This one had to be referred to a colleague, as one of the clients was too close to me for me to take the listing personally. The home had been for sale almost a year with no success. The price had been lowered numerous times, and while they still had equity, the loss on paper was significant. One party had moved out and the other remained in the domicile.
The first broker was unsuccessful in getting the property sold for about a year, and was slow in responding to the client on showings, feedback, and other questions that arose. But the straw that broke the camel’s back was when the listing agents failed to disclose to the seller who had moved out that the occupant brought in professionals without clearing it with the soon to be ex. While confidentiality is one of our mandates, that does not include secrets one principal wants to keep from the other.
That agent lost the listing when it expired.
The new referral I brought in met with both parties, made some changes to the marketing that highlighted the best attributes of the house, and brought in the buyer in the first week the listing was active-without changing the price.
The takeaway here was that while it may be uncomfortable to be fully transparent between two acrimonious parties, you can never keep anything concealed at the behest of one principal from another. The counterintuitive thing here was also that there were two agents when it didn’t sell and only one when it did. Expertise trumps raw numbers.
