Red Flags / Real Talk about Real Estate

I want to talk today about the realtor-seller relationship and hope to reset a few expectations!

When I am in a listing appointment, and I hear negativity about an agent you have worked with in the past, what first comes to mind for me is that you may be a difficult client. What has likely occurred is that the agent did not properly set expectations for that particular client, so they expected miracles and did not understand what to expect in the real estate transaction.

I have been guilty of not setting expectations properly myself. I may have thought that because the seller had sold 10 properties, they actually understood what is involved in a real estate transaction.  Or that they think I will be available 24/7 to help them with things unrelated to the real estae transaction. Realtors are not therapists, contractors, or friends.  I like to become friends with my clients, and I often do, but I normally wait until after the transaction because we are doing business together. 

It is really good to familiarize yourself with the paperwork in a transaction.  When listing your property, ask to see a purchase contract as well if it has been a long time since you purchased something.  If it has been years, you will be very surprised by how complicated and specific it has gotten. If you have a question about literally anything to do with the paperwork, this is right in your agent’s wheelhouse.  Ask away, don’t just sign if you don’t understand what you are signing.

When filling out disclosures, always be truthful. Also, remember any repairs you have done to the property and any problems you have had, and be forthright about them.  This is a very litigious world currently, and buyers are coming after sellers for minor failures to disclose that may not be material to the seller, but are very material to buyers. You set your agent up for failure if you do not provide them with adequate disclosures about the property. If it occurred and required repair, or disclosure, if you even have to ask yourself whether to disclose, that is enough; you should disclose it.

Let your agent do their job.  If you have hired an agent, you should trust them to know what they are doing once you have provided them with the information they need and agreed to whatever preparation they will do for the house.  It is not helpful if you come over to the house 20 times a day to talk to the vendors doing the work; it just slows them down.  Also, attempting to renegotiate agreed-upon bids will just result in a work stoppage, slowing down the preparation.  I have had a raft of recent sellers who got very far into the weeds of the work being done, and all it did was confuse the vendors, make them resent the work they were doing, slow them down, and make the experience awful for everyone involved.

You get what you pay for.  You can hire a general contractor and have very distinct and specific plans, a calendar, etc., from them.  This is the gold standard.  They are more expensive. When you decide to do the work piecemeal or do it yourself (usually not the best plan unless you do that kind of work professionally), it seems to slow everything down, confuse everyone involved, and affect all the deadlines.  You cannot get angry at people who are trying to get work done if you have been getting in their way. Or, if you asked them to do an additional 12 tasks and haven’t clarified if you are paying them extra for them. 

Remember, agents want to help you, but they are not packers, movers, painters, landscapers, cleaners, window washers, or carpenters.  They are not project managers, though they will maintain your calendar. They want you to recognize that anyone you hire is exactly that- someone you have hired.  They cannot be expected to control them.  It is not their job.

Look at your property carefully.  Is it old and worn?  Do you have a limited budget?  Then it can look much better, but it will not be perfect.  You can’t expect perfection.  Buyers don’t expect perfection in older homes- they expect everything to work, they expect to have good disclosures, and then they can figure out what it is they feel comfortable taking on.  Your agent is there to make the very best of the situation the house is in, but they cannot turn a 1940’s home that is weatherbeaten into a brand new house, unless you have the kind of budget that would make it a new house.

The biggest thing you should expect from your agent is the truth, competency in negotiation and paperwork, and the ability to market the property successfully. They are there to ensure the transaction goes smoothly, but they cannot do things for you that are illegal or outside their knowledge base.  I recently had a seller asking me about putting a window in a door.  I am not a contractor- I have no idea how to do that short of having a custom-made door.  I also recently had a seller decide to get a reverse mortgage instead of selling.  I got him to a qualified reverse mortgage specialist, but he wanted me to go over all her paperwork with him, something I don’t know how to do, and I felt bad telling him I could not help him.  He was miffed because he just expected me to understand everything she was asking for.

 Another seller stopped me on the street and asked me to see if I could get the fire department to stop her from taking out her plants that were directly in front of her property.  Unfortunately, if you are in an area where EMBER is being enforced, a realtor has no special sauce to stop them from forcing you to cut down your lovely plants. Actually, this has happened to me several times. Realtors don’t make the rules, and we cannot stop them from being enforced.  The main thing is to make sure these kinds of things get heard in public, and if you are not for them, figure out a way to protest to your legislator, and make sure that if something you are unhappy about is on the ballot, you vote.