“Why won’t that agent list my house?” It may come as a shock to some home sellers that they may get turned down for listing their home.
Every once in a while, Clair and I turn down seller client offers to list their home. We do want great listings, and we want to work with people who are nice, honest, serious about selling, and realistic. We aren’t the only licensees who are careful about the folks we elect to work with.
Right now, the market is cooler in price points under $2.5 million or so. Homes are taking longer to sell. Some are selling for less than expected. Some end up getting delisted.
The bottom line is that most agents won’t list a house unless they believe that they can sell it, so with too many red flags, they may pass. (A list of red flags follows.)
New agents (or brokerages, for that matter) or those struggling may be less picky. This may be confusing to home owners who find that some Realtors will agree to list the home, others won’t – so let’s discuss it a little.
Why won’t that agent list my house?
Real estate licensees aren’t just people who hold open houses on weekends. Rather, real estate agents are independent businesspeople in the business of selling real estate. Many of them work 50+ hours per week. In order to be successful, they have to evaluate the probability of success, whether with buyers or sellers, before deciding to take on those clients.
If they agree to work with buyers who never buy or sellers who never sell, they will be out of time, out of money, and if they make this judgement mistake too often, out of business entirely. About 85% of new agents drop out of the business before they hit the 5 year mark. Seasoned agents leave in droves when there’s a market downturn. Those who are surviving or thriving are very judicious about how they expend their time and resources.
Red flags
Under some circumstances, home sellers may project enough “red flags” or have unreasonable expectations such that real estate agents will turn down the chance to list their home. If you’re asking “Why won’t that agent list my house?”, check the following list and consider if any of it applies.
Here are a few things I’ve run into over the years, either personally or heard about from other agents who said no to sellers:
- Unrealistic expectation on likely sales price of the home (demanding more than the probable buyer’s value of the home). This is usually a matter of scale (how far off are they?) and whether there seems to be flexibility if their way doesn’t work to adjust the price later. All the marketing in the world won’t be useful if the seller won’t accept realistic pricing.
- Not permitting basic marketing or access avenues (no open house, no sign, no lockbox) or unwilling to follow sound professional advice on staging, presale inspections to make the property attractive to buyers – these are “basics”.
- Unwilling to compensate agents or brokers reasonably OR expecting them to take on far more work than is to be expected (or legally allowed) in selling a property (such as overseeing the entire remodel of a house – we are not general contractors!).
- Overly restrictive showings (requiring too much advance notice, insisting that listing agent be present for all showings, or only allowing showings on certain days / times).
- Problems with showings (messy or smelly homes, or sellers insist on staying home during showings, follow buyers around in the house etc.).
- Secretiveness – when sellers won’t level with agents about their plans it sets a bad, or even scary, tone that causes agents to worry about hidden risks.
- Bad behavior, rudeness or nastiness, second guessing or micro-managing – some sellers may want to call the agent daily or desire to oversee even the smallest detail on marketing the home (see every email sent, for example). Others can be rude or insulting. Some even seem to want to fight, like every conversation is a negotiation they need to win. Or constantly double check everything the agent says to verify every angle or detail and then quotes back to the agent “well another agent I know says…” which is frustrating and insulting. Sometimes home owners listen to others, such as coworkers, who are unqualified to give real estate advice and choose to heed that “over the cubicle wall advice” over the advice of their agent (see # 2 above).
- Concerns over legal problems and liability. That might look like a home owner with dementia selling the house rather than the adult kids or other friends or relatives getting a power of attorney to do it for the parent (I have run into this directly). If there are any mental capacity issues, it is a lawsuit waiting to happen. Or maybe there’s a conflict between heirs, or a messy divorce, where the opinions are split about selling at all! We’ve even seen owners who wanted to lie on their disclosures – no thank you!
- Unreasonable expectations for the role of their agent, or which do not line up with the services we provide. This is a very broad category, but might include expecting us to act beyond our capacity as real estate licensees and do tasks that they should do or that they should hire a general contrator to do (that require a contractor’s license). Another example is expecting us to work 7 days a week or at all hours of the day or night. Or holding the property open every weekend for 10 weeks straight. Agents must have boundaries. These are red flags that point to a “high maintenance” home seller situation, and could lead into a legal minefield if an agent oversteps.
Most of the time, real estate agents want to list good homes and have the opportunity to market and sell them. If they (or we) see enough “red flags” with a seller or the property, though, there may be no hesitation to decline the opportunity.
Often, these same houses do not sell the first time they are on the market but later become an expired, withdrawn or cancelled listing. (Sometimes they simply take a very long time to sell as the owners adjust to market realities and begin to accept their agent’s advice.) Sellers wonder to themselves, “why didn’t my house sell?” The answer is often an inflated price but just as often there are other problems compounding the failed sales effort too, very frequently an unwillingness to follow professional real estate advice.
Not every home will sell. A wise real estate sales person will not get hooked into a listing agreement where the seller isn’t as motivated to sell the property as the agent is to sell it. This is a team effort, requiring a shared vision of what needs to happen and the willingness to act on it.
Even under the best of circumstances, homes don’t always sell. So if there are big issues with the seller or the way the home is shown, it’s a bad business decision for the real estate licensee to get tied to them – it’s too much like trying to do the job with one hand tied behind your back. Who agents and brokers work with is ultimately a business decision. If they are turning you down for the listing contract, at the end of the day it’s usually a statement about your or your property’s business risk.
If you are confused as to why they decline the opportunity to list your house, townhouse or condo, you can always ask them, and most likely you’ll get a helpful answer.
Reading related to Why won’t that agent list my house?
Market stats, updated monthly, for Santa Clara County (and San Mateo County)
Selling Your Silicon Valley Home: Staging & Color
