Ready Set Sold with Bryan Vogt #12-02: If your agent is doing all of the talking it can be very bad

Speaker 1: Welcome back to Ready, Set, Sold! Everything about real estate, about selling your house in the Metro East. And we’re talking Shiloh and [inaudible 00:00:14] air force base. It could be in Smithton, I mean just that Metro East area. The book is geared for that, I wrote a book just briefly this year. Became a number one best seller.
And I’m offering it free to anyone listening to the show. Go to readysetsold.org, not .com, and get the book. With that said, let’s kind of go back into recap what we talked about the last segment. And that was trust, and how important trust is and trusting your gut. And sometimes, again, even if a sale happens, many times sellers will say they didn’t trust them, they didn’t really live up to what they said they were going to do, and that’s never a good situation. Maybe they didn’t get the money they wanted.
The second part is are they asking questions, meaning are they listening? Are they understanding your concerns of where you’re at, what’s going on? I mean simple, basic things. We’ve heard sellers complain that agents who came in and didn’t even ask them where they’re moving to. Meaning they’ve put their house on the market, and they sold it. Apparently the agent didn’t seem to care one way or another where they were going to move. And they just want to get the deal and move on.
So again, are they asking questions? Are they trying to find out and listening to what your needs are, your concerns are? I mean, simple things, what do you think the house is worth? You’re the seller. you’ve lived here. You have some idea. I’ve never met a seller that didn’t have an understanding of nothing else what they would like to get. Understanding that, I had sellers talk and saying that they didn’t even ask me. All they did was prop down all the numbers and said, hey, this is what you’re going to get. Take it or leave it type of attitude. In this particular time, the seller said I think I’ll leave it and hired someone else.
And there were some very good agents out there too. So, like I said, sometimes you may have to search a little bit more, but again, it’s really important. I think most sellers have great success if they don’t find what they want. And, look, it doesn’t mean you won’t. But if you don’t, if they’re asking questions, again, basic question. Another simple question. Have you sold a home before? Have you ever sold a house before? Again, someone who hadn’t sold a house may have definitely different needs than someone who has. And if you have sold a house, how was that experience? A very simple question an agent can answer. How was the experience? What did you like best about it? What didn’t you like as much? And, maybe, is something as an agent we can improve.
Again, these are what I call simple and basic things but just asking those questions. You know, you have a situation that you’re trying to get top dollar. What is the needs for your moneys? What are you going to use? Is it going to be for a down payment? We were just talking to some sellers the other day. And their house was paid off. They were looking for a college fund and for some retirement moneys. So understanding what those information is and what they’re looking at.
What do sellers do? Again, are they more of a consultant? Are they listening to your concerns? Are they asking questions? Do they have quick comebacks to everything? Or do they even pay attention at all? There’s nothing wrong with having an agent having presentation but many times what we hear from sellers, the complaints are for 20 or 30 minutes I listen to their spiel, and when it came down to my turn they seemed slow or not interested whatsoever. They just kind of plowed right through it. And at the end, sometimes sellers will go ahead and take that and say it’s the best they can get.
I would respectfully disagree. I think that if you have that situation where you don’t think someone is listening to you. I mean, my goodness. This is the biggest investment for most people. This is serious stuff we’re talking tens of thousands. Maybe even hundreds of thousands of dollars or more. You like to think that someone there is going to be listening to you and paying attention to your needs and answering any other information and can develop and see what you’re timelines are. Yes, most people want to get top dollar in a past sale. What is that going to look like? And where is the end game going to be?
But this is not a science. It’s not like I can say I’m going to put your house on the market. And the second Tuesday of next month we’ll have an offer come in at 4:00 for x amount of dollars. [inaudible 00:04:33] sellers know that. But can they give you at least some type of clarification of timelines? What to be expected. What should you be looking for? What should you be concerned about? Every house is unique. Which also goes back on to the listening part too. And that goes on to if you feel that you’re having someone just give you the spiel to a thousand other homes, doesn’t matter how many homes they sold. If it doesn’t feel that they’re talking to you, that they’re listening to you. Well guess what? They probably aren’t. Okay? And maybe that’s just not the connection. Of course, ultimately, yes, it’s your decision what you want to do.
But just, again, keep in mind- So three things to talk at is, are they asking questions? What questions are they asking? Are they not bothering whatsoever? Does it seem to effect them one way or another what your situation is? They just want to get your house on the market. Number two, not only the questions, are they understanding what your needs are? Meaning, maybe a situation that you want to get your house sold. But on occasion sometimes that you have another house that you’re building or maybe there’s another house that you have timelines that you have to be concerned about.
Is it just, hey, too bad so sad? This is what we have to do. And if your house sells tomorrow, and you have to be out in 30 days, that’s traditional. It’s true, but do they have the ability to look at your situation and make changes and not just have the one stop shopping? And I think the third thing goes a little bit back onto that trust and like part. But I think what’s really important that we hear from sellers so much that things that didn’t go well is that the agent, again, had a lot of things that they said up front, made a lot of guarantees that didn’t come into fruition. And communications is probably the number one thing. It has been since I’ve been in real estate the number one complaint amongst sellers.
You would think now with email and texting and everything else and technology we have right now, that would still not be a problem. But many times it still is. That they get the house. The agent gets the listing, and they are never heard from again. Doesn’t happen all the time, and it really doesn’t. We want to make sure that they have a communications line. So, again, it’s that listening. If you have concerns, you have a go to person. All those things become really important. Remember, you’re going to be with this person even if you put the house on the next day or that day, and it sells. And your 30 days, you still have a month with this person.
So, again, are you on the same connecting field? Are you communicating? So all those things become so, so important. You want to make sure that you have that type of relationship. Again, there is a marketing aspect. That’s important that you want to see in an agent. But you also want to make sure that you have that connection of understanding. We’re on the same paying plan. Do we understand what we’re doing here? This is the biggest asset for most people. There’s a lot [inaudible 00:07:38]. You want to get a fast sale with top dollar. Both. Not just one, not the other. You need to have top dollar and a fast sale. And those things can be accomplished with an agent coming with a plan and listening to what your needs are too. So that’s really, really important.
The next segment, we’re going to be talking about should you hire your cousin? Your best friend? As an agent. That’s sometimes a dilemma for many sellers. We’re going to try to answer that question, some tips that maybe you can do to decide if this is a good fit or not. There is some commercials playing on TV. I’m saying that they’re really, really knocking the cousins for sure. And that’s okay. But, you know what? Maybe it is a good fit. And we’ll talk about that too.
During the break, what I’d like you to do is go get the book. There’s this information. There’s so much more information. It’s all free. Go to readysetsold.org, not .com, and pick up the book. I think you’ll be very, very happy. People who have gotten the book have had tremendous response during the radio program. People read the book. We really appreciate it. Hey, we’ll see you in a few.