bennison@futbal.DEC (09/13/84)
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Theoretically it is true that the realtor is working for the seller.
After all, the seller is paying his/her commission. It doesn't, however,
really work that way. The realtor wants to sell the house to get his/her
commission, but it isn't too important how much the house sells for. In
fact, it's better for the realtor if the house is somewhat underpriced and
sells right away, rather than being on the market for a month or two at
a more realistic price. When we were trying to sell our second house,
one real estate firm came around with six of its realtors and they all came
within a thousand dollars of 92,000 as their appraisals. They gave us very
good reasons why it just wouldn't sell for more. We had a second real estate
firm come around, and they appraised it at 96,000, more in line with our own
feeling about what it should sell for. It sold for that within a week,
probably still underpriced. On the other hand, a hungry real estate firm
might over-appraise your house in order to get the listing. It's a really good
idea to have an independent appraiser appraise you house first. I've never
done that and have come out very well, but looking back on it I probably should
have.
Also, the realtor knows that the seller is probably leaving town never to
return, whereas the buyer is likely to be putting his house back on the
market in a few years. There is more reason to be nice to the buyer.
When buying a house we have always found agents who would plot strategy
with us to get the lowest possible price on the house we were buying.
We've dropped some realtors because they 1) wasted our time showing us
houses we were clearly not interested in, 2) were too tightly focused on
their commission, 3) were trying to hide obvious faults with a house, or
3) were just plain stupid.
I don't recommend selling your house yourself. When we were selling our
first house we decided to sell it ourselves. We had bought the house for
45,000 eighteen months previously and decided the market put it at about
59,000 now. We advertized in the local newspaper. Two people looked at
the house, no takers. We then went the the realtor who had found the house
for us. She appraised it at 63,900. We sold it within a week for 62,700.
We were ahead by about 1,000 even after the commission was taken off the
top. Then there was the tax write-off for the commission as a moving
expense.
Here is my advice on selling a house:
1) Have an independent appraiser appraise your house.
2) Have several realtors appraise your house.
3) Do all those minor repair jobs you have been putting off all these
years.
4) Keep the house VERY clean. Keep the lawn mowed, etc.
5) don't try to sell your house yourself.
Vick Bennison
...decvax!decwrl!rhea!futbal!bennison
(603) 881-2156