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WWYD: Selling House
So our house has been on the market for 2 weeks. I hope you can follow what predictament we are in currently.
Our RE has two listings currently. Listing A - Our TH, Listing B - SF in the same school district.
We had an open house this past Sunday. 3 groups came through. Feedback from one of the groups is that they would love to buy our house but they would never qualify for what we are asking.
Now we come to yesterday. We finally got our stake in the yard sign so I let our RE know it arrived. So here we are, cleaning up from dinner and notice that the temp sign is now across the street leaned up against our neighbors trash cans. So I call the RE to tell her what is going on. She proceeds to tell me that she is across the street talking to our neighbors and that she will stop over in a few.
She stops over and tells us that our neighbors, who have only been in their TH since January, are lookig to sel their house and buy her other listing. I then proceed to say (kidding around).. "Oh yeah we thought they wanted to buy our house.." She then proceeds to say that they would love to buy our house if they could afford it.
So after the conversation, we now think that the one couple that came through on our house was our neighbors and after talking with them she mentioned her other listing (which is listing at <50,000 then ours) and they are putting a continigent offer on the other listing based on selling their house.
Now we are concerned that she is going to benefit more from the sale of their house because she will then sell listing B in turn.
My husband is beyond furious about this. I am annoyed and hurt some but I realize that selling home etc. is how our RE makes a living so I can not slight her for taking them on as clients and listing their house. I just want to make sure she still working for us. So far in the 2 weeks of listing we have had 4 showings and 3 groups through at the open house. I know we should talk with her first but how would you feel? What would you do?
I think I will mention to her how I feel and make her know that if we feel in the slightest that she isn't working for us, I would not hesitate to ask for another agent or even go as far as taking our house off the market. We aren't in a serious rush to move.. we don't already have our next home.
Re: WWYD: Selling House
Are you asking if it is a conflict of interest for her to have 2 listing so close together? No, a lot of smaller communities have agents that do this, just drive through Crafton sometime and you would think the only agent is the HH one.
They obviously cannot afford your home, so of course they are going to look elsewhere. I am kinda confused why you are upset.
ETA: Townhouses are usually a bit harder to sell than single family homes since it is a different market.
Ditti. I don't think I'm understanding why you are upset. Sellers have multiple properties they are selling. Why would it matter that she is selling one close to you. She is going to have other properties to work on whether it's near you or not. If you don't trust her and feel she isn't doing her job then she isn't a good RE agent. If you are just worried I would not say anything unless you have legitimate concerns with specific examples
I think in all of this I just feel like I am back in grade school/high school and my friend is now playing with someone else and not me. YKWIM?
I understand that she will have other listings. I guess I am just worried that she will be more motivated to sell the house across the street before ours. I know we will just have to wait and see how it goes. I am afraid that our house would be used like a pinball since the house across the street is significantly less, although they are both 2 completely different style townhomes. Ours shows and lives more like a single family minus the one adjoining wall with our neighbor. Ours is more like a carriage home but with a finished basement and 2nd floor.
Thank you for the comments to make me see that it isn't a big deal. I was leaning this way but since my husband is really upset about it he is convincing me I should be upset too.
i think the underlying issue here is that you're upset that the house across the street from you is for sale, regardless of who the agent is.
when we put our house up for sale last summer the house across the street also went up for sale, as did the house 2 doors down from us, and several homes within 10 houses up the street from us. none of them were the same agent, but it didn't really matter. and ours was one of the last to go. though the houses that were priced higher went first.
I agree that I'm a bit confused, too. I mean, if your RE is pressuring you to lower, than yes that's a problem. But I think that unless the two listings are exactly the same, there really isn't a conflict of interest. Every buyer is different in what they are looking for, so I think the neighbor's listing wouldn't even be competition.
(I hope I understood you correctly!)
My three sons!
No pressure to lower. Our TH and their TH are different styles. I think we were just caught off guard and taken aback, especially since this couple just moved in this year. Thanks for helping me let the air out and confirm my initial thought that it isn't a big deal. Which got swayed by my husband flipping out about it all last night and this morning. I just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing something on why it is a big deal.
Exactly. But I think you shouldn't worry about it. If they are different houses then there is no reason to be concerned. If they were exactly the same and you are listed higher that would be an issue.
Think of the positives. People may see that listing and look at it but realize they don't like the style and see yours next door
Damn husbands.
Yes, their TH might sell faster b/c of the lower price but, in the end, you get what you pay for!
My three sons!
you never know what the circumstances are (or maybe you do, in this case. who knows). we closed on our house 8/23/10 but had it listed for sale by 7/15/11 (and had been prepping it to go on the market since june). DH applied for a job in WV that he never thought he would actually get and the offer was really reasonable, so we opted not to pass up on it, despite not even being in the house for 1 year. our neighbors acted all cranky about it.
like i said-the houses that were priced higher actually went before ours did. we thought ours would go sooner, since the surrounding homes were at least 10K more, but it was the other way around. those other homes had already invested and done all of the updates and renovating that we had planned to do with our home, but obviously hadn't gotten to the projects in the short 10 month span. people were willing to pay for those upgrades. our house was on the market for 8 months before we received an offer. i believe there were at least 2 other homes still on the market when we closed (homes that went up for sale about the same time we did).
there are pro's/con's to every home, so you just have to hope that the people that see what you see in your TH show up sooner than later!
Complete ditto. I don't really see what the problem is.
That wouldn't even make sense . If yours is more expensive, she'd get a bigger commission for yours. I'm pretty sure any real estate agent would want the bigger commission.
I think she was wondering if the RE would be more motivated to sell neighbor's townhouse because she would get the commission from that AND neighbor would buy her other listing, so she would get the commission from that, too, whereas she'd only be getting one commission from mrj322's house.
I guess I can see how that would be a concern, but, with that said, I'm not sure there is anything you can do about it or if it is worth being upset over. It's the way the game is played.
FWIW, when we bought our first house, we went to look at a house, did not like it and asked if we could stop in to the house next door because it was empty, completely on chance. We bought that one.