Here's how the big mistake works: You list with us and your home isn't moving. This is disheartening to say the least... I've been listing and selling homes for 20 years with over 3,000 homes listed since 2000. I can tell you this for a fact. Once your home is listed into the MLS (Multiple Listing Service) it datafeeds to all the other great sites like www.realtor.com, Trulia, Zillow and others. THERE IS LITTLE ELSE EVEN A TOP AGENT CAN DO TO SELL YOUR HOME.

Here is a typical scenario of a home that hasn't sold:

  1. Seller hasn't sold so they begin talking with other agents about other things they can do to sell their home or the seller has a friend in the business.
  2. This prospective new Realtor tells the seller all the great things they can do to get the home sold.
  3. Seller gets the "Fear Factor" in their mind that they need to "Switch gears" and go with this new great agent.
  4. Seller cancels with Kermath Realty and relists with the new agent. Often times at a lower price! This makes no sense because now seller is going to pay twice the commission AND it may work because the home is marketed at a lower price!
  5. Seller sells home eventually at a price typically below what we had it listed at here at Kermath Realty

Bottom line. Once you are in the main database like your local MLS, Realtor.com and other sites there is little more a local agent can do to sell your home. The agent cannot go door to door asking people to buy. Additionally, the odds of the new agent finding a buyer is remote, fewer than 1 in 10. With thousands of agents that are members of a local MLS the odds of your listing agent finding a buyer are remote.

Your new listing agent simply inputs you, sits back and collects an easy 3% from your fear of not selling when the price should have been reduced with us in the first place. We're not taking anything away from a great, traditional agent but in our experience once you're relisted the home sells for far less than it did when it was listed with us.

There is nothing worse than that sick feeling you get when you're in a closing and you stare at that high commission fee at closing... If you have a home selling for say $300,000 and you see a "Commission" of typically 6% or $18,000 it is a hard pill to swallow.

The Bottom Line: Check your competition. Not what is for sale but what has sold. Sold homes are all that matter. Use www.mortgage.com or www.zillow.com to get estimates of other homes that have sold. Traditional agents have their place but in our experience they hand your information to the secretary, input it and sit back to collect an easy 3% of your hard earned equity...

Keep the listing here at Kermath email me your concerns, check competition and lower the price slightly every so often until you have more and more showings then you'll get that offer.

Thank you,
Jeff Kermath