Finding the Best Real Estate Agent in a Weak Florida Housing Market
In the weak Florida housing market, how should a seller go about finding the best real estate agent? Here’s some advice:
Have you ever noticed that the service is often great in crowded restaurants, but abominable in empty ones? You’d think it would be the other way around because servers have more time to devote to their customers when business is slow. But it usually doesn’t work out that way.
People who rely on tips or commissions are happiest when they’re busiest, and the crush of work inspires them to be efficient. But when the work slows down, there’s a tendency to give in to despair and apathy. So you wind up sitting for what seems like hours waiting to be handed a menu, and when the food finally arrives the steak is cold, the knife is dirty, and the waiter seems to have vanished.
Something similar happens to many real estate agents when times are tough.
I recently discovered that when I went home-shopping in Naples, Fla., where the market has been steadily slowing since the summer of 2005. One home, which had been for sale for more than a year, particularly interested me. But since it was close to the Gulf of Mexico, I suspected it would have a high flood insurance bill.
I asked the agent for the information, but she didn’t know (strike one). She said she’d find out and call me back; two weeks went by and she never got back to me (strike two). Then one day I happened to walk by the house when the owners were out in the yard. I told them what had happened, and the next day, I finally received an e-mail from the agent with a quote from the insurance company - and instructions not to call her, but rather the insurance agent, if I wanted more information.
That was a few weeks ago. Do you think she ever followed up with me to see if I was interested in buying the home? Nope (strike three).
Was this an aberration? Not according to the owners, who told me they had hired several real estate agents in succession in their attempt to sell their home - which, by the way, is both lovely and priced lower than any other house in the neighborhood. It should attract a slew of Florida mortgage applicants.
Each agent arrived armed with impressive listing materials that showed comparable sales, graphs, charts and maps. Each laid out a marketing strategy that showed where and how the house would be advertised, both in print media and online. And each had failed to realize that getting a listing isn’t enough in a down market; getting and keeping a buyer is.
So while agents will inundate you with fancy presentations when you decide to put your house on the market, all of that is simply window-dressing. You need to find an agent who won’t just go through the motions of selling your house, but will follow through with every query from everyone who calls about your listing or walks through your front door.
Most of all, you need to find an agent who’ll ask the critical question I never heard during three months of intensive home shopping: “Do you want to buy this house?”
To find this dynamo, you’ll need to ask the agent how many listings he or she has sold within the past six months. Then call both the sellers and the buyers, and ask how quick and thorough the agent was in handling their questions and concerns. You’ll soon discover which agent gives the best and most enthusiastic service, even when the market is nothing to smile about.
June Fletcher is a staff reporter at The Wall Street Journal and the author of “House Poor” (Harper Collins, 2005). Her “House Talk” column appears most Mondays on RealEstateJournal.com
