Technical Tuesday – February 9th
On Thursday of last week, you would have found me walking around Costco. With a household of five teenagers, this isn’t out of the ordinary. In fact, it’s not uncommon to find me wandering the aisles of Costco multiple times per week. But then something odd happened while standing in the frozen section surrounded by ready to eat options and wondering if an entire family size bag of dumplings would last more than 30 minutes once three eternally ravenous teenagers set their eyes on the prize.
I received a call from the Huntsville/ Madison County MLS board ‘Teresa’ had called to inform me that not one but THREE complaints – back to back – had been registered against me.
At that moment everything from the gluten free pizzas to the buzz of other shoppers faded into the background. To me, this was a grievous moment. I live both my personal and professional life to a very high standard of integrity. What could have possibly gone wrong?
Why was I reported: My sign was in the yard of a home. Specifically, a home in a very desirable neighborhood with features only available on only a minute percentage of the houses in the Huntsville and Madison county area.
Who complained: Other Realtors.
What was the complaint: “The house has a sign in the yard but I cant find it listed on the Multiple Listings Service (MLS) and this was clearly not fair”.
Once ‘Teresa’ and I worked through what had transpired, we were both relived and a bit frustrated. The complaint was clearly bogus. We agreed on one important fact. The other Realtors did not understand a fundamental basic of selling houses.
As a Realtor with more than 13 years of experience, allow me to drop a bit of knowledge to those in my profession that don’t quite understand the nuances.
When meeting with clients thinking of listing, I always go over three options:
- List your property on the MLS – This is what I recommend to most of my clients. This option takes the most effort but often brings a best price for clients and it includes the full gambit. Just to scratch the surface, there are photographers, staging the house, and being ready at a moment’s notice to evacuate for showings. All the normal things almost everyone has gone through once or twice in their lives.
- Office Exclusive Listing – In an office exclusive, the seller doesn’t want the hassles associated with a full listing. Often, I’ll have a list of buyers – mostly executives – I’ve met with over the past years. We’ve identified the list of wants and needs and I keep this list in the back of my mind when a property comes across my desk. I match the buyer and seller with the market value of the property. This also allows the information to be released to other agents within my office. That way they still get the exposure to over 200 agents in our market. The information would be released to the MLS only after the home was sold. Releasing the sales information to the MLS helps maintain accuracy of home values for our neighborhoods.
- Off Market Sale – Realtors can assist with selling a house off market as well. This option works almost identically to the office exclusive with one very important item – the information is not released to the MLS or other agents.
Both ‘Teresa’, my office, and the Realtors in my mentor group all came to the same conclusion; The Realtors that made the complaint were simply unhappy they did not have the listing.
Interestingly, I discovered all three were from the same office but I’ll keep that bit of information between myself and the fence post.
As you can guess by now, my clients chose the second option – the office exclusive. It fit their goals perfectly and both buyer and seller are still very satisfied clients. And really, isn’t that what matters the most when the dust clears and all is said and done?
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