“Hi Gary. My wife and I plan to sell our home in January. When we sold our last home in 2000, we chose some agent who promised us a high price but turned out to be a slacker. He didn’t do anything and never called to tell us what was going on. I don’t want to get stuck with a loser agent again. I know agents usually like to list a home for 6 months, but I only want to list for 30 days. Will you agree to a 30-day listing?”
Answer:
Great question. But here are the three problems with that idea…
1. It takes a good agent 60 days on average to sell a San Diego home now, plus another 45 days to close. So you’re not giving the agent nearly enough time to sell your home.
2. With the quick deadline, you’re incentivizing the agent to focus more on getting a quick sale than on getting you a good price. Is that what you want?
3. Any agent who’d agree to a 30-day listing is desperate or doesn’t know what they’re doing, or both. Do you want an agent like that?
So what’s the solution?
List your home for 6 months…
…BUT only if the agent writes in a clause allowing you to cancel any time after that 30 days. Now that sounds like what you wanted in the first place, and it is. The difference is a smart agent knows that if they’re doing a good job you’ll stick with them.
Once again, if you don’t already know a great agent, call me at (858)457-KENT. Obviously I’ll be happy to write in such a clause.
