The house was a 2,000-square-foot rambler with large windows in the back overlooking a terrace and pool. And the exasperated seller, a retired widower, couldn’t fathom why he’d gone more than six months without an offer.
His questions were answered after his listing agent asked colleagues to join a “crisis team” to take a serious look at the property and brainstorm on ways to hasten its sale.
Team members suggested that the mint green walls be painted shell white and that the heavy brocade draperies be taken down to brighten the rooms. Once the widower took their advice, the house sold in a week.
“It certainly can’t hurt to have other viewpoints on the same house,” says Bette Buffington, broker-owner of a Re/Max Realty office, who served as the widower’s listing agent.
Of course, the listing agent should be the one to take the lead in helping the seller prepare and price his house for market. But use of a “crisis team,” made up of several real estate specialists, can mean more ideas in the pot.
“It’s another tool to accomplish the sale of a home,” says David McIlvaine, an ERA agent who often uses such an approach on tough-to-sell properties.
To be sure, the listing agent has an intense interest in making a property saleable. But even a top-flight agent can lose the element of objectivity, especially after he or she has worked closely with a seller for weeks.
“Sometimes as an agent you get too close to a listing and you don’t see those little negatives in the house,” McIlvaine says. Like a movie viewer who identifies with the subject of a film, the agent may come to identify with his client’s own subjective reasoning about what a house does and doesn’t need done to it.
In some instances, use of a crisis team, also known as a “troubleshooting team,” can have the important result of reinforcing suggestions already made by the listing agent.
“Maybe the agent has had a hard time getting his clients to listen,” Buffington says.
She contends that some clients are especially skeptical of the motivation of an agent who suggests a price reduction, believing the agent is “just trying to take the easy way out.” They’ll only agree to a needed price reduction if several agents make a case for it.
Besides offering helpful pointers on how to price a property and make it more acceptable to the market, the use of a crisis team can spare an owner needless expense by ruling out unnecessary changes.
Are you finding it difficult to market your home? Then these four pointers on the use of a “crisis team” could prove of value.
1. Carefully track the time your house has been on the market and don’t wait to seek outside help.
If the average listing in your neighborhood has sold within 90 days and your house has reached the three-month mark without any serious offers, you’re past due for explanations, McIlvaine says.
Rather than changing listing agents, you could ask a current agent to form a crisis team composed of three to five colleagues. Ideally, the office sales manager and at least two experienced agents should be included to render seasoned advice.
Realty people-who work in a cooperative industry-are accustomed to doing favors for each other without charge. Nor should you have to pay for these outside “consultants” to render their opinions on your home.
2. Ask for a home-improvement contractor to join your crisis team meeting if major repairs may be in order.
Do you have a hunch you’ll need to replace your aging vinyl kitchen floor and outdated kitchen cabinets? Then having a contractor present could help you quickly assess the time and cost for such changes, McIlvaine says.
3. Attend your own crisis meeting and take heed of the advice.
You may not believe your agent when she says you need a $10,000 price cut to move your property. But it’s probably wise to be persuaded to that point of view when it’s shared by four realty specialists seated in your living room.
“It’s self-defeating not to listen to objective opinions,” says Marguerite J. Allen, who sells homes through the Century 21 chain.
4. Don’t wait for a crisis to seek others’ opinions next time you sell.
Your house need not have been sitting on the market for many weeks before you seek others’ opinions. Indeed, it’s a wise seller who asks his listing agent to gather colleagues’ views in advance of putting his place up for sale, says Buffington, the Re/Max broker.
Agents routinely take colleagues from the same office on a “tour” of a new listing they’ve acquired. They also conduct “brokers’ open houses” to introduce other agents to their listings.
While it’s not the purpose of a tour or brokers’ open house to conduct a critique of a property, such a function could serve that purpose, Buffington says. To do this, the listing agent should take notes on the views of the other agents present or ask them to fill out questionnaires.
It’s a smart seller who will gather feedback-however negative-before his property goes stale on the market, Buffington believes.
