Barrington real estate seller no different then home sellers across the country

I received a phone call today from a Barrington real estate seller who received one of our direct mail pieces concerning the importance of the internet in exposing your Barrington IL Real Estate for sale to the most potential buyers. The homeowner went on to tell me that they do not want to sell their home with a real estate agent since they had their Barrington area home previously listed with a Brokerage and never heard from the agent again.

Hmm.. Of course, I had to find out which real estate brokerage that it was and it turned out that it was a very respectable franchised brokerage which tends to have experienced real estate agents. I'm not exactly sure about this particular Chicago real estate agency since they are not based in Barrington, but some real estate brokerages do not allow dual agency (Representing both the Seller and the Buyer) even though it is allowed in Illinois.  (I don't blame other Real Estate Brokers for not allowing this since it can cause more problems then it is worth... especially if you have newer or inexperienced real estate agents in your office.)

The home owner went on to tell me that once their Barrington home was listed, other real estate agents brought buyers over to view their Barrington home but their listing agent did not bring one buyer over.

Ohh.. Immediately the real issue of why this homeowner is upset with all Real Estate Brokers came to light. The failure of the previous real estate agent to educate their client concerning the job of a real estate brokerage when they list your home for sale.

Some real estate agents do not represent buyers and only concentrate on listing homes for sale and (Hopefully) marketing the home. If this is the case, it should be explained to the client so the homeowner does not get mad when you, their listing agent does not bring buyers over. Of course, if you don't communicate with the seller and show them what you are doing to effectively market the home, the seller obviously thinks you are doing nothing -- especially if you don't bring buyers over.

Listing a Barrington home involves much more then just signing some paperwork, putting it into the Multiple Listing Service and ordering a sign up. It also involves educating the client about dual agency and the role of the listing agent in marketing the home for sale in it's best light to the most potential buyers.

Taking some extra time to inform sellers of dual agency, educating the seller about proper pricing and explaining other roles of the listing agent including preparing the home for sale, marketing the home to the most potential buyers, representing the sellers best interest in negotiations, contract signing and insuring the escrow process goes smoothly could have kept this potential seller from disliking all real estate agents in general.  Unfortunately, during my attempt to explain the proper process and what the Barrington real estate seller should expect, this particular Barrington home seller only focused on commission rates.  

Something tells me that when a Seller focuses too much on commission rates and not concentrating on asking the questions concerning the services that should be received, they are going to end up with the same results.

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