I don't think my real estate agent is doing enough to sell my house and I want to fire him, what can I do?

Question

I am in a three month contract with my real estate agent at four percent commission for his company and I want to fire him because I don't think he is doing enough to sell my house. He is always making me excuses that the market is slow but I know my house can sell because my house is beautiful. I've already had my house listed with this guy for over a month now and I haven't even gotten an offer on it. My agent keeps telling me that he has put it on the MLS and realtor.com and sent out flyers for my home and spoken with other agents about it but I don't think that is enough. He has only done six open houses for my house and it seems like he wants to do them only occassionally now and I want him to keep doing them because I don't feel he is doing enough to sell my home. What can I do to fire him? I am in a three month contract with him and I am two months away before it expires, but i want to fire him now. what can i do?

Answer 1

6 open houses? Isn't that a lot? What if he's right and the market is just slow. If so, You need to give someone a compelling reason to buy your house. Talk that over with your agent. What can you do to give people a reason to buy it now. Dropping the price is always a good way to open up to new buyers.

As far as getting out of the contract goes, if you are right and the gut isn't living up to his end of the deal, then just consider the contract null and move on. Tell the guy you are taking it off the market and you're done. If you get someone new that sells the house, and the other guy wants to get paid a commission, leave that up to the two realtor's to squabble over.

Answer 2

I basically agree with the others. This agent has had 6 open houses since you have signed with him. That is great and he is trying to do the best he can.

Now you must ask yourself several questions about your house for sale.

When someone drives up to the house and get out of their car, do the landscaping and exterior say I must have this house, it looks great on the outside.

Now when they enter the house does it still have the colors you prefer and your lived in condition house that you are accustomed to?

From looking at your house on the insided can others imagine their furniture in the same place?

Are the places that need a dab of paint or a floor that need carpet or all the rooms have a different type floor one is hard wood, the other is tile while in the kitchen there is something else all together and nothing matches the paint on the wall.

I know that you are in love with your house but is anyone else in love with a pea green master bedroom and a grey painted master bath.

Are the children's room neatly clean and not cluttered when others come by to look at the house.

Are the kids balls all over the backyard and the gate to the outside is open?

Are there oil spots on the garage floor and your husbands work area messy with rags and tools lying around?

It might not be the real estate agents fault and since he has had more than 4-5 open houses there has to be a reason that buyers are not buying the property.

You might try getting a person that is a interior disigner to take a look at your home and take a few suggestions from them.

Now let's tackle the price, since this is a buyer's market at present you might wanna take a look at the listing price. Get additional information about homes that have sold recently in your neighborhood. Take a look at them, compare the outside with what your outside looks like.

If you can get on the inside, see if you can take a look at the inside of that house and see if there is a difference in your.

I hope this has been of some use to you, good luck.

"FIGHT ON"

Answer 3

Your question brought up several key points you need to consider.

First of all, the truth is, most Sellers think their house is beautiful and want the most amount of money they can get for it. If your house is truly beautiful and shows well, then the key factor in why there are no offers is PRICE! Because of your opinion of your house, did you overprice your property because you feel its better than the comps your agent showed you? Also, just because you think your house is beautiful that doesn't necessarily mean that potential buyers will feel the same way.

Second, you mentioned that the commission is 4%. In my area, the average commission is around 5-6%. A reduced commission usually equals reduced marketing activities due to a limited budget. Most agents ask for 6% so that they can aggressively market their listings, also if you are offering 4%, then that means the buyer's agent would only get 2%. Now in this slow market, do you think buyer's agents will show your property to their clients, or other properties where they can earn a 3% commission?

Third, 6 Open Houses in 1 month? That is a lot! That tells me that this agent is working hard for you. I don't know any agent that will do 6 Open Houses in one month. How was the turn out for the Open Houses? Were there swarms of buyers attending or was it nosy neighbors and maybe one potential buyer. If he is not getting results from an Open House, then maybe that is why he is thinking about doing it ocassionally. There is more that your agent could be doing, but so far it seems like he has put a lot of effort by holding 6 Open Houses in one month. Many seasoned agents barely hold an Open House once a month becasue of their lack of effectiveness in bringing in qualified and motivated buyers.

Lastly, during the listing presentation, did your agent mention what the average Days On Market for properties in your area is? It could be 60 days, so you getting upset at this moment could be premature because nowadays, its harder to sell listings and it does take longer than what we have become accustomed to in the past few years.

As far as firing your agent, seems like he has put a lot of effort into selling your home, give it another month or so because the market is slow and he does seem to have put alot of effort so far into marketing your home with 6 Open Houses. Ask him to do more marketing on the Internet, especially since almost 80% of all buyers start searching for homes online.

The bottom line is alwasy going to be PRICE. So even if you pay your agent 8%, and he markets your property aggressively, your house won't sell if it isnt priced right.

Answer 4

I'm a realtor in Orlando and I can tell you right now we have over 25,000 (yes 25 thousand!!) homes currently on the market. Yes we have buyers, but not 25,000 of them. Also the market is getting back to "normal" meaning that the average home will take 4 to 6 months to sale, not the 2 to 4 hours like in 2004, 2005 and part of 2006.

I personally make arrangements with my sellers at the time I take the listing that if their house doesn't sale in 30 days, we drop the price by $5K to $10K. If another 30 days goes by, we drop it again and so on. If you haven't had any showings lately, it may mean that you are over priced. Open houses bring "lookie-loos", not serious buyers. 6 open houses in 6 weeks sounds like he is trying to get it out there, but if buyers aren't out there, it's pointless. If he's backing off on the open houses, maybe he has other listings that are requiring the same marketing as your house. Once or twice a month should be enough for open houses.

Give the guy the benefit of the doubt, or read your listing agreement if you are that tired of him. The brokerage frim I work with gives on unconditional release if the seller isn't happy with our work.

Answer 5

Unfortunately, it is a tough market out there. If you have only had your home listed with him for a month like you state and he has done 6 open houses already, this is definitely a lot in only one month. There are houses everywhere sitting on the market for months before they get any offers. Heck some are sitting for months before they even get any interest in them for that matter. It sounds to me like your Realtor is doing a lot thus far and you need to be patient. It does not matter how beautiful your home is in a buyers market like we are going through right now if you have more houses for sale than buyers ready to buy. If you want to fire your Realtor, then you are going to have to prove that he is not fulfilling his end of the deal and doing what he is supposed to be doing. However, from everything you have stated it sounds to me like he is doing quite a bit for you. If you are not happy ask to speak with his boss/broker and explain to him/her that you are not happy with the service you are receiving from them and you would like to be released from your contract. This is not easily done in most circumstances.

Answer 6

"i know my house can sell because my house is beautiful".

you've answered your own question. you sound like a jerk.

you've had it listed for over a month and he's done SIX open houses for you? and you don't think he's doing enough to sell your house? jesus, i would fire YOU.