Are listing agents or listing brokers bidding for listings just to get the listings? Many of the listing brokers whose business model is all about “listing, listing, listing,” do bid for listings, and sellers rarely discern how they are being manipulated for the coming price reductions. I originally wrote this article in 2007, so you can see that this is not a new issue. It’s been a problem for consumers as long as I’ve been in real estate, which goes back over four decades. Here is how I describe the dishonesty of bidding for listings.
Listing Price. This is a true story about the listing price of a home for sale in Sequim. A nice gentleman tells me that he is really really frustrated with his real estate agent. I played along and said, “Why?” So he tells me this long story about how he had wanted to sell his house, and he talked to a few agents.
Listing Brokers Do Bid for Listings.
Two of the agents showed him comps (comparables) that showed a price in the range of $350,000 to $395,000. One was suggesting a listing price of $385,000 and the other was suggesting a listing price of $375,000. But . . . this nice gentleman was persuaded by a third agent that his house would sell for at least $435,000, so he listed with the third agent. Six months later still without a sale, the agent persuades him to reduce the listing price to $399,000. Long story short, the house ends up selling after 11 months on the market for about $370,00, which included some credits the seller ended up giving the buyer.
Sellers Cannot Discern The Listing Agent Who Bids for Listings.
I would say the moral of this story is IF AND WHEN YOU HIRE A REAL ESTATE AGENT, MAKE SURE HE/SHE DOES NOT THINK THE LISTING PROCESS IS A BIDDING PROCESS. DO NOT BE FOOLED BY SOMEONE WHO WILL LIST YOUR PROPERTY AT A HIGH PRICE TO GET THE LISTING, AND THEN EVENTUALLY WORK YOU DOWN IN PRICE.
The most important decision a home seller will make is who he hires as his/her Realtor. The second most important decision is the listing price.
Partly as a result of all the gimmicks and dishonesty and excessively high commissions, Chuck Marunde started a flat fee listing service. “Honestly, I believe this flat fee listing model, which has taken me a lifetime to be able to create in a way that genuinely serves the best interests of sellers, and at the same time gives them so much more than they get from the majority of so-called “listing brokers,” is going to be the best thing that has happened for consumers in the real estate industry in decades. If you’re thinking about selling your home in the State of Washington, you might want to check out this new business model that can save sellers tens of thousands of dollars at Washington Flat Fee Listing Service.
Last Updated on March 29, 2023 by Chuck Marunde
