I'm not a realtor, and I think it's a terrible idea, I'm shocked you would waste all their time like that. It is, as you say, "dishonest" and "hypocritical". And beyond your hiring reason, I don't see how this would help you with the knowledge of what to do with your own home. Why not just go to some open houses on your own?

Ask yourself these three questions of the agents:

1. Can you communicate with them effectively?
2. Do they seem trustworthy?
3. Do they seem to have the same morals as I do?

Choose the agent that you can answer "YES" to. (Assuming that their marketing plan is fairly equal) Below is a sample of some of the items that you may want to ask them about...

ACCOUNTABILITY
1. We will sign an Unconditional Cancellation Guarantee.
2. We will never miss a buyer lead with my call capture technology. When buyers call for more info., I will personally call them back and ACTIVELY market your home to them.
3. I personally call every showing agent for feedback, if they have not provided feedback to us after 24 hours. MARKETING & EXPOSURE
1. Your property will be fed into more than 80 IDX sites across the internet;
2. A color brochure of a Featured Lender will show off the maximum financing options for your property.
3. I periodically will send an E - Flyer of your property to all 6000 local agents. After all, they are the ones who are working with 98% of all the buyers. This is another example of "ACTIVE MARKETING".
4. Color brochures will be placed outside the home with just enough information to entice the Buyers to call my cell phone or to text me
5. Your property will be featured on Realtor.com, Trulia.com, LakeHomesUSA.Com & Craigslist.com as an upgraded listing� This allows the maximum # of pictures & allows your Visual Tour to be seen. It also highlights your home to encourage more click - throughs.
6. Your property will have its own dedicated web site that can be accessed by buyer's cell phone as they are sitting in front of your home.
7. Your home's Visual Tour will be on my Facebook page for all to view. I will also send you a one step link tha allows you to add the tour to your Facebook page!
8. Our website generates about 300 visits per day, and close to 15 registered prospects per day. It ranks on the FIRST page for most searches!
9. Drive - by buyers are able to watch the Visual Tour by scanning a bar code with their smart phone, OR, by calling a text number... All while they are sitting in front of your home!
10. A beautiful, Buyer interactive, High Definition Visual Tour, not a slide show, will be created by a vendor that generates 5 times more exposure than the other 10 competitor's Virtual Tours, combined.
11. We will leave nothing to chance, so we will place marketing placards throughout the home so that buyer agents and their clients do not miss any of the hidden features of your home.
12. Your home's Visual Tour will be seen on You Tube� the Country's second largest search engine, second only to Google!
13. Your home will be advertised in the Real Estate Book, if applicable, along with its companion web site.
14. Lake Realty agents have over 10,000 registered internet prospects whom we are ACTIVELY marketing to on a regular basis! My co - workers and I will be ACTIVELY marketing your home to them.
15. I employ the technology to know when a prospect which is in any other agent's database clicks on your home. After I am notified, I contact that agent and ACTIVELY market your home to them!
COMMUNICATION
1. You will periodically receive "Buyer Activity Reports" in order to understand what the buyers are doing during our listing phase. It is imperative that we understand what the Buyers are looking at and what they are making offers on so that we can react accordingly.
2. You will tell me how you would like to be communicated with, and how often. Everyone's expectations will be known up front.
3. Every effort will be made to collect feedback from the showing agent, and this feedback will be presented to you.
4. I will prepare a custom, interactive "Competition Tracking Site" for you, which will allow you to track our competition! As soon as a competitor becomes Active, reduces their price, goes under contract, etc., we will know!
5. You will be able to call me anytime. If I am awake, I will answer, or I will return the call ASAP!
MARKETPLACE KNOWLEDGE
1. I create my own custom, monthly graphs in order that you and I can understand the trends of the marketplace and react accordingly. By the time I list your home, you and I will know your neighborhood's Absorption Rate, the average days on the market, the average list price to sold price ratio, the average $/Sq. Ft, the monthly trend of sales prices, the monthly trend of the number of closings and much more.
2. By studying the "Buyer Activity Reports", we will be able to determine what your prospective buyers are looking at and be able to see which properties they are making offers on. We can then react accordingly.
3. You will never be out of the loop as to what is happening in your neighborhood and the surrounding area by using your custom "Competition Tracking Site" that I will provide to you.
4. You will be given a 35 page booklet on How To Stage A Home, in order to show you how to beat the competition. I know what buyers are looking for, and so will you.
NEGOTIATIONS
1. We can arrange your home to be pre inspected for $50 up front. If your home fails to sell, you owe nothing. You will have greater leverage throughout the negotiations if the buyer's inspection report comes back clean!
2. I have been trained in negotiating strategies such as "Reverse Offers", "Chip Away and Gain", "The Silent Treatment", "Tit For Tat", "Backtracking", "Illusion Of Choice", "Acting Up", and "Never Say Never"�
3. The facts and figures that you were presented with when we came up with a fair market price, will be presented right back to the buyer's agent.
4. Lake Realty's Broker In Charge is a certified instructor for the NC Real Estate Licensing Course. If there is a misunderstanding between the parties during the transaction, we have the knowledge to make the correct ethical and legal decisions with your best interests in mind.

Ask friends for recommendations.

ncrealestateguy - Question for you.

When doing a pre-inspection is it a good idea to provide that inspection to prospective buyers (noting what has been fixed)?

What do you usually do if there is something your seller won't fix?

Best advice ever....ask people you know who have recently bought or sold a home who they used and how they felt about the quality of service they got.

BTW if you are trying to sell without their being any glitches in the process you are dreaming. EVERY house we've ever bought and or sold has had some kind of hitch to it at some point. It's the nature of the beast.

We went to open houses for a year prior to listing. We said we were looking at homes our daughter might be interested in. I found going during the end of the open house was best. Most people had left and we had time to get a feeling about the agent. They were usually relaxed and getting ready to leave.

We could get a good feel about their experience and knowledge of the house and community. You could tell an experienced Realtor from a newbie.

We went to open houses which were similar to ours, and it was helpful for pricing and what updates needed to be done.

We eventually hired an Agent we met at one of the open houses. We got along well, she was very experienced and had a nice way of showing a home to its potential.

She worked very hard and we had a contract in 3 months. Horrible market and we are grateful for the work she did. Everything went smooth as possible. She had a lot of class!

Jane

Thanks everybody for your advice.

Ottawa - yes I also thought this could be a terrible idea, thats why I asked here where it is safe, versus actually doing it for real. As for wasting people's time - I was only planning to pick one house per realtor, which would maybe take 30 to 60 minutes. If I decided they weren't for me, then I would go on to realtor #2 at a different house. All houses would be within a 3 mile radius of my existing house (which is only 2 miles outside of city limits). I would not waste their time or gas driving to a house located too far away. Had I just invited them to my house as an actual "listing interview", I would be using up a lot more of their time. They would be trying harder to sell their services to me, they would have to spend time coming up with comps for my house, and I would be spending a lot more time showing them my house. I know this whole idea seems a little shady, but in actuallity, I would be using less of their time, I would be getting a good idea of their abilities, and for those who I decided not to hire, there should be no feelings of rejection. I would just tell them plans changed and I am no longer in the market for a house, they would write me off as a goofy buyer, and forget all about me. As if you can't already tell, I have a lot of "creative" thoughts, ways of doing things outside of the norm. Some of my thoughts I think are pure genius and other thoughts are pure stupidity!

NCrealestateguy - Wow! Thanks for that great list of stuff! A lot of things on your list are things I am not sure most of the realtors around here are capable of. Virtual tours on smart phones? I never knew you could do that. Of course I am very technologically challenged - I finally bought a regular no-frills cell phone (my very first one)about 3 years ago. Placing cards around the house highlighting features is another nice touch. I have done similar things myself when my house was on the market before, but I have never had a realtor suggest it to me. I would go as far as taping a picture to a window, showing what the landscaping looked like in different seasons. I always wondered if I didn't get a bit carried away by doing something like that, and end up looking desperate. Too bad you are in NC, I guess WV would be a little too far for you to come show a house, huh? Sounds like you and your agency has a good way of doing things. Hopefully I can find someone decent around here.

Brick, Carol & Jane - I know getting reccommendations from friends is supposed to be the best. Unfortunately I don't know anyone in my area who has recently bought/sold. We both work jobs outside of town, and thats where most of our friends are, and none of them live in our town. I do know 2 people who have recently TRIED to sell and have taken their house off the market - I don't know how much of a reccommendation they could give.

The other bad thing about us and realtors - our little fiasco a few years back have already given us a few ideas of who NOT to hire, and that only leaves so many options. The last realtor we had was a great guy, very professional, very knowledgable, but I'm afraid he would not want to deal with us again. That was 2-3 yrs ago when we let our contract expire, tried the FSBO thing, failed, rented for 2 yrs, and here we are again.

Open houses - around here it is a rarity to see an open house for existing homes. The only open houses they do around here are for brand-new homes located in a new subdivision. The agents for those homes are either employed by the house builder or the subdivision itself, they are unable to show any other houses. A good idea, but in my area it doesn't help me find a good realtor.

I guess I am going to have to do it the old fashioned way (or the way most normal people would do) and invite each one to my house and hope I can pick the right one.

Thank you everyone for your help. I really appreciate it a lot. This website is a great place, there are a lot of decent people here who have a lot of great advice to offer. I am actually capable of figuring out a lot of this stuff on my own, but it really helps to have a place like this where I can get other people's opinions to verify if what I am thinking actually makes sense. It just helps to have a place to vent a little, think out loud a little, etc. I truly appreciate all the help everyone has given me, and I am happy you have been able to put up with some of my silliness.

cas66ragtop... In the end, you really have to ask yourself the 3 questions I posted above. And a lot of that comes down to your gut feeling.
I was born and raised in Charles Town, WV... right down the road from you. It is a really bad market up there. Martinsburg had double digit appreciation during the hey days, and so now is really suffering. My sister just sold her home two weeks ago. She undercut all other comperables in order to do it. You will probably have to do the same... do not get greedy, no matter what an agent tells you.

ncrealestateguy~~ WOW, what a list...and wonderful ideas. In this small town, I don't think the realtors do a lot of these things..nor are they capable. How about coming to middle Kansas and sell our house? What is the % commission rate in your area? 6-7% here.

cas66ragtop~~ Sounds like we were in the same boat...but we going to have to jump ship and find a different realtor.

I interviewed all of the 7 real estate companies in this town...they all talked a good talk....and in the end we picked one who "said she had someone in mind to buy this house"....well, that person thought the living room was too small...so that fell through...always something! There are only 4 agents in her company, so I think we will go with one that has 10 the next time.

I also think that the ones we did not pick had their egos hurt, because they are just not showing this house...so good luck in finding one you are comfortable with and does a good job of selling your home.

To people who believe that an agent will not show your home if they got beat out on the listing... Baloney! It is the buyer who tells me what homes they would like to see, not the other way around! In fact, I would love to bring a buyer to a seller who turned my services down... especially in this buyer's market!

I would never not show a house where I lost out on the listing. First of all, it is unethical - if there is a house out there that may fit what your buyer wants, you need to show it to them. At the end of the day, a commission is a commission no matter who it comes from. Any agent who would not show your house is cutting off their nose to spite their face & is probably not a very successful agent. Plus, it is so satisfying to bring the buyer to someone who did not choose you to list the house!

Pick up those real estate magazines that are free at grocery stores. Look to see which agents advertise nicely and also have listings in your general area. Not all agencies will spend the money to place those ads. I would want my property in that magazine. Also try an agency that advertises in the newspaper and make sure you find out how often yours would be in the newspaper. Sometimes they only do it once when a new listing. maybe have it in your listing contract they advertise in newspaper at least once per month, with photo.

Before you choose an agent, drive by some of their listings. Do they have a sign that says "For Sale"? In my area, some agencies simply have their agency name and they don't state whether For Sale or For Rent. I would want a sign that says For Sale. Some have tiny signs that are a bad color that you can hardly see.

Also, do their current listings have flyers near the sign? Are the flyer boxes empty? Try a few of them. Last thing you want is no flyers.

For their listing comments in thr MLS...how is the wording? Is it full of spelling errors? Is it too fluffy with words that don't mean anything? Is it a well written description?

How long does it take the agent to return your call if you leave a basic message? When I was a buyer, I found that some agents NEVER returned my call, even when I was a serious buyer and left a question about a property. Some agents called back very quickly, some a day or two later. You want an agent that will be available for agents/buyers and return calls.

Personally, I would try to find an agent that has several listings similar to mine, and in same subdivision or nearby. This is because they might get a call about the other homes and if buyers decide they don't like the other home due to the floor plan, than the agent can show my home.

We wanted someone familiar with our neighborhood. We watched for realtors who were selling in the neighborhood while we lived there and how they marketed. Last time, We went with the realtor who was an aggressive marketer. He wasn't perfect, but better than others we have had. What I liked about him was that he flat out told us what he thought was too high of a price. He was really blunt about what changes he thought I needed to make to the house such as color, etc,and decluttering. He also had a stager that was a part of the deal.

As far as a realtor who advertises in a magazine, I'm not sure. We asked a realtor about this a few years ago when the market was better. Her response was that you didn't want to be in the magazine because the houses that actually had time to be put in a magazine were sitting on the market for to long. That signified that there was sort of defect. This is a different market so maybe that advice is different now.

Newspaper is good MAYBE for a home that is only appealing to people over 60. Everyone else looks on line. Same with those RE mags. Every homeowner wants to see their pad in print for some reason, even though it is a waste of time. At least here. I will do it if the seller demands it, but I have NEVER gotten a serious buyer from one of our RE mags.

"Sell my house fast London" is a big clue this is spam. May as well say "sell my house fast Zimbabwe".

Sweet Tea made some good comments about paying close attention to realtors' signs, websites, magazine ads, house descriptions, etc. Very helpful.

Something sort of humorous I have noticed - a lot of realtors show pictures of themselves, and you can tell these pictures are 20 years old. One lady I saw is wearing a bright red pants suit from the 70's. I guess they are still trying to portray themselves as the younger more energetic version. Haha! I guess if they can't update their own picture, what does that say about their ability to sell? Meaningless or not? I just thought it was funny, thats all.

I am still "investigating".....I guess I just need to stop procrastinating and pick up the phone. Still worried about the whole thing. Still feeling like I am just wasting my time, and once again this house will not sell - unless of course I just want to give the place away. Getting frustrated already - oh well.

My husband and I just interviewed 4 agents for listing our house. It was obvious which agents knew our local market and which agents didn't. Three of the 4 were excellent agents, had a coherent marketing plan, and had been inside most of the comps for our house. One came up with a very low suggested sales price, while the other 3 were very close in their market price suggestions. We ended up choosing based on which one we thought we would work best with.

Here are some of the questions we asked them:

Interview questions for agents

How long in business/fulltime?
Recently listed/sold houses - all of 2011 in a spreadsheet?
List-Price-to-Sales-Price Ratio for each sale?
Marketing plan - how many DOM is acceptable to you?

Plan for price reductions - when/how often
Comps - how did you choose these comps; what criteria? How fast is the market changing?
Open houses - when, how many, who sits in house, anything stolen?
Who is your broker?
Will I be informed of all offers?
Which inspections to do
How many months for the listing contract?
How will you deal with Redfin agents?
Top 3 things that distinguish you from other agents? Why should we hire you?
How much do you charge?
Has anyone ever cancelled a listing agreement with you?
What happens if you're not available?
How much notice ahead of time for showing?
What are the 5 strongest selling points for our house? 5 weakest points?

How will you eliminate unnecessary showings?

What sold the last three properties you listed?

If you were a buyer's agent, what advice would you give to a buyer who's considering my home?

What websites do you advertise on?

Should we clear out the garage?

Tell us about the two flag lot properties around the corner from us. Why has one been on the market for 200+ days and the other sold in a week or two?

When will you take the listing photos down?

How do you deal with the school issue (local public elementary school is oversubscribed and not taking any more kids)?

Annkathryn... nice and thought out list of questions.

I believe before searching for a good agent, one should prepare for being a good seller first. Seller and seller's agent are in a partnership.

AK: Love the list. Really digs deeper into specifics than the usual "what will you do to sell my house" and "how many houses did you sell last year?"

AZmom makes an interesting point. So what makes a good seller?

annkathryn - excellent list, very helpful. I will definitely use a few of those questions on whoever I interview. Thanks a lot.

azmom - I guess being a good seller means I need to actually BELIEVE the house will sell, and I should let the bargain shoppers have their way with me?

I was out mowing the lawn last night and a neighbor stopped by to ask what I was doing with the house. He said his brother was extremely interested in buying it. Maybe it will work out I don't need a realtor at all. It could be for real, it could just be a nosey neighbor - who knows.

cas66ragtop,
Being a good seller means to listen to the advice of your agent, and to not waste people's time by listing your home if you "really do not need to sell". Those are key words that mean, "I am going to list my home above the market value, chase the market on the way down, and never reduce the price to a realistic one."
If you are realistic about the market, the bargain shoppers, which you will run into, will not have their way with you.
As far as your neighbor's brotyher goes... tell him to show you a pre qual letter, and he can then take a look at the home. And put the extra dollars you save into your pocket, not his.
As I mentioned before, I grew up in Charles Town, and my Mother has been an agent in that area for a very long time. She is just now retiring and prefers not to take on anything more. But if you would like, I can refer you to another agent that I know that is good at what he does...

NC - I have definitely learned my lesson about pricing too high and chasing the market down. I don't want to go through that nightmare again. I would like to price it so it sells really fast. Like 30 days or less. Fall is quickly approaching - it would be great to sell before I have to start raking leaves!

Owning this place is holding me back from doing other things in my life. I would like to do some improvements on the house I am residing in, but I am scared to sink any more money into it when I still have this other house hanging over my head. Lots of people seem to think since I have 2 houses, I must "have it made" and my life must be wonderful. Wrong - it really sucks, it is a terrible situation to be in. I may have gotten lucky with the minimal damage after renting it out - I don't want to have to take that chance again. I may not be so lucky next time. I just want this place out of my life. I am tired of dealing with it.

You had mentioned how your family member (was it your sister? - congrats to her by the way) just sold and how she had to undercut all competitors to do it. I am willing to do the same thing - within reason. It is insulting enough that I will be selling for less than I paid (not the buyers fault - this is the market we're in) - but it is even more insulting when you already have a fair price and some bargain hunter comes in and tries to take advantage of you. Its sort of like selling a Ferrari to someone who can only afford a Ford Pinto. Not that my house is gold-plated castle or anything, but you know what I mean.

You offered to refer a realtor in my area. That would be above and beyond the help that is expected from this website. That would be greatly appreciated, I wouldn't mind a good referral. You don't have to though, I can still find a decent one on my own (once I stop procrastinating). Thats up to you if you want to refer someone. Thanks for the offer.

Thanks again for all your help

Cas66ragtop,
Call me at 704 287 7873. I have the contact info of a good listing agent. No hard feelings if you do not choose to use his services.

I put my home on the market just about a year ago, and the way I chose a realtor was by looking at the statistics for how long properties in my neighborhood were on the market and how close to asking price did they sell for. The realtor I chose was the one who sold properties quickly at or above asking price.

My biggest mistake was that I put my place on the market for more than the amount the realtor suggested, and I'm sure I ended up selling it for less than I would have gotten had I gone with her original price.

NC - thanks again for the offer. Way above and beyond - you are a very nice guy. I should have said something before, but I had hoped you would not offer again and let me off the hook.

The thing is, this website offers a certian level of anonymity, and I wish to remain anonymous. When I first appeared on this site, I had just recovered from a real estate horror story, and I had a lot of really nasty things to say about my first agent. None of that needs to get back to anyone around here. I am not suggesting that you will reveal my identity to anyone (I don't think you would do that), but I still can't take any chances.

I hope you understand my reasoning and do not take offense to my turning down your offer. Again, I really appreciated it, you have proven to be a really decent guy.

Thanks again.

No problem Cass66... if you follow the advice here on how to choose a RE agent, you will do well.

Looks like Cas66 posted something to all his past posts and then GW deleted them...

I wondered why there were so many old threads suddenly at the top from the same person.

Seems to be some weird stuff going on here on this forum.

ncrealestateguy - are you sure it works that way? On other posts if you do an edit there is a notification at the bottom of the entry. Wouldn't that still be there even if someone edited to delete their whole post? We need to experiment! I think there are gremlins at work - or Mayans, take your choice ;-)

I posted on Coloradomom's post last night because someone has put about 4 or 5 hateful awful posts on there. I was wondering what was going on and she was talking about being stalked and police involved. This morning all those posts (including mine) were gone and there isn't any evidence of them ever being there. So, someone deleted them. Something is going on here.

Someone named (if I recall correctly) "sylvia hag" or something similar posted an anti-Cas66 comment that made no sense under a bunch of his old posts, bumping them up.

Soooooo I guess Cas must be doing something right to get that kind of love! :)

It seems that Cas66 was so upset with Coloradomomof5 that he/she signed in under a couple of different screen names (which were very offensive to posters here) and then posted several very childish and hate filled rants about Colorado Mom and everyone who posts here. GW eventually deleted them. Cass66 then must have posted something to all of his recent threads, just to get all of them bumped up to the top. GW must have deleted those posts too, but kept the posts where they are.

When GW deletes a post on a thread, it doesn't re-sort back to the date order it should go in based on the earlier latest post date. It stays in the new date order. So it looks a bit weird. But when you see something with an old "last post" date, it's because a spammer (or an irate Cas66) posted something that got deleted.

Cas66 bumped up all his posts with a ranting post (under an offensive assumed name) that demanded GW delete all of his old threads. They apparently ignored his demands and just deleted the offensive posts in them.

ah - got it now. Thanks for the explanation. It's a shame we all can't play like grown-ups.