Choosing a Listing Agent: Price or Performance, Part 2

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Remember my last post? This one, which I posted in October, about a client who listed their house with another agent who charged them less than I would have.

The house she was trying to sell has since sold and closed, and so I asked her to recap her experience.
She summed it up this way – “He was ok. You get what you pay for.”

Basically, she said saved a lot of money, but there were numerous frustrating things. The agent encouraged her to lower the price of the house instead of fixing an item called out on the home inspection report. He also told her that the item in question was water damage when it was actually a siding issue, which, if left unchecked, could, years down the road, POSSIBLY, lead to water damage. She repeatedly requested a copy of the inspection report and only after she got a copy did she discover the true situation I outlined above.

The details weren’t taken care of, either. She still had some keys to hand over to the new owners WEEKS after it had closed.

You know how if you don’t get a job, you’re supposed to call and ask the hiring manager why you didn’t get the job? Let me tell you a secret…I HATE to do that, and therefore usually don’t. However, I took a deep breath and asked Theresa the following – “Quick question – if someone asked you who they should use for their Realtor, would you still recommend me, or would you say it doesn’t matter, just price matters?”

She responded that she’d ask the person which was more important, price or service, and respond accordingly. And if the person was a buyer, she’d definitely recommend me (the seller pays for the Realtors involved in a sale).

I am so thankful I had this experience. I learned a lot about my business, my brand, and the perception of real estate and real estate agents by the general public.

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About The Author
Cari McGee

My husband and I came to the Tri-Cities in 1994, and we thought it would be a temporary stop on our way to larger cities. He was a television sports anchor at the time, and we planned to go wherever the "next step up" took us. Twenty-plus years later, we're still here and we've loved every minute of it! We have two children now, and we've found the Tri-Cities area is a wonderful place to raise a family. It's a great place to do outdoorsy things -- I like to hike Badger Mountain or run along the river path. I also love reading ... by a cozy fire in the winter or a beautiful picture window in the summer (with the A/C on!). I've been a licensed Realtor since 2004. I earned my managing broker's license in 2016, which means I can run my own brokerage, or create a team of real estate agents and supervise them, which is exactly what I did when I formed the Cari McGee Real Estate Team in 2018! We have administrative and marketing personnel, as well as additional agents to serve you. I became a director of the Tri-Cities Association of Realtors Board of Directors in 2016, became Secretary/Treasurer of the organization, and was elected to Vice President in 2019. Want to talk about real estate? Click here to schedule a meeting with me!

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