How much do you tell your agent?

We are going to be selling our PPOR soon and I was wondering how much everyone else told their agents about *why* they were selling? Does it depend on circumstances?

for example, would you cover up the need for a quick sale? Would you mention death/divorce/financial difficulties? Where you are moving? etc

Do you disclose the price you are hoping to get? I would assume nobody would disclose what they are *willing* to settle for. What about preferred settlement timeframe?

Perhaps you speak in vague terms? "family reasons", "outgrown" the house "relocating closer to work" etc.

And what about "problems" with the house? Do you mention them? It may be harder for the agent to sell if they know the downside. On the other hand they may be able to gloss over it better if they are aware of it.

Thanks
 
I'd just tell them how much you're expecting and how long you'd like for settlement.

If you need to get rid of it quickly - than let them know (and your price may need to reflect that)...but I can't see why you'd need to divulge anymore than that.

Cheers

Jamie
 
I ask the agent what they believe they can achieve for me and their reasons for this estimate.

If the agent fumbles to commit to a price, or is not prepared with the facts to support their estimate then I will move onto the next.

I have not let the selling fee determine my decision.

You can share the reason for selling however be careful not to undermine your case as the agent may officially work on your behalf but when push comes to shove they will apply pressure on either the vendor or the purchaser to seal the deal.

Regards

Andrew
 
for example, would you cover up the need for a quick sale? Would you mention death/divorce/financial difficulties? Where you are moving? etc

Do you disclose the price you are hoping to get? I would assume nobody would disclose what they are *willing* to settle for. What about preferred settlement timeframe?

And what about "problems" with the house? Do you mention them? It may be harder for the agent to sell if they know the downside. On the other hand they may be able to gloss over it better if they are aware of it.

Thanks

Up to you what you tell however a good REA will be able to see if there is a divorce. When I was a REA I went to one house and they appeared all lovingly sat next to each other, all clothes was in their WIR, however when I went to a bedroom there was only one pillow on the bed and they both looked like stunned mullets and went into another bedroom and again one pillow but made a lot nicer (female slept on this bed).

I would just say we are hoping to settle in 30-60 days or 90 - 120 days if you are needing to buy after the sale.

You should know what your house is worth and I wouldn't even ask the REA what price I should get (he isn't buying it). I would be asking more questions about how/why do you market a property rather than price. If you talk about your price you want (e.g. 600k they will come back with values around 600k or more).

Vaults in the property, depending on what faults but if you are aware of a structural fault you probably should tell them as this will severely impact the likely sales result or would have the REA really push to exclude a building inspection. If they think there is no faults and someone comes in with STB&P it will be signed up on the offer and then will raise questions when you cross it out or the deal will fall through anyway.
 
Only tell them what you want the purchaser to know.

Some agents are great but not all. If you are thinking "I hope he doesn't tell the buyers that" don't say it.

We bought a house once and the selling agent said "it's on for $330K but I told the owner he should have listed it at $310K". So after that my offer was never going to be near $330K.

When agents ask me what I want for it I say that's irrelevant. My comeback question is "how much can you get".

Don't point out any problems. If they don't see it on their walk through then buyers generally won't. If they know about a problem it puts them in the situation of Do I tell the buyer?
 
When agents ask me what I want for it I say that's irrelevant. My comeback question is "how much can you get".

Don't point out any problems. If they don't see it on their walk through then buyers generally won't. If they know about a problem it puts them in the situation of Do I tell the buyer?

Your come back should be what do you think and why, along with how are you going to market the property. The price part is irrelevant as the market determines it not the agent, what you want is to throw the largest blanket out to find the most amount of buyers to get interest and have multiple offers come in. That is where you will get the best offers as there is competition for your property.

I would only point out if there is something significant like terminates are in the house as it may effect the price they give and the REA can try and remove the conditions before it enters the contract rather then adding it in and then you tell the REA there is termites and you either let the pest report come in and negotiate further or you cross it out as a condition and it would raise significant questions with the purchaser.
 
Your come back should be what do you think and why, along with how are you going to market the property. The price part is irrelevant as the market determines it not the agent, what you want is to throw the largest blanket out to find the most amount of buyers to get interest and have multiple offers come in. That is where you will get the best offers as there is competition for your property.

I would only point out if there is something significant like terminates are in the house as it may effect the price they give and the REA can try and remove the conditions before it enters the contract rather then adding it in and then you tell the REA there is termites and you either let the pest report come in and negotiate further or you cross it out as a condition and it would raise significant questions with the purchaser.

Yeah of course there is much more than the price. But, what the agent feels he can get IS i big influence. One i recently sold 2 agents said (quite proudly) that they could get close to $500K. One said he WOULD get more than $500K (which I judged as where the market was too. He put his money where his mouth is and on his contract would get substantially less if sold for less than $500K. He got $515K. Happy!!
I've interviewed enough real estate agents to know the difference between a good and a bad one. There are those you want to sell with and those you want to buy from.

I don't get your "remove the conditions" and " adding then crossing out conditions" comment. In regards to the termites? What conditions would you take out?
 
Yeah of course there is much more than the price. But, what the agent feels he can get IS i big influence. One i recently sold 2 agents said (quite proudly) that they could get close to $500K. One said he WOULD get more than $500K (which I judged as where the market was too. He put his money where his mouth is and on his contract would get substantially less if sold for less than $500K. He got $515K. Happy!!
I've interviewed enough real estate agents to know the difference between a good and a bad one. There are those you want to sell with and those you want to buy from.

I don't get your "remove the conditions" and " adding then crossing out conditions" comment. In regards to the termites? What conditions would you take out?

What would you do if one says 500k and the other says 700k? Would you still go for the 700k as it is 200k more?

End of the day choose a person you feel comfortable with but take the REA price with a grain of salt.

The termite thing is if the agent doesn't know about the termites and the purchaser puts it as condition on the original offer the REA wouldn't try to hard to not get STP as it is a standard clause. However if it did become apart of the offer and you cross it out it would raise a red flag with the purchaser or would potentially need to lower the price to compensate.

If the REA knows of the termites he could persuade the purchaser to remove STP to give their offer the best chance of being accepted. Not promising that he can get STP not added but it wouldn't raise a flag as much.

Imaging there was an offer and the REA says as you know there is already another offer on the table to give your offer the best chance are you okay with not including the STB&P.

Make sense now?
 
We sold our 3rd PPoR - wanted to sell because we were cash-poor and asset rich, and found the glamour of working a B&B and having to work full-time on top of that - had whiskers on it.

The agent wanted to know why we were selling, so we made up this BS story that my wife had received a work offer in the USA which was too good to pass up, and wanted to sell.

Ironically; a few years later we actually did move to the USA for her work.
 
What would you do if one says 500k and the other says 700k? Would you still go for the 700k as it is 200k more?

In that case one (or both) of the agents is quite clearly very wrong. If my own research said it would go for around 500k then I would go with the first. If my research said it would go for around 700k I would go with the second. If my research indicated it would go for around 600k then I would go with neither.

If an agent made such a big mistake in pricing I could not trust their competence, therefore I think the agents pricing should be taken with more than a grain of salt.
 
What would you do if one says 500k and the other says 700k? Would you still go for the 700k as it is 200k more?

End of the day choose a person you feel comfortable with but take the REA price with a grain of salt.

Really?? If you had read my post you would have noticed that I said that I judged the market to be low $500's which is where the agent I chose was at. He was obviously more in touch with the market.

Anyone who sells a property based solely on an agent telling them they'll get more is a fool.
You need to know what your property is worth before you speak to an agent.
 
I plan on selling my home in the next couple of months and have been going to opens in my suburb and watching sold prices. Only way to be ahead of the game ;)
 
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