The good news is the house is finally listed. We met with my agent Saturday morning, went over some details, and got the house listed for $140,000. In a nutshell, everything went off without a hitch.
Now for the details ...
I am one of these "have to be early or on time" type of people. No matter what the meeting or appointment is, I find myself being early almost all the time, and actually get a little anxious if I'm late for anything. My wife is slightly the opposite, but is usually on time the majority of the time. Well, the few meetings I've had with my agent over the last several months, I've noticed she's always been late. My wife has noticed, too. So, she said even though our listing meeting was at 8:00am at the property, she wasn't going to leave the house until 8:00am, which would put us there arond 8:10am. She said the reason being was the fact that my agent was always running late. Sure enough, we get to the property at around 8:10am, and the agent wasn't there. Matter of fact, it was probably a good 10 minutes later before she arrived. (Little thing #1)
My agent then went over this little pitch she has to all her clients about how they market, why the market, the market itself, and so on, which lasts about 10-15 minutes. She then proceeds to pull out some market analysis information she got from a title company. When she pulls it out, she notices it has no information about the town my property is located. (Little thing #2)
She then pulls out comp information she pulled from the MLS herself. She had about 10-12 comparable properties, and started to weed through the ones that best matched our property (size, floors, location, rooms). She managed to whittle it down to four properties. She then got her calculator out and arrived at an average square footage per price. Using this figure, she plugged in our property's SF value and came out with a figure of ... get this ... $139,000! I could tell immediately afterward she was shocked at the figure. I'm guessing she thought it would be <$135,000 at the highest. (Little thing #3)
She then asks if I have a copy of the Seller's Agreement and Seller's Disclosure. I'm glad I brought a copy, because she didn't have it on her. (Little thing #4)
After we sign the documents, my wife asks her about the lease part. My agent was supposed to bring some information regarding the lease so we could talk about it more. She says she didn't have it with her and then we start talking about lease/options and lease/purchases. After my agent was through, I swear I couldn't tell there was a difference between the two. She says she'll be working phone duty at the office and will use the time to get the lease information together. (Little thing #5)
I then give my agent a key to the house for the lockbox. She starts taking pictures of the house and my wife and I leave. Later that night, I check my email and notice a couple from my agent. I never thought to look when we were signing the documents, but my agent again asks if we wanted to sell it for $140,000 since the field was left blank. In a follow-up email, she says she went ahead and filled in the $140,000 figure and sent me a completed copy of the agreement in PDF format. (Little thing #6, although, I was partly to blame, too)
AAAARRRRGGGGHHHH!
Now you see what I've been saying about the "little" things? :-)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
Not prepared, Not on time, Equals Not Professional to me. Just for fun today I sat down with a ( Professional Broker) Didn't tell me a thing I didn't know, and proceeded to tell me being a licensed Rep he has more info than I (Laymen) He gave me Nothing but an opinion. Where are the old school Pro's??,,, That we hope can Guide us and teach us??. I read books, but can't seem to find real world accessible mentors.
Sounds like it's time for a new agent to me! I love that she figured out a comp price of $139,000 herself :-) There's no shortage of agents out there, so just keep working with different ones until you find one you like!
richard - I know what you mean. Now I'm the first to admit I've only scratched the surface when it comes to REI knowledge, but geez, at least I've got my act together. My wife comented to me afterward that it looked like my agent had just woken up 15 minutes before she drove up. Judging by how late she was and all the "I forgot"'s, I believe it!
shaun - I was actually biting my lip when she said the comp price. I was jumping up-n-down inside, but acted cool as a cucumber on the outside. My agent was like "Hmmm ... interesting ... Do you have a copy of the Seller's Agreement ..." Classic!
Post a Comment