Finding the right real estate agent is an important first step when you want to sell your home. It’s essential to work with someone who can fully represent you and negotiate the best deal for your home in the least amount of time.
However, you’ll also encounter agents who may use certain situations to their advantage – and to your detriment.
To avoid being deceived by seller agents, here are 6 real estate agent tactics that you should watch out for:
- Using bait-and-switch techniques
- Attempting to represent multiple parties
- Overpricing your home
- Claiming to be the number one agent in their area
- Offering to buy your house if they don’t sell it
- Constantly pushing for an open house
Be wary of real estate agents will do anything to get your business. A common bait-and-switch technique used by agents is over-promising services, advertising extra-low commissions, and promising to sell the property for more than what it’s worth.
These enticing tactics push the seller to enter into an exclusive contract with the agent. And when the agent doesn’t deliver, the seller is unable to switch to a better agent because they’re bound by a contract.
If an agent’s offer seems too good to be true, it probably is. Doing a background check on a real estate agent should be part of your home selling checklist. Call your state’s Department of Financial and Professional Regulation and ask if the agent’s license is up-to-date. You can also contact the agent’s past clients and ask about their experience working with that particular agent.
Some seller agents will also try to represent both the buyer and the seller at the same time. Since they are representing both parties, the seller agent will earn the whole commission instead of splitting it with the buyer’s agent. Using their sales skills, seller agents will convince and assure you that both the buyer and seller’s needs will be met.
That’s not true at all. It’s impossible to represent both the buyer and seller because the agent won’t be able to get the lowest price for the buyer and the highest price for the seller.
To get more listings, real estate agents will mislead sellers on how much their home is worth. They will overstate the value of the house and quote a price that no buyer would fall for. As your home languishes unsold for weeks, you will be forced to lower your price and, in the process, leave a negative impression on potential buyers. They’ll think something is wrong with your property if it has remained unsold for so long and you are now lowering your price as a result.
That’s why it’s important to find a knowledgeable real estate agent who will give an honest and exact price of your home.
In order to entice you to work with them, many real estate agents will claim that they are the number one agent in their area, region, or state without providing any credible information.
The best way to find out if they are good to work with is to check out their past achievements, which include the number of homes they’ve sold, the average number of days a house they’re selling stays in the market, and their average list-price-to-sale-price ratio.
Knowing an agent’s proven track record gives you the assurance that they will provide you with the real estate knowledge and services that you need.
Another tactic that real estate agents use is guaranteed sale offers. Agents will promise to sell a client’s home for free or buy it themselves if the home is not sold within a specific period of time. This tactic is widely used by many successful real estate teams and agents in order to help them stand out from the crowd.
Guaranteed home sale programs are not bad, per se. However, they are a marketing strategy that you should be aware of.
Open houses aren’t a must when it comes to selling a home. While it’s a great way to showcase your home and reduce marketing costs, it also poses as a security threat since it allows potential burglars to enter the property.
Some seller agents also take advantage of open houses because it provides them with the opportunity to network with future buyer and seller clients. If you find that your real estate agent is focusing all their marketing efforts on open houses, talk to your agent and redirect the focus to other strategies.
Is your property for sale in Chicago, IL? 606 Brokers a full-service brokerage that’s always ready to provide you with useful tips for selling your home. Call us today at 773.870.5101 to learn how we can help.