This was my second time selling a house. I sold my townhouse almost 6 years ago and moved into this house. At that time, I did not know any real-estate agent. I hired the first one who cold-called me. His service was not too bad but I believe he could get me a better price. This time, I promised myself I would interview more agents before deciding whom to hire.
Selling a home without an agent was an unfamiliar concept to me. I heard of one relative who managed to sell her house privately 2 years ago. She got an offer right after her first open house. It saved her about $30,000 (CAD) in commission, but then she was low-balled. She could have sold it easily with a much higher price. Still, I kept this option in mind for consideration.
My wife found out the first agent from a flyer delivered to our mailbox. It was her commission rate of only 1% that attracted us. The agent had been in the industry for 4-5 years. As a common practice, she gave us a Competitive Market Analysis (CMA) report. She estimated our house would worth $52,000 - $58,000. A range as wide as this didn't really mean much really. She had a concern with the dark colour of our carpet, and also the fact that we could not make our home available in the weekdays due to my wife's home-based business. Since our closing day was still months away, she recommended us to start selling it not until a month-or-so later. We honestly told her that we would attempt doing a private sale for a month first, and we would go to her if we failed. When I asked about other agents in the area, she told me the agent who just sold another house on my street had more than 20 years of experience. So I interviewed that agent next.
This experienced agent turned out to be a very honest guy. He told me that he could do open-houses for me only if I wanted, but frankly he told me that open-houses were really for the agents themselves to hand out business cards and redirect buyers to other houses if needed. He also made a few suggestions on how I should position my furniture. He had the same concern about the carpet colour. As for the weekday unavailability, he said it was unfortunate, but we could create a virtual tour instead to try to compensate for it. He did not give us an CMA but he showed us a few neighbour houses currently on the market from his computer. He estimated that my house would sell around the same price as the other house he sold on the same street, which was slightly below $540,000. He offered me a rate of 1.25%. Again, I told him my plan was to do a private sale for a month, then find an agent if I failed. When asked about other agents, he recommended one who also specialized in my area.
This third agent actually worked with another agent as a team. She used to be a sales agent for the builder who built my house and other houses in my area. She witnessed most of the new purchases of our houses and basically knew all the floor plans by heart. She and her teammate had been working as independent agents for about 5 years. They also did not like the colour of our carpet. In fact, they strongly suggested us to change my carpet! As for the weekday unavailability, they recommended my wife to temporarily moved her business to somewhere else. This would be somewhat impossible for her. They charged a 2% commission but it included consultation by a home-staging professional. They also gave us a CMA report. They asked me how much I though my house would worth. I answered at least $550,000. They doubted it. I told them my plan was to do a private sale for a month, then find an agent if I failed. They asked me if I could let them know even if I decided not to hire them, and tell them the reasons, so that they could make self-evaluation.
I found all these agents I interviewed very professional. I kept their contacts and planned to call them up a month later. Meanwhile, I had a month to wait. So I decided to investigate this concept of FSBO, something still unfamiliar to me at that time.
Part 2
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