Our buyers realize the difference  an exclusive buyer’s agent makes as soon as they go out house hunting with us. Because we never represent sellers – and no one in our office does, either – we don’t have a stake in which house or condo you buy. We are there for you to get the property you want, for an acceptable price, and with your terms honored.

Therefore, we’ll be telling you what we see about every house or condo, without a prejudice formed by having ties to the seller or their agent. This includes what we see as problems you might not notice. These include problems with resale, problems with livability, or old, depreciated, or damaged parts of the house that indicate repair bills in your future.

What happens when our clients want to sell their house or condo?

After living in a house or condo for five, ten, fifteen years, life can change and our clients want a

different home. We can’t help them sell the house they are in. So, how can we help?

We know the good listing agents!

We face seller’s agents — also called listing agents — in negotiations. We know from this experience which agents know how to market properties successfully. We know which ones give quality advice to their clients. We know which ones will tell us more than they should. We also know which agents will do the least amount of work they can in order to get their commission.

In the current market

Because the market is so seller-favoring, we pay attention to which seller’s agents are cutting corners.  Seller’s agents know that all properties will sell in a market like this; they will get paid. The corner-cutters are the agents we don’t recommend to our clients. Some of them are “top producers” who sell lots and lots of property, but not for the best price and terms.

Corner-cutting agents don’t prepare the house or the sellers to maximize the price and reduce the seller’s stress. They don’t make the house easy to see, they turn off buyers who want to see the house. They bully buyers and make the transaction unpleasant. They don’t ask for legitimate concessions – both those they could get for their clients and those that they have no right to ask of our clients.

What does a good seller’s agent do?

Pricing:

If it is priced too low, the property may be rejected because the buyer wonders, “What’s wrong with it?” If it is too high, buyers may not even look at it. In the current seller-favoring market, housing that is slightly under-priced is getting the highest sale price in the end. It takes a skilled agent to find that golden asking price.

Because there are several qualified buyers for any house, a good house that is slightly under-priced will attract the highest number of qualified buyers. Two or more buyers will compete. This encourages one or more of them to “pay anything!” in order to win the house. That is the dynamic of under-pricing. It works.

Preparation:

A good agent will help you prepare the house to sell at its top price with the best possible safety and convenience for you.

  • Preparing the home for sale: What changes will increase the sale price. Which are most important and will give the best return on cost and effort.
    • How to do any specific de-cluttering for resale value to protection of your personal items.
    • How much time should you expect to need to be away in order to get enough willing buyers to see this house.
    • What are the additional expenses associated with this sale?

Confidentiality:

We keep good relations with every seller’s agent we meet. It is a bonus to our buyers in their negotiations. Because of this, some agents begin to treat us like fellow seller’s agents. They tell us things that help our client’s negotiations. They shouldn’t! We notice this and we don’t recommend these agents, as listing agents.

How do we choose good agents for our clients?

We have a list of seller’s agents who will market your home, give you good advice, keep your confidences, and do what you need to get your property sold for the best price and terms. When our clients go to sell, we give them two or three good agents who can do a professional job for them.

We are part of the National Association of Exclusive Buyer’s agents. From our professional contacts there, we can network to find good seller’s agents in many towns and cities throughout the country. Many of our clients have friends and relatives in other states who benefit from our contacts.