The only thing worse than the house not selling...

...is the house selling.

A couple from CA (yep...that's right. I sold my house to Californians!) looked at the house on Sat morning 2 weeks ago. Offer on Mon morning, countered Mon afternoon, under contract on Tues the 17th. And, they're cash buyers so they wanted a quick closing.

We are REALLY scrambling to get everything done so we can close on Dec 3rd. Major PITA but, obviously, it's a good thing and will be over soon enough.

LESSONS LEARNED:

We initially contracted with Trelora to sell the house. Trelora is a flat-rate broker. I don't have any complaints with Trelora at all. Very good company with very good service. Problem is traditional agents won't show the home. We had about 4 showings in 7 months thru Trelora. We relisted with a traditional agent. Listing went "live" on Fri at about 4:30pm. By 5pm we had two showings scheduled for Sat and 2 more for Sun. Under contract by Tues.

Curious why traditional agents won't show the house? Area?

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Originally Posted by kwando

Curious why traditional agents won't show the house? Area?

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i'd assume with a flat rate listing they aren't making the $$$?

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Originally Posted by kwando

Curious why traditional agents won't show the house? Area?

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Not enough of a commission I suppose.

Yeah...it's the commission. Trelora sells the house for a flat rate of $2500. Flat rate to the buyer agent of $3000. Even after we bumped the buyer agent commission to 2.8% we still didn't get any showings. The buyer agent probably sees "Trelora" as the broker and assumes commission is $3k.

We wound up using Madlom Real Estate. The only thing they did differently than Trelora was print up some really nice brochures on the house. But they were very professional, prompt and quick to return calls or emails. I'd highly recommend them. I can get the agent's name to anyone interested.

The Trelora model is probably more effective in the metro area where their agents can actually show the house. They don't do showings in this area so we had to rely on buyer agents finding the house. Didn't work.

Congrats on the sale!

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Originally Posted by Bailey Guns

(yep...that's right. I sold my house to Californians!)

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Well lets hope they're fed up Americans looking to move back to America and buy guns and vote for Republicans.

Gad you sold it, hopefully they aren't douchebag Californians.

Don't know anything about them except they're an older, retired couple.

I gotta get my realtors license when I get to Alaska...
A job where I think I'm worth too much to unlock a door for 3k sounds perfect for me.

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Originally Posted by crashdown

I gotta get my realtors license when I get to Alaska...
A job where I think I'm worth too much to unlock a door for 3k sounds perfect for me.

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There is a lot more to it than just unlocking a door for your commission. Like most areas of sales 1 in 10 people you deal with will put money in your pocket. Some have better averages than others, but there is a lot of filling your pipeline to get to the gravy. That is why you need to make bigger chunks when something does close. The bigger ticket the item, the more that is true. During fat times it is easier for a subpar salesman to make it, but they never last. It is the hard workers that never stop grinding that end up at the top of the heap. You always get what you pay for. If you want something to sell, give it to the guy that is really grinding it out. A good salesman in any area never stops working, even on days off he is making moves. That is the reason for the 80/20 rule, 80% of sales are made by 20% of the workforce.

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Originally Posted by UncleDave

There is a lot more to it than just unlocking a door for your commission. Like most areas of sales 1 in 10 people you deal with will put money in your pocket. Some have better averages than others, but there is a lot of filling your pipeline to get to the gravy. That is why you need to make bigger chunks when something does close. The bigger ticket the item, the more that is true. During fat times it is easier for a subpar salesman to make it, but they never last. It is the hard workers that never stop grinding that end up at the top of the heap. You always get what you pay for. If you want something to sell, give it to the guy that is really grinding it out. A good salesman in any area never stops working, even on days off he is making moves. That is the reason for the 80/20 rule, 80% of sales are made by 20% of the workforce.

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By the time you are showing people houses, you should have them pre-qualified, and be showing them the right homes.
At that point they are not a 1 in 10, and are at the end of the funnel.
I just got back from a home shopping trip in AK, where my realtor didn't want to start his day until 10:30, and even then he went to the office first before going out to look at homes with me. We got lucky and found one the first day, but I was there for 4 days and he didn't want to bother looking at any back up homes even though I flew out to see as many as possible.
I know the 80/20 rule as good as anyone as 6 figure earning sales manager, but realtors seem a bit too entitled in my opinion.
Good times or lean, who snubs their nose at 3000 dollars, and solidifying a potentially life long client by showing them you will do whatever is best for them.

Sounds like a lot until you consider that a HUD Foreclosure will pay the agent 6% (yes 3% + 3%) for the same amount of footwork.

Something I didn't mention in my initial post...we were offering a 2.8% buyer agent commission on a $475k listing. That's how I know for a fact the realtors won't show Trelora homes and don't bother reading the agent notes in the listing. They look at the listing, see it's from Trelora (or other flat rate broker), and move on to the next house. Otherwise, why not take the $13k+ commission?

Frankly, I think that's pretty shitty and speaks to the ethics of some of the agents out there.

Just throwing this out there to continue the conversation.

If I was selling homes I probably wouldn't bother with yours.

Why?

Why show a $475K house hoping for a sale at 2.8% when I could show a different home to my perspective buyers in the same price range and maybe make 6% off the deal?

Not bashing anyone here for anything and I'm definitely not in real estate or sales of any kind. Just pointing out that I can see why the realtors probably didn't want to bother showing it.

Glad it sold. Even if it brought more Californians into the state.

Hell, California's a nice place. Speaking of climate and scenery of course. Maybe once they all move elsewhere we can all move out there.

Don't get me started on realtors. I found my house, my mortgage guy did all the jumping through hoops to find out what I needed because the realtor couldn't be bothered


Sent by a free-range electronic weasel, with no sense of personal space.

I was a Realtor for several years. Hardest job I ever had. You work every day....or you should if you like money. Someone calls during half time of the Super Bowl and you get off your ass and show the house. It could mean $10k in your pocket. Some buyers look for months on end and never end up buying. So many hours spent for nothing. Then you get someone that buys on the first day of showing them homes. You just never know. I had a good partner and we did just fine, but I didn't like it very much.

Californians? Bastard!




Probably a future grow house. [Tooth]

Sold my house, in Berthoud, in three hours (3hrs). Still reading the contracts when the offer came in. The realtor collected 6% for less than a half days work.

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Originally Posted by ray1970

Just throwing this out there to continue the conversation.

If I was selling homes I probably wouldn't bother with yours.

Why?

Why show a $475K house hoping for a sale at 2.8% when I could show a different home to my perspective buyers in the same price range and maybe make 6% off the deal?

Not bashing anyone here for anything and I'm definitely not in real estate or sales of any kind. Just pointing out that I can see why the realtors probably didn't want to bother showing it.

Glad it sold. Even if it brought more Californians into the state.

Hell, California's a nice place. Speaking of climate and scenery of course. Maybe once they all move elsewhere we can all move out there.

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You only get the full 5.6 or 6 percent if it's your listing. Otherwise, 2.8 or 3 percent is the split between buying/selling agents (more accurately to the broker?) . At least that's the way it's been explained to me. That's why the whole MLS system exists...to open up the market to potential buyers and sellers.

My realtor story: Found a great house in Black Forest. Put in a bid. Found out that I was outbid and the sellers (of course) accepted the other bid. A couple weeks later drove by and the for sale sign was still up. Asked my realtor to check and lo and behold, the other deal had fallen through and the sellers' realtor, obviously a complete idiot, hadn't even bothered to contact the other bidder (me) to see if I was still interested!

My realtor [proving that there's more than one idiot realtor out there] gave me the advice to up my bid since I didn't get it last time. I told him to screw that and offered $5k less than I did the first time.

I like my house in BF!

O2

Well... I know a couple of realtor and they are good people. It's like any kind of business deal: you want to interview potential realtors and get them to commit to certain milestones/requirements on your contract with them. Last time I bought a house we spend 3 month looking for a realtor.... Saw probably two dozen of them, and yes: 90% sucked really bad.... Attitude was #1. Lack of knowledge and interest was the second one. We ended up asking one of our friend if she would work for us. I have this thing were I never mix business and friendship. Not only she did an amazing job finding us THE house, when we were outbid the first time, she did follow up with the other party realtor everyday... When their contract failed, we were the only one they asked for a contract, and we got the house for it's exact MLS price without competition.

I'll tell you this, Real-a-trons are the WORST customers when it comes to buying stuff. They will waste your time unlike any other customer and they aren't loyal in any way, which is ironic to say least.

I am glad someone had a good experience with Trelora. We sold our house through them and it was AWFUL. Worst experience I've ever had with a company. Incompetence ran strong through that entire organization.

Yeah, screw those guys with a big rusty pole. I'm glad the OP had a good experience though.

When we were ready to sell our house in Lakewood we talked to our realtor neighbor. We signed a contract with the stipulation that he would not list it on MLS for another week. An hour after he left he calls and says he has two couples "dying" to see our house. We explained that it was not ready to show. He said they know that but just want to take a quick peek. The first couple showed up and after going through the house for half an hour offered us our full asking price in cash ($550K) and bought almost all of our furniture as well. They wanted to close and occupy ASAP. We really had to hustle to get packed and out. At least we didn't have a houseful of furniture to move especially a full sized pool table. From the time we made the decision to go ahead and sell, until we had it sold was two hours.

LOL, reminds me of when the Springs had a small real estate boom in the early 90s. My boss at the time was in the process of listing his house (supposed to go live around noon) and was putting up the lawn sign a little early (around 8 or 9 AM) when someone drove up, asked to take a quick look at the house then offered him full asking price on the spot. -2 (that's negative two) hours to sell the house based on listing time and about the only thing the agent had to do for his commission was give him the lawn sign to put up (the agent actually did more because he didn't know the house was going to sell that fast).

It's been a long time since we moved. Completely underestimated the amount of time and effort needed to do this. Anyone got a match?

I've got about 10 gallons of gas I can bring over.

Ok...I was wrong. It can get worse.

After an EXTREMELY hectic week of packing we finally got on the road. I'm pulling a large trailer with my truck and Mrs BG is driving a 20' UHaul with a car hauler trailer.

Just outside Burley, ID she calls me on the radio and says the truck has lost all power. Stopped on the shoulder of I_84 it's obvious the transmission is fried. Truck is relatively new with only 63k miles. 4 hours later after much back and forth with customer service we finally got settled into a room.

Now I have to meet some movers this morning and spend half a day watching them transload from one truck to another.

We still have 450 miles to go. Uhaul has been a total PITA even though they finally made it right. The rep spent an hour trying to get me to agree to unload/reload the truck myself. He'd give me a $500 credit. I told him that was just not gonna happen.