Story of 2 agents (warning: positive Jenman experience included!!)

Sorry, this is much longer than intended....

In the past 6 months, I've sold 3 properties. Our PPOR, which sold within a week of putting it on the market (miraculous in the current climate), with a fabulous agent, who I'd highly recommend.. Deborah Gersbach from Walsh and Sullivan, Baulkham Hills. But she's not who this thread is about.
I also sold 3 of my mothers properties, where my brother and I are executors of the estate. They are next door to each other, but we had very different experiences selling them...
When we were first looking at selling them, we went to a number of agents to get feedback/ quotes/ selling advice. I'd been looking for a PPOR in this area for a number of years (we ended up buying the 3rd property in the line from the estate).
All the agents in the suburb quoted exhorbitant rates for advertising (up to $25K depending upon what options we took). But we had very good feedback from one particular agent, and I'd seen them operate at open homes that I'd been to and knew they were effective. So, we initially put all 3 properties on with them. (none of the agents gave us advice not to sell all at once, which clearly ended up being a better strategy). My brother didnt particularly like this agent, but I pushed for them, based on what I'd seen of them in the market..........
None of the houses were renovated, and they were mostly empty, the market was dropping quickly in the area... so there were plenty of reasons they didnt sell. But we didnt get one bid for any of them at the auction, and then they got cold very quickly.
So, we took 2 properties off the market, and just kept one on, which was the biggest and best property. I found that the agent, who was very good at selling 1million plus properties was not so good at selling cheaper, less desirable properties. They continually came to us with really, really low offers (like $150K below) and didnt seem to be able to negotiate upwards.
After 4 or so months on the market, we decided to buy the biggest of the properties (Its a great property, 6 bed, 3 bath, pool.... but a bit dark and cold, which my hubby didnt like. So, we bought with the promise of a big reno to bring more light into the property)
We put the 2nd property on with this agent for another 3 months or so. They wanted to put the property on the market at "offers over ***", with the dollar amount around $25K under what we wanted to get and then negotiate up from there.... but all offers were way way below the offers over price, and they never negotiated up! :rolleyes: they were continually showing the property to bargain hunters, and trying to come back to us to lower the price, but we were already at the bottom of the market in this suburb, for properties with good "bones" and continually asking us to spend more on advertising. They were very stressful to work with.
We finally looked for a different agent, and a week after taking it off this original agent, and beginning to do a small reno, the first agent came back and said they had someone who had previously seen the property, and was interested. This person ended up purchasing, but the agent was really close to being dishonest in the process, which went for about 4 weeks from the "renewed" interest to unconditional contract.
They kept telling us part of the story... eg they wanted access to do a "building inspection" before they made an offer, and then wanted an extended cooling off period to do building inspection (the first had just been with their builder father to see what needed to be renovated). Also, we negotiated a price, and then after the price was finalised, the agent told us they wanted an extended settlement.
This process of half truths continued right thru the cooling off period until the contract went unconditional and we could stop dealing with them. Still waiting for settlement, which I think ended up being 3 months plus the extended cooling off period. We ended up accepting a price around $50K lower than we felt market rates were just to get it sold, because my other siblings were getting restless. But for a 4 bedroom, 2 bathroom, full brick property in this suburb... we definitely got way less than it was worth.
So, then we moved onto property 3, which was basically a knock down, rebuild, which was tenanted. So, selling for land value essentially.
My brother had found an agent who had rented a property that he owned in the area, and been very good. They were a Jenman agent... and that didnt sit so well with me. Minimal advertising, no open homes. But since I'd stuffed up on the first agent, I was happy to let my brother take the lead on this one. We had also been going to give them the 2nd property, and they'd arranged all the quotes for renos, prior to them having a contract signed.... so we felt bad when it ended up selling thru the original agent.
The agent managed the tenant really well. Because I live just a few doors away, I could see that they were showing people thru regularly. They gave us an email update every week or so, but didnt really ever contact us otherwise. After about 6 weeks on the market, they asked for a meeting, which my brother and I felt pretty nervous about.... would it be another "your price is too high" meeting, like we had continually with our previous agent. No, he came along with 2 offers in writing, with clear conditions for settlement. One offer slightly higher, but less appealing settlement conditions. The other within 10K lower than the first, but quick and more attractive settlement (keeping tenant in place). He had negotiated for both offers were made on the condition that the house was sold as-is and no further negotiation would be made based on building inspections etc. and it was within $25K of our asking price, at basically what we were expecting to get.
We accepted the lower offer. When they tried to come back and change their conditions during the cooling off period, the agent went back to them and said our acceptance had been based on their written conditions and we would accept the other offer if they changed them. Deposit paid on time, as a result, and the contract is now unconditional, and will settle just one or two weeks after the 2nd property.

So, my lessons learned...
1. the "loudest" is not always the best. Actions speak louder than words.
2. agents may be good at selling in one segment of the market, but not necessarily in another
3. Dont write off Jenman agents, just because they are Jenman. It seemed to be a very efficient process.
4. listen to my brother's gut feeling more. ;) He has been right about so many things during this "executing" process. I am more and more impressed with him each day.

All properties sold now....... and we move onto the really hard part of the estate... the stamp collection!! :eek:
 
Good post thanks Penny.

I don't blame you when you went with your gut feeling as I would have done the same.

I would have only put one on at a time with short agency duration and the promise if they did well on the 1st sale they would be offered first bite at marketing the 2nd and then the 3rd one.
 
Hi pen,

Some good insights there.

I think it was worth having a crack at selling all 3 in one line as it may have appealed to a developer wanting a consolidated site. However, it was not to be.

Personally, I like dealing with Jenman agents as a buyer becaused I know they are trained to negotiate (back and forth), rather than the one shot with your highest and best offer that some other agents like to force you into.
 
well, both properties settled today... yippee!!

Again, we had a challenge with the first REA. They came to do pre-settlement inspection and said that we had partially done renovations since they did exchange and left the house unsafe. Fortunately, I dont throw out any emails and I was able to show that I warned the agent about this prior to one of their inspections. But again, the agent seemed to take the side of the purchaser, with no effort made to correct their statements.

(the 2nd agent had made it clear to their purchaser that the house was being sold as is, and that we werent taking any discount or fixing anything that was wrong.. much more assertive in the process)

So glad to be finished this process. Although I suspect the stamp collection might be even more difficult!
 
We had a great experience with a Jenman agent when we sold mum's house.

We agreed with the agent's price, received an offer within days for $10K less. We told the agent to accept it, but he suggested we counter offer $5K less and said we would probably settle in between. Made the counter-offer and it was accepted.

It was entirely the agent who got us the extra money.
Marg
 
We had a great experience with a Jenman agent when we sold mum's house.

We agreed with the agent's price, received an offer within days for $10K less. We told the agent to accept it, but he suggested we counter offer $5K less and said we would probably settle in between. Made the counter-offer and it was accepted.

It was entirely the agent who got us the extra money.
Marg

Do you mean that you counter offered $5K more?

Our Jenman agent said that they had already done all the negotiation with the buyers and the offer they were putting in was the highest that they had.
 
There are good and bad agents in every "system".

Interestingly I had a different experience with the group you mentioned selling your PPOR.
 
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