28 thoughts on “Lies Real Estate Agents Tell Homeowners With Expired Listings”

1. I’d like to sign up for this referral service. I assume print the form & scan/email or fax to where?
   We are next to Ft. Rucker, where the Army trains helicopter pilots, so we get 90% of our business from transfers – in, out, and management.

   Thank you,
   Travis Parker
   Realty Executives
   Meade & Associates, Inc.
   Enterprise, AL 36330

   • Travis:
     We don’t have agents sign up for this service. All our agents are selected based first on their track record in the client’s neighborhood selling houses similar to our client’s house during the past six months. From that list is where we find our agents. We start with the agents that sold the most and agents our clients have worked with in the past. Because we use this method to find our agents, we do not keep lists of agents or have agents sign up for our service. So if you’re interested in using our services then SELL, SELL, SELL and if we have a client in your area, we’ll find you.

     Bill Petrey
     AgentHarvest

     • So by the logic of this post and forum new agents can what? Go fish? In sales and particularly real estate there is a perception that new agents are bad, useless, and even dangerous. I really hate that attitude having been a new agent. By the way, some of the statements in this post are nearly word-for-word advice that was given to me from some brokers, and I do agree it’s bad. I’ll add my all-time favorite I encountered “Fake it until you make it” where you go fake it with potential clients. We all start at some point. Seriously though the sentiment and implication that only experienced agents are best suited is just not true. New agents can offer value.

       So where exactly do all these experienced agents get their experience? I mean they were new at one time, no? The fact of the matter is quite a few of the so called experienced agents are horrible, lack integrity, and are just as capable of lying. In some cases it might be advantageous to hire a new agent.

       The best bet anyone has of hiring a well-qualified agent (they don’t necessarily need to be a hyper local specialist, but same MLS would be a good idea) is to interview at least 5 agents. But do people do this when hiring listing agents? No. They call a bunch of agents and usually hire the first one that call them back.

       Ask the agents questions like:

       Are you full-time or part-time?

       How many homes have you sold in the last 3, 6, 12, 24 months?

       What is your list price to sale price ratio? Execution ratio in REO field?

       Do you have a sales plan to sell my home and could you explain it?

       Do you recommend syndicating my home to Zillow, Postlets, Craigslist and if not why?
       (There are both good reasons to not syndicate and to syndicate)

       Do you run your own website like a WordPress site, have it professionally managed, or use a basic
       MLS or Broker site? (Here’s a hint you don’t want your agent having a cookie cutter basic MLS or some basic website created by their brokerage unless it has serious tools on it).
       Follow up on the website: How effective is your website? How many people look at it in a month?
       Has any property you represented sold as a result of your website?

       Do you operate a Real Estate blog? If no blog why not?

       How many photos can I have in the MLS? Will you prepare my listing prior to making it go live? E.g. will it have maximum number of photos a well written call to action description?

       Will I get to review what you say about my home in the MLS (E.g., see the property description)?
       -On that note if an agent posts only one photo and sends a listing live they should be fired (just my 2 cents).

       Google some other questions for agents. You should interview listing agents seriously not just hire anyone. Also listen and be careful of agents trying to buy a listing, which is where that agent proposes a price point that’s higher than is realistic.

       • Sam:
         Great Post!! Thanks for sharing.

         The purpose of this blog is not to scare you away from new agents, but to make it harder for bad agents to fool homeowners. Unfortunately, an agent’s track record is the best indicator to determine future success. It’s the best because is hard to distort or cover up and is comparable to all other agents. Sure there are lots of traits that good agents use to sell a house but how do you measure them? The one thing all of the traits have in common is that when used effectively, they sell houses. So given that logic, why not look at sales records. I’m not saying that you should solely rely on a track record, but it does make a good start in weeding out the bad agents.

         Go fish? Never! My advice to new agents everywhere is to find the agency with the highest sales volume in the area you want to cover and find the agent or team responsible for a majority of those sales. Take that agent to lunch. Agents like free lunches by the way. See if you can team up with that agent, either by joining the team or assist the agent. Learn everything you can from that agent. If you don’t have a track record then join a team and take advantage of their track record. Sure, you’ll only be one of several cogs in a wheel, but it will be a wheel that’s rolling forward.

         I agree with your point that in real estate, the early bird gets the worm. Most people will hire the first agent they contact. Rarely does this work.

         Your questions are great. However I don’t place as much importance as you do on a website as you do. They must have a good looking site, but the most traffic is going to come from the other areas they advertise in like Realtor.com, etc. You should think of an agent’s site as a place to get more information about the house. I doubt it will be the first place they notice your house. More than likely that’s MLS or one of the MLS syndicated sites. I don’t think blogging is that big a deal, nor are social networks. Yes, that opinion came from me, a blogger. I believe these are great ways to establish trust and to win over new clients, but they do nothing to promote a listing. In most cases, they distract an agent from their listing due to the amount of time needed to make a good blog or social presence.

         I would add one more thing to your MLS photo suggestion. Demand your agent uses a professional camera, strobe flash and tripod. Make sure they take the time to take good pictures. If the agent relies on their smartphone to take MLS pictures, you can bet they will be dimly lit and unappealing.

         Thanks again for your great comments.

         Bill

2. LOL. Funny post, Bill. I would add the old classic “I am taking new clients and your home is the perfect candidate”.

3. Great post, thanks for sharing. Keep up the fantastic work and keep em coming!

4. I have listed and sold many many many listings that had expired with another agent. It had nothing to do with how many other homes I’d sold in their neighborhood, and all to do with managing the homeowners expectations and pricing the home correctly. In fact my most recent sale was 20 miles from the nethermost reach of my area. I was far from a neighborhood expert, but I did the comps. I don’t think pointing out how many homes a company sold in a particular neighborhood is lying. I have however, been a victim of Mike Ferry kool aid drinkers who have cold called around my listings and sales, implying they were representing my client.

   • Jane:
     You’re right, great agents sell houses and you can sell a house anywhere. However, when given the opportunity to find one of those great agents that know your neighborhood, then why not take advantage of it. In Dallas / Fort Worth, there are lots of little neighborhoods, towns, etc., that have their own quirky appeals and followings. Some areas even have their own small publications. Knowing all this info and knowing the right demographics that would be attracted to the neighborhood certainly makes for a better marketing campaign. However, I’m sure you’ll agree with me when I say that I’d rather have a great agent that worked 30 miles away than a bad agent that lived next door, knew the area but didn’t care to do anything about it.

     Tell me more about the Mike Ferry KoolAide drinkers implying they represent your client. May be a great item for Really Rotten Realty.

5. We had one agent tell us they’d be available 24/7. We told them no but we would call later if we changed our minds. We tried to reach them the next day with no answer. Not even a call back. Glad we waited. Good list of tips!
   Thanks

6. I can honestly say I am really tired of agents and their empty promises. I’ve had my house on the market now for 3 years and the number of “I have someone interested” stories we have heard, only to not even hear from them!
   Agents seem to always do the bare minimum which drives me mad, but then they are always around to collect their commission which they seldom earn.
   Are there any honest agents out there?

   All the best
   Bill Jenkins

   • Bill:
     Yes, I am happy to say that there are lots of good agents out there. You just have to know what to look for. To me, the most important thing I want to know when finding an agent is how many houses like mine, near mine has that agent sold and which agents sold the most. That’s the service we offer and best of all, it’s free. Unfortunately, the 80/10 rule applies to real estate in that 80% of all homes sold are only sold by 10% of the agents in that market. We help you avoid the 90%. If you need help finding an agent in the Dallas/ Fort Worth area, let me know.

7. The most important is we have to know what we like so that we do not depend our decisions to the agents. We should never trust anyone. We have to be careful always. We must make sure that agents are not lying to us before we believe them.

   • Jane:
     So true, but they’re not all that bad. The most important thing you can do is be skeptical during the interview and do some homework before hiring your agent. If you put the efforts into hiring, you can find an agent you can trust and rely on.

8. The thing that gets me about real estate agents is if they just took a little bit more time to get to know your property, its features and selling points rather than just trying to get you on the books this additional knowledge would shine through when carrying out viewings and would lead to faster sales. win – win. Unfortunately this level of interest is not too common.

   • Steve:
     You’re so right. Taking the time to know the house and neighborhood may also give them better marketing ideas too. Not only would familiarity increase sales, but if they just followed up on interested clients to try to encourage the sale.

9. Sellers with expired listings were already victims of price flattery and under marketing. I think they appreciate straight no bull compairables and blunt honesty. Sometimes the truth hurts, but not as bad as sitting on an empty house for another 6 months.

   • Nick:
     I agree. Advice is often taken the second time around after it’s been proven.

10. My homes just expired after being on the market almost 1 year. At first I did price it high and every couples of months I lowered it. Around 4 times. I did get a contract after 3 mos, but there were issues with the inspection, which I addressed and fixed, but they were scared off. Then Hurricane Sandy hit (I had no damage at all) but that slowed the market down a lot. Now I want to relist it at price that it will sell. By me lowering it several times prior, did that hurt my chances of getting a buyer, and should I wait a month before relisting it so it looks like a new listing? The realtor I had never brought anyone and I had to write my own ad because she said you couldn’t fit a lot of wording about the house in the description. She said she spend a good amount of time and money on advertising the house, and she probably did, but it still never sold. Of course, several agents have been calling me to relist my home. I’ve talked to two realtors that live in my neighborhood, one deals with high end homes, she made some suggestions, and the other sells any kind of homes, my home is in the $300 range with very little to compare with in my area. The last one made some good suggestions about putting information of what the area had to offer which the original agent never bother to investigate. It’s all very frustrating and confusing on whom to pick for a realtor. I asked all the questions and still don’t know what to do. Any suggestions.

    • Cindy:
      First of all, I’m so sorry about your having to suffer through Hurricane Sandy. I’m glad you and your home were spared. I speak from experience, having lived through Camille, Frederick and Opal while I lived on Mobile Bay.

      Without knowing much about your area, house, or market, I can offer this bit of advice. Yes probably dropping your price so often stigmatized your house. It’s an industry term called “chasing the market.” Please Google it for more info. By dropping the price, you’re unknowingly creating the impression that something’s wrong with it. Couple chasing the market with poor marketing and you have potential for an expired listing. Having a Sandy spared house may actually work to your advantage since there are a large number of buyers with destroyed homes and insurance checks.

      It sounds like the biggest problem you had was a bad Realtor. Your agent didn’t create a compelling MLS listing, priced it too high, and didn’t make it compete with the market. I’d be curious to see how other houses comparable to yours did?

      I would suggest that leaving it off the market for a month and listing it with another agent in another agency might be a good idea to make it look like a fresh listing. As far as choosing an agent, please take advantage of our articles and find an agent that knows the area, your neighborhood, the market and has a track record of selling homes in your city and neighborhood.

      Make sure you hire an agent that can impress you about their knowledge of your market, area, house, and how to market it effectively and creatively. If they can educate you on each of these aspects, then you can feel comfortable that they can handle it. Also make sure they are prompt to return your calls and that you can get along with their personality. If you can learn from them and like working with them, then they’ll probably do a good job and you can probably feel comfortable signing a 6 month listing agreement with them. Don’t go over 6 months, and less than 4 is probably not enough time to adequately give all their marketing time to take effect.

      To prevent this from happening again, part of the responsibility of selling a house falls on you too. You need to set goals and expectations then hold them accountable. If they fail then fire them. Remember, she’s an employee. She should have sat you down to explain why it’s important to price it right the first time, then proven to you why her price was correct. I’m bothered by her laziness or inability to create effective ad copy, especially when you could. Most important, if the listing failed to attract buyers, she should have explained why and what she was going to do about it.

      From what little I know about your situation, it sounds like you hired an agent that told you what you wanted to hear just to get your listing. She gave you a price you liked, not a price that would sell the house, she was too lazy to write her own ad copy and made you do it. Then she just sat back and waited for buyers to trickle in and didn’t put forth any effort to sell your house. Go to http://www.reallyrottenrealty.com and let me know if the tactics described in that site’s Sellers section applies to your situation. If so, maybe you hired a Really Rotten Agent.

      From what you’ve described about the agents you’re currently talking to, it sounds like you’re on the right path to hiring a good agent. Just make them prove it. I hope this bit of info helps.

11. “once the for sale sign is planted you’ll never hear from them again”

    A bit arrogant don’t you think? I am a Realtor and make sure communication is at the top of my list with my sellers. You are putting all agents in the same class here, not cool. Maybe your should reconsider your verbiage.

    Maybe something like:

    “Some find that a lot of agents will put a sign in the yard and you’ll never hear form them again, relying on the MLS to bring the buyer, but not all agents are created equal, and there are plenty of agents that actually work hard to sell your home”

    • Ryan, not that arrogant at all. Keep in mind, I’m also a licensed Realtor. This article does not attempt to claim all agents are bad agents or liars. Instead, this article is exclusively targeting the tactics of agents that lie. I’m glad you put communication at the top of your list. Sadly many don’t and I think a lack of communication is one of the biggest reasons why people are dissatisfied with the industry in general.

      I like your modified verbage, but I think modifying this sentence would clarify everything.

      “Expect calls from lying real estate agents trying to weasel their way into your home to steal away your listing.”

      I’ll change it to:

      “Expect calls from a handful of dishonest real estate agents that will lie to you to weasel their way into your home to steal away your listing.”

      That should clarify things. Thank for your input.

12. You said it. Homes pretty much sell themselves, at the right price.

    That would mean that listing agents are pretty much useless. Let’s face it, it’s true for the most part. After the listing is posted on the MLS, the listing agent becomes a door attendant and waits for the buyer’s agents to do their thing. The “best” agents might spend some money for a photographer, a newspaper ad, some flyers and postcards, but after that, they sit on their listing.

    Because the better listing agents are equally useless, they have to lie to get a leg up. There’s nothing a good listing agent can do that the next good agent can’t do. So, what do you have left to play with, your charm? Your charm won’t sell a home either.

    Half the expired listings on my MLS are overpriced.
    The other half of expired listings have absolutely s****y pictures and presentation. When I look at those crappy pictures, I don’t even want to look at the house in person.

    Standards and work ethic need to be raised.

    We should also educate sellers that the market determines home prices, not the agents.
    If I were a seller, I would choose the agent who told me this, not someone who boasts that he could sell for 25% over market value.

    And regarding what Sam Trevino said above about websites……. let’s cut the bull****. 99.9% of agent personal websites are useless and get no traffic. Home shoppers all use zillow and trulia these days.
    Show me your Alexa ranking. For comparison, agentharvest.com is not even on the map, ranked at 1,170,945, while zillow is ranked 256 globally. You think an agent’s personal website will get hits worth a damn? Because zillow grabs MLS photos, your photos need to be the best they can be. Even better, you need video that doesn’t just show pictures zoomed and panned.

    • Ken:
      Great comments. Let me address each paragraph individually.

      “That would mean that listing agents are pretty much useless. Let’s face it, it’s true for the most part. After the listing is posted on the MLS, the listing agent becomes a door attendant and waits for the buyer’s agents to do their thing. The “best” agents might spend some money for a photographer, a newspaper ad, some flyers and postcards, but after that, they sit on their listing.”

      Actually, that’s a small part of the process. Assuming they are a good agent, they help sellers prepare the house for sale, recommending repairs, improvements, staging, photographing, copy writing for MLS and brochures, website, etc. to make it more appealing to buyers. Then they market the house by putting it on MLS, announcing it to their buyer’s lists, promoting it to other agents in their brokerage, and by promoting it to other brokerages and agents in the market area. Then, they work to drive traffic to the house, followup with the buyers who saw the house, and make sure it remains competitively priced. After a buyer makes an offer then the agent helps the seller negotiate an agreeable price. Then once the contract is accepted, they work with lenders, appraisers, inspectors, and title companies making sure that everything flows smoothly between the title company, lender, inspectors, appraisers, buyer and seller, and make sure all documents are presented within deadlines. They also track the progress and keep the seller updated.

      However, if it’s a bad agent, you comment is probably correct.

      “Because the better listing agents are equally useless, they have to lie to get a leg up. There’s nothing a good listing agent can do that the next good agent can’t do. So, what do you have left to play with, your charm? Your charm won’t sell a home either.”

      Charm alone won’t get the listing. Good agents present their marketing plans and listing plans that include everything I mentioned above. Stats only go so far. Keep in mind that not every house is desirable nor every seller realistic. Good agents also educate the seller in the process. Sadly, charm, a nice smile, a flashy car, and a sexy headshot do win listings. If that’s all the agent has going for them, it’s usually an expired listing in the making.

      You mentioned that there’s nothing a good agent can do that a bad one can’t. Yes, that’s true, but the fact is the bad agents DON’T DO THOSE THINGS. For example, every agent is skilled enough to use a phone. However, there are so many agents out there that don’t bother to return phone calls. Anyone can do it, but few actually do. That’s the difference.

      “Half the expired listings on my MLS are overpriced.
      The other half of expired listings have absolutely s****y pictures and presentation. When I look at those crappy pictures, I don’t even want to look at the house in person.”

      That’s probably true. However, I recommend that you DO look at the listings with bad pictures. That’s where the bargains are, especially the ones with NO pictures. Why no pictures? Usually it’s because the listing is a FSBO that the client paid an agent to put on MLS, but didn’t want to pay extra for pictures. You can often save $1000’s on the sale price because the seller was too cheap to pay the $50 – $150 for pictures.

      “Standards and work ethic need to be raised.”

      Sadly that’s true. We need titles that are hard to obtain. You pass a test to get a license and pay a fee to become a Realtor. Accreditations are also pretty easy to obtain. Sadly you can be a licensed agent and a Realtor BEFORE you sell your first house. That makes them pretty much useless titles in my book, even though I have both. We need a designation or title that is only earned by accomplishments and results. This is what we’re trying to accomplish with the AgentHarvest Elite.

      “We should also educate sellers that the market determines home prices, not the agents.
      If I were a seller, I would choose the agent who told me this, not someone who boasts that he could sell for 25% over market value.”

      I think agents should put more time explaining the process they used to determine the price, explaining comparables, describing the competition, showing how competitors are priced, given their amenities, and explaining how the seller’s house fits into the competitive lineup. They also need to show ways to increase the listing price by fixing up or modifying the property. Agents fail in explaining it’s the market setting price and not the agent. Instead, an agent will just throw out a price. That’s a big mistake could make sellers think the price comes from the agent, not the market.

      “And regarding what Sam Trevino said above about websites……. let’s cut the bull****. 99.9% of agent personal websites are useless and get no traffic. Home shoppers all use zillow and trulia these days.
      Show me your Alexa ranking. For comparison, agentharvest.com is not even on the map, ranked at 1,170,945, while zillow is ranked 256 globally. You think an agent’s personal website will get hits worth a damn? Because zillow grabs MLS photos, your photos need to be the best they can be. Even better, you need video that doesn’t just show pictures zoomed and panned.”

      Yes, I hate most agent websites. Most are nothing more than a poor man’s Realtor.com. I think most agents go astray with websites when they focus on showcasing their listings and only including a small writeup about them. Their site should showcase THEIR talents and abilities and how those abilities can help sell your home (or help you buy). They should also provide detailed info about their listings that can’t be found anywhere else, but linked to everywhere else.

      Alexa rankings mostly geared towards tech related sites since you have to have the Alexa toolbar loaded on your browser to cast a vote. Most non-tech visitors don’t have the toolbar loaded. Zillow is huge and gets lots of links and traffic. AgentHarvest is never going to be as popular as Zillow, nor will it have as large a promotional budget as Zillow does, but we don’t have to harness a majority of home shopper traffic to accomplish our goals of helping home buyers and sellers find good agents.

      Even though we’re not as popular as Zillow, we can’t be too obscure. You found us. Heck, even Zillow staff have read some of our articles. They’ve said so. Agent websites do have an advantage in local searches. The rest of what you say is spot on correct. I’d like to see a video that is more like a guided tour than a modified still shot. Narrate it, show stats and graphs, make it a story rather than a slideshow. Now that would be something to see.

      • On the subject of video tours, check out John Burns at RealtyUSA, Binghamton NY. He films a narrated tour of his listings, walks you through and tells you about the property and the area. Also has a Sunday AM cable show. He is the big dog in the area.

13. Wow, you know what I dislike, other agents that try to make a living off of trashing my career and my fellow Realtors….

    • John:
      So you think an article about agents that lie and mislead clients just to gain their listing under false pretenses, thereby violating the Realtors Code of Ethics, applies to you and your real estate agent friends?

      Assuming you don’t use these tactics to mislead clients, you’re reading this all wrong. It’s not anti-Realtor. It’s just anti-bad real estate agent. You have to admit that there are good Realtors and bad real estate agents out there. The good real estate agents help consumers, and the bad ones end up hurting consumers in the long run. This blog is about giving consumers info they need to hire one of the good ones while avoiding the bad ones. One way you do that is to expose the lies and misconceptions. This article focuses on the lies.

      I don’t earn money trashing bad real estate agents, as you suggest. What I do is far worse. I make money helping consumers avoid hiring bad real estate agents all together, even in Trumbull, Connecticut.

14. Bill – I love what you are doing here. I am starting a website to help FSBO sellers and after interviewing 14 sellers I have more than a handful of stories about dishonest agents. The reputation of the real estate agent community is in their own hands and I am glad to see you are doing something about this. I wish more of the folks commenting above would step up and do something bout this as well instead of wasting time arguing with you. Keep up the good work and if I have any one looking for an agent I am going to send them your way.

    • Jake:
      Thanks so much for the words of encouragement. Good luck with your website. Email me a link. I want to take a look at it.

      Thanks
      Bill Petrey

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