In listings there are two places for remarks. One is for public viewing and one is just for Realtors. The listing that your agent is supposed to show you doesn’t have the private remarks or any of the contact information for the seller and some other financial information.
In the Private Remark section there are two things I see a lot that make me scratch my head.
1)One is where the agent says, “Motivated Seller!!!!” There are always 4 exclamations marks…okay, usually.
Well, the house is listed on the RMLS so we already know they are motivated. So what does this mean? Do they really, really want someone to buy now, for reals?? Are they trying to change the energy of the house and give it a happy vibe?
If a home has that remark in the listing they shouldn’t get upset when they get low offers. Anyone who sees that is more than likely not to write a full offer, in any market not just a Buyer’s Market, it cries of desperation to most. (Update: After finding writing this post I found this article which has research saying that “Must Sell,” which I equate to Motivated Seller, reduces your sale price.)
Why not leave that out and drop the price? The reason may be that they know they will most likely get a low offer anyway and they hope that this declaration will get them an offer to start with. I think it actually lowers the value of the house because it says that no one has wanted it before and they really want you to like it now.
In one instance in 2004 I was helping an agent that was out of town. The seller had said that she was very flexible on the price and just wanted to sell it. I wrote an offer with the Buyers for $10,000 below the listing price. She came back with $1000 off the listing price and said don’t write and counter offer. The Buyers thought that she was just playing games and walked away.
2) So often I see expired listings that say, “Hurry, this one won’t last for long!” or some variation of that. Only one exclamation mark though. Why over do it?
Most listing contracts expire in 3-6 months, though I let people cancel anytime. What this shows me is that the agent doesn’t check his listings very often. If that sentence is in there for more than 2 weeks it just sounds silly.
When I worked with expired listings a lot in the beginning I would often find that these were the listings that Sellers would complain that their agent didn’t communicate with them much. The Seller was looking for someone they could communicate with and were done trying to talk to the previous agent.
So in my opinion don’t put the first remark in your listing and I don’t think the second one causes in urgency in agents. Anyone think different?
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