NANCY and BILL: Interviewing Real Estate Agents – Thursday and Friday

Yesterday was the one year anniversary (yuk) of our house being listed for sale. We have had no offers in that time frame :o(( Soooooo… it is time for a change. Since I’m retired, it is my task to get our house sold. We have studied the home sales market for our area and done a lot of soul searching about the asking price.

I spent the last two days interviewing more than a handful of real estate agents. I actually had prepared a comprehensive set of questions that I posed to each one of them. Answers to the questions varied a great deal, but, they all were professional and obviously wanted our listing. Each was given the opportunity to tell me what makes them different and more successful than every other sales agent in the area.

The last thing I did was to have each one of them “sell” me my house as if I was a prospective buyer. The whole works – walk me through the house, point out the positive selling points and try and close the deal. Having been in sales for over 30 years, I felt strongly that this would separate the best from the rest. Not only could I hear how they would market and sell our house, I got to watch the body language and their techniques. This kind of activity is a sales persons dream and would certainly highlight their selling skills. The cream quickly rose to the top – decision made! I should have done this six months ago – my bad!

I called the selected agent today and we will meet on Monday to sign the necessary paperwork and list the house. After our verbal agreement, I phoned all the other interviewees and told them of our decision, thanking them for their time, effort, comments and professionalism. I wanted to make sure I left the door open for future business. After all, we had more agents tour our house in the last two days than we had in the last year.

It was certainly a tiring couple of days, but it will be worth the effort if it turns into a sale. We are READY to get on with the next phase of our life.

TODAY’S HOUSE PHOTOS

The HEART of the Home

Bright and Cheery Gourmet Kitchen

11 comments:

Paul and Marti DahlJune 11, 2011 at 8:27 PM
Great idea on interviewing the realtors! Your house is gorgeous, and with the right salesperson, I bet you will be on the road before you know it. Hang in there, guys - we are right there with ya...

Marti and Paul
owensontheroadJune 11, 2011 at 8:40 PM
Maybe this round will do the trick!
Gail HouleJune 11, 2011 at 11:12 PM
Excellent idea to interview the realtors! I imagine they all knew the competition was being interviewed also. Would be very motivating, I would think :)

Good Luck!
SherryJune 11, 2011 at 11:39 PM
WAY TO GO Bill!! It takes a great salesman to know one. And a fabulous idea to get a ton of realtors in to sell your home. We are both REALLY impressed with YOU. It's gonna move now!!

Sherry
Sometimes DavidJune 11, 2011 at 11:52 PM
Absolutely brilliant!
TravelwithwhippetsJune 12, 2011 at 9:37 AM
What a VERY smart thing to do for lots of reasons! I wish we had thought of that when we sold our house. Our first agent did very little. Our second agent was outstanding and worked very hard to get people into the house. If we had done the interview thing, we would not have wasted all that time with the first agent.
Mike and TerriJune 12, 2011 at 2:16 PM
Excellent! Particularly like your idea of having each one "sell" you your house. That would certainly give you some insight into their skills. We're keeping our fingers crossed for you!
Catherine, Jo Beth and GraceJune 13, 2011 at 7:19 AM
Good idea- isn't it amazing how many "salespeople" have few selling skills?
RorikJune 13, 2011 at 12:39 PM
Hello Bill,

You would be the perfect person to sell the house yourself. There are many websites, we used owners.com, that will have a local agent list the house in MLS for a flat fee and you are the one who shows and markets the house.
We saved thousands in commission and we took ownership of the selling process.
Good luck and we hope to see you on the road soon.
Gin and SylJune 14, 2011 at 2:05 AM
Now if the agent can just show your house to the right folks...same here. Sending positive thoughts.
Syl
AnonymousJune 15, 2011 at 9:20 AM
Nancy and Bill,
Judy and I (along with many others)understand your situation/frustration. Our home has also been on the mkt for an extended length of time. My retirement date and our fulltime departure date has arrived but we are still stuck. Unless something happens we will have to restructure our fulltime plan to a part time plan. We will do what we have to do to salvage at least part of our dream. Don't want to think about renting, but... Judy the positive thinker, reminds me "that it only takes one". We will keep our fingers crossed for you (and us). :). We look forward to seeing you on the road.

Jim & Judy Maddox
Lake Sinclair, Milledgeville, Ga