Land Shark Attack

Our house has been on the market for some time, but the market for resale has been terrible. When the bottom dropped out, there was a huge building boom in our town. Builders scrambling to stay afloat were giving unbelievable deals.

Things are starting to turn around. Our listing was set to expire on 7/21. Debbie Ficke of Diane Turton Realty has been our agent, and we have been very pleased with everything she has done. After discussing it a bit, we decided that rather than simply extending, we would let the listing expire, stay with Debby, and create a new listing.

While there are advantages to allowing a lapse rather than extending, there is also a disadvantage. An expiring real estate listing had the same effect on agents as chum has on sharks.

Our day began at 9:10 with me being roused from bed by the sound of Westminster chimes. It was a real estate agent we had interviewed before wanting to know if we were still interested in selling. If we hadn't relisted it, waking me up in not the best sales tactic.

Then it started! By 11 AM, I had changed the message. It now said, "I'm sorry. No one is here to take your call. If this is a real estate agent, you are the 3,843rd caller, and I'm sorry to say we have already relisted..."

It is now 7:17 PM and the calls are still coming. Of course I exaggerated the number just a bit, but we did have about a dozen or more calls and two personal visits.

If we don't sell within the next 90 days, we will probably take the house off the market at least until April, but if we decide to go with a different agent, I know the one question that I will ask of everyone who calls. "How many people did you bring to see our house when it was on the market originally." Unless they tell me they brought us prospective buyers before, that are going to have to explain how listing with them would change that track record.

I remember, the first agent we had. We listed with her for 6 months and during that time, she didn't personally show the house once, whereas Debby has shown it a number of times. It seems like many of the people circling to get our listing, spend an inordinate amount of time doing just that. Getting a lot of listings is great for the agent, because the law of averages says that they will profit when others sell, but it's not great for all of the sellers, who are not getting action.

Wish us luck!