Seattle's Urban Villages

Open Houses; a great way to "interview" agents when you are thinking about selling your home

A great way to find a good Seattle real estate agent when you are thinking about selling your Seattle home is by attending open houses in your neighborhood. 

You get to see an agent "in action" at an open house!  While you are there you can gauge their professionalism by the way they greet you, engage you in conversation and talk about the house they are hosting the open house at.  Ask questions about the neighborhood, the Seattle real estate market both in general and specifically homes in the neighborhood and comparable homes.  While talking to the agent, do you find them knowledgeable, and a good "fit" to work with you?

Check out the agents' marketing materials (flyer's etc.) are they informative and interesting to look at?   Ask the agent what they did to help their client get the house "market ready" and their philosophy for marketing and selling homes.  Later when you get home, look the house up online to see the quality of the online photos, and the marketing remarks for that house, do you find them to present the home well?

A good agent will be happy to answer all your questions, but be careful not to monopolize their time after-all, they are working to sell their clients home!  The agent is there to show their clients' house to potential buyers so they will need to greet and talk with other visitors at the open house too.

Sometimes the agent hosting the open house is not the listing agent, so that is something to find out while talking to the agent.  The hosting agent is still a good potential agent for you even if they are not the listing agent.  Sometimes a listing agent is not available to host that week's open house for one of several reasons, and another agent is hosting it.  Even if the agent you meet and talk to is not the listing agent, that hosting agent may be a good fit for you if they impress you with their professionalism, knowledge and marketing savvy.

Be sure to get the agents' business card and a flyer too so that you can follow up and call them later to talk about what they can do for you to market and sell your home.  A little time and effort spent doing this will help you to find the best Seattle agent for you when the time comes to sell your home.

An Open House history lesson or I love meeting the former owners!

Two weeks ago at an Open House for my new listing in Montlake...

there were many neighbors (and of course buyers looking for a new home) stopping by to see the house now that it is for sale,  and it's improvements.  It was very enjoyable meeting everyone and giving tours of the home because there are many unusual features like a walled over stained glass window just waiting for new owners to reveal it to the world again and...this house even has a secret room!  There was a surprise for me when the former owner, before my client bought the house about 10 years ago, stopped by. 

Mrs. G. and her family lived there for over 30 years and she wanted to see the home again where she had lived with her husband and their children grew up.  It was wonderful to listen to Mrs G. tell me about the way the house used to be when it was her home and the changes she and her husband made to the homes as its' second owners.  Things like adding the extra bathrooms (the house has 5, very unusual in Montlake!)and I finally got to find out why there was an odd cut out in the balcony off the kitchen (many people had asked me about that) Mr. G. cut out that portion so that their dog could lie on the floor and look out at the street, who knew!

It's not everyday that a listing agent gets to find out the history of a beautiful and unique Montlake Tudor Home from such long term former owners!

When is it time to change to a different Seattle real estate agent?

Yesterday I received an update from the NWMLS for one of my searches that I have out for Buyer clients.  This was a notice for a price reduction, the 6th one for a house that has been on the market for well over 600 days - YES - over 600 days on the market.  The price has dropped almost $350,000 since it was first listed and it is still with the original Seattle listing agent.  BTW, this is not a high end , multi million dollar luxury home that would have very few buyers who could afford the property, and that you would expect to be on the market for awhile. 

The original photos are still showing on the listing, which is doubly bad since they were of poor quality to begin with.  This home has great sound views, because it is waterfront, not that you can tell from the photos.  The house is very dated and certainly could have benefited from some work being done to update and get it market ready so that it has more visual appeal, and would photograph better.  I doubt many buyers have even asked to see the house because of what they have seen online.  Unfortunately, because of the NWMLS rules no agents can approach the seller with better ideas while the house is under contract with an agent.  I can only watch  <sigh>  and hope that the seller makes a change.

I don't know the agent or his relationship (not related per listing remarks) with the seller, but I have to wonder why there has been no changes made other than price to sell the house.  I feel for the seller because there may be other options to look into to improve the house to appeal to buyers and get the best possible price.  Of course another option would be changing to a different real estate agent, which brings us back to the original question.  When is it time to change to a different Seattle real estate agent?  A Tip for Sellers; I think that this seller owes it to themselves to hire another agent who can bring a fresh approach to selling this home; 600 plus days on the market and hundreds of thousands of dollars in price reductions are clearly not getting this house  sold.

**Update October 25, 2007**

The house just had another price reduction, 4th for a total of $75,000 since July 11, 2007.  The house has now been on the market for 731 days and reduced a total of $424,950, still no changes to the marketing remarks or photos.  I really feel for the owner.