show.” Because a good agent is knowledgeable in the art of showing
off the feature of your home and their benefits and if possible provide you with the names of vendors
who can work with you if you do not have someone.
3. Communicate, communicate, communicate. He/she should let you the seller know what you
should expect from them. Are they going to contact you after each showing... or once a week... or once a
month? Personally, I love e-mail because I can do it late at night but some sellers prefer a phone call.
Whatever mode of communication,they should stay in constant touch. It sounds like a cliché, but a
person’s home is their most valuable asset and should be treated as such.
4. Be honest but tactful. Sometimes agents do not want to hurt the sellers’ feelings so they spare them
from the truth. This ends up backfiring if they are not receiving offers on their home. If the listing has not
sold and you are close to the end of the listing period, you do not want to have a big bomb dropped on you
at he last minute and have to scramble to make adjustment in price, appearance, terms, etc.... They should
have been helping you adjust your tactics from ongoing feedback from the market throughout the listing
period...not just ask for reduction in price.
5. Pricing. It is very important to price your home right the first time as many buyers will become annoyed
to the point of no return and by no return I mean never to return to your home no matter how many times
you lower the price and thats if they don't buy another home priced more in tune with the market.
Sometimes Realtors are so desperate for a listing, any listing, that they will take a listing at the price a
seller wants but not the price the house should be listed. This is called buying a listing. Even the best
agents have done it. What is most important is that your agent be honest and sometimes brutally honest
with you in regards to price. In this situation after your agent has shown you why, through a well
prepared CMA, what the market value of your might be. You should way the facts that have been laid out
for you through the most recent and relevant comps and make the choice of where to price your home.
For example: Your agent comes up with an estimated market value of $500,000 which he thinks is a great
price for your home but you want to list it for $600,000 and not a penny lower. If he takes the listing for
$600,000 and in 30 days you have not received an offer and he can document all of the showings, you
should consider revisiting the issue of price. The last thing that both of you want is your home to get stale
on the market, from you the seller's standpoint your house has not sold you have had to leave in the middle
of dinner or Sunday breakfast who knows how many times not to mention the prolonged stress and
frustration...From the agents point of view he has spent countless hours marketing and hopefully showing
your home spending his and his brokers money (which can be in the hundreds if not thousands of dollars)
in a gamble that statistically cannot be won.
6. Marketing Report. Your agent should provide you, his client, at least once a month, a written
marketing report documenting your showings, your marketing, feedback and any other information that will
be helpful to you in looking at the overall picture of your home. This requires a lot more work, but as a
professional who is getting paid handsomely for their efforts, this is a service all sellers deserve.
7. Contracts. Hopefully, before you have ever received one offer on your listing,
you seen what a sample contract will look like. You will understand the various pitfalls of the
way the contract is written and you will know that your agent will provide you with
the very best information he can to navigate the contract and provide you with his real estate acumen.
You should know and feel that your best interests are being looked out after.
8. Once the contract is written. Your agent should take the contract and extrapolate all of the important
dates into one document and e-mail it to you his client. You will then be able to follow along with what is
going to happen next and know that he is on top of your transaction. The same list should be provided to
the Agent for the buyer as well so that everyone is on the same page. There are presently some Internet
programs that will do this as well.
9. Inspections. Once the home is inspected and the report delivered, your agent must be the voice of
reason. Be actively involved. I always tell my sellers, “What is the mission? To get your house sold? We
will work through any inspection issues that are presented to us.”
10. Follow through. Sometimes a good seller's agent can be a pain to the buyers’ Realtor but if they dot
their I’s and cross their T’s. All of their transactions close because if there is a problem they know about it
immediately and do everything they can to address the issue at hand.
11. Go to the closing. Not the end...but the beginning of the future in you new home!
THE ACCURACY OF ALL INFORMATION, REGARDLESS OF SOURCE, IS NOT GUARANTEED OR
WARRANTED. ALL INFORMATION SHOULD BE INDEPENDENTLY VERIFIED
"This seems like a piece of cake", they think..."put
the property on multiple listing, put a sign in
the ground, and collect a commission check...WHOOOHOOO!
Right?...
Wrong!
Not if they want longevity as a real estate practitioner.
Here are 10 things your agent should do to develop loyalty from you their customers and
word-of mouth referrals which are the backbone of any good Real Estate Agents business:
1. Deliver. Deliver what They said they would at your listing presentation. Credibility is everything in this
business and should never be put at stake. You should expect them to do what you say you will do.
2. Honest recommendations. Your agent should take the time to make honest recommendations to you
about “getting your home ready to show.” Because a good agent is knowledgeable in the art of showing
off the feature of your home and their benefits and if possible provide you with the names of vendors
who can work with you if you do not have someone.
3. Communicate, communicate, communicate. He/she should let you the seller know what you
should expect from them. Are they going to contact you after each showing... or once a week... or once a
month? Personally, I love e-mail because I can do it late at night but some sellers prefer a phone call.
Whatever mode of communication,they should stay in constant touch. It sounds like a cliché, but a
person’s home is their most valuable asset and should be treated as such.
4. Be honest but tactful. Sometimes agents do not want to hurt the sellers’ feelings so they spare them
from the truth. This ends up backfiring if they are not receiving offers on their home. If the listing has not
sold and you are close to the end of the listing period, you do not want to have a big bomb dropped on you
at he last minute and have to scramble to make adjustment in price, appearance, terms, etc.... They should
have been helping you adjust your tactics from ongoing feedback from the market throughout the listing
period...not just ask for reduction in price.
5. Pricing. It is very important to price your home right the first time as many buyers will become annoyed
to the point of no return and by no return I mean never to return to your home no matter how many times
you lower the price and thats if they don't buy another home priced more in tune with the market.
Sometimes Realtors are so desperate for a listing, any listing, that they will take a listing at the price a
seller wants but not the price the house should be listed. This is called buying a listing. Even the best
agents have done it. What is most important is that your agent be honest and sometimes brutally honest
with you in regards to price. In this situation after your agent has shown you why, through a well
prepared CMA, what the market value of your might be. You should way the facts that have been laid out
for you through the most recent and relevant comps and make the choice of where to price your home.
For example: Your agent comes up with an estimated market value of $500,000 which he thinks is a great
price for your home but you want to list it for $600,000 and not a penny lower. If he takes the listing for
$600,000 and in 30 days you have not received an offer and he can document all of the showings, you
should consider revisiting the issue of price. The last thing that both of you want is your home to get stale
on the market, from you the seller's standpoint your house has not sold you have had to leave in the middle
of dinner or Sunday breakfast who knows how many times not to mention the prolonged stress and
frustration...From the agents point of view he has spent countless hours marketing and hopefully showing
your home spending his and his brokers money (which can be in the hundreds if not thousands of dollars)
in a gamble that statistically cannot be won.
6. Marketing Report. Your agent should provide you, his client, at least once a month, a written
marketing report documenting your showings, your marketing, feedback and any other information that will
be helpful to you in looking at the overall picture of your home. This requires a lot more work, but as a
professional who is getting paid handsomely for their efforts, this is a service all sellers deserve.
7. Contracts. Hopefully, before you have ever received one offer on your listing,
you seen what a sample contract will look like. You will understand the various pitfalls of the
way the contract is written and you will know that your agent will provide you with
the very best information he can to navigate the contract and provide you with his real estate acumen.
You should know and feel that your best interests are being looked out after.
8. Once the contract is written. Your agent should take the contract and extrapolate all of the important
dates into one document and e-mail it to you his client. You will then be able to follow along with what is
going to happen next and know that he is on top of your transaction. The same list should be provided to
the Agent for the buyer as well so that everyone is on the same page. There are presently some Internet
programs that will do this as well.
9. Inspections. Once the home is inspected and the report delivered, your agent must be the voice of
reason. Be actively involved. I always tell my sellers, “What is the mission? To get your house sold? We
will work through any inspection issues that are presented to us.”
10. Follow through. Sometimes a good seller's agent can be a pain to the buyers’ Realtor but if they dot
their I’s and cross their T’s. All of their transactions close because if there is a problem they know about it
immediately and do everything they can to address the issue at hand.
11. Go to the closing. Not the end...but the beginning of the future in you new home!
THE ACCURACY OF ALL INFORMATION, REGARDLESS OF SOURCE, IS NOT GUARANTEED OR
WARRANTED. ALL INFORMATION SHOULD BE INDEPENDENTLY VERIFIED
