We purchased a foreclosure home in a college town so that my daughter could live in it while she finished her degree. She has now graduated and we finished completely remodeling the house both inside and out. It is a 4 bedroom, 2 ˝ bath in a nice residential neighborhood (not a college student rental area) so we are marketing it to a single family. We don’t know the agents in the area so we went with the recommendation of a friend. Problem is that we have learned that this agent is just OK and not a real go getter as far a marketing goes. How do we identify a real top producing agent when we don’t know any agents in that area?

Roger I am going to give it to you straight. Most brokers/agents aren't spending much on marketing because most regular homes aren't moving with the surplus out there.

You should evaluate what you can get in this market from a professional not someone who will tell you what you want to hear to get a listing.

No amount of marketing in the world will sell an overpriced listing.Hopefully you didn't overimprove your property and now have to sell at an unattainable price in this market.

If that's the case you could switch 10 brokers and it would not matter.You might be better off NOT selling right now if you want top dollar and wait until the market return to the seller side.

Before looking for another broker/agent make sure that is the reason it is not selling and not the price.

It depends on the market, super realtor. It would be irresponsible of us to tell consumers that regular homes aren't moving, across the board, without knowing what market they are in. If the home were in Texas, there very well could be a problem with lack of marketing, because our homes are selling.

Roger, first I would suggest you have a Come to Jesus talk with your agent and find out just what marketing is being done. Absentee owners often get shorted because you aren't there to demand these things, so agents may try to skate by with less. Find out what is being done, outline your expectations, and implement a plan for checking that they are done. If they aren't, THEN start looking for another agent.

Often the consumer's perception of a real go getter as far as marketing goes may be skewed as to the reality of what works.

Like I said before in ALOT of cases the seller feels it is not being marketed correctly when PRICE is the issue. If you aren't truly motivated to sell at MARKET PRICE (what a buyer is willing to pay for a property right now) then you don't need to be selling.

I get calls all the time from sellers unhappy with there broker/agent. I analayze what has been before to move the property and the list price. I find a majority of the time it is overpriced and that undermarketing comes up some of the time but price is usually the main reason.

Top producers have the natural ability to get unlrealistic sellers in line with market expectations to close transactions.

Just because you finished something inside an dout and it is the nicest property around DOES NOT mean people will pay way above market for it. It means if 10 buyers look at 5 properties and yours is the nicest given list prices are the same or close they will most likley all put offers on yours.

We are in different areas of the country. You really need to go to the agent's broker if you are unhappy with the level of service or insight you are getting. If you don't like thier answer ask for a termination a relist with someone else.

Interview multiple broker/agents and get ACTION PLANS in writing and signed so there is no miscommunication on what is being required.

I like TBs "Come To Jesus" Talk. I have such talks with sellers more and more about WHY the house is not moving. I can only get so much when working with so little.

Thanks for all the good advice and comments. We have been down the seller’s road a few times so this is not our first experience. I may have understated our current agent. She is more of a “They will come to me type person.” Spends her required time at her desk, phone duties, and weekly meetings but other than that not really out there marketing herself. Her online presence is limited to what her broker has listed on their website. She even told me that she has never asked one of her past clients for their email address.

I sell an online real estate newsletter service to agents across the country, and I am an affiliate member of NAR. In these slow times people are spending more and more time searching the internet prior to contact with an agent. We setup a newsletter for her several months ago but she only sends it to a few other agents due to not having farmed any client email address.

The home is priced on the higher side of average for the market but not overpriced. I know that the market is down but this area is more local economy driven and jobs have been stable. The actual marketing of the property has probably been average compared to equal listings.

I guess I should have asked how do I find that agent that is more active = more listings= more showings =more contracts. Without going to every agents website to pull up their listings. Also several agents listings page has the fill out your contact information before you can look at my listings page which I don’t want to do if I just shopping around.

I agree with these guys and would also suggest:
1. Make sure the listing is on the internet - not just MLS/Realtor.com, but the agent and broker's sites, and make sure they are pushing it out to listing sites and advertising on Craigslist, etc. (a lot of this can be done at little to no cost to the agent).
2. As you are an absentee owner, request and expect a weekly update - who called, emailed, etc. Were there any showings?
3. Make sure it's priced right and stays that way - if it's been on the market over 30 days, get an updated market analysis now, and have the agent send you another cma every 30 days at a minimum.
4. If you still feel less than satisfied, talk to the agent's broker. Find out if they can get with the agent and make any suggestions they think might help.

As to how to identify a top producing agent... If I needed an agent in an area I wasn't familiar with (and I wasn't an agent myself) I would approach a local top producer that I respected and ask them to locate an agent for me. They can research and find an agent based on education, designations and references. They will put the time in to find a good agent for you, because they will hopefully get a referral fee when the property sells.

a "top producing" agent might not have time to devote to your property, especially if it is below the price range they typically deal with. the so-called "top producers" aren't always the best choice.

You have to be techno savvy right now as most people look online for properties and usually give business to the first or second broker/agent they come in contact with.

Roger most volume top producers have teams to handle the volume. So some really awesome brokers might cap there listings at 15 to 20 at a time and refer out the rest as they want to give a certain level of service.

Roger have you been given any BUYER REPORTS or comments on the property. For example if 30 buyer comments say TOO HIGH then whether you think the price is inline or not the market is telling you it's too high. At that point you have to decide to reduce to sell or take off the market and rent out and wait for the market to go up again.

Usually the listings priced in the lower 50 percent of the range for similar properties are selling first. If you are priced at the top of the curve you will always be chasing the market downward.

Tell your agent what you want and if they are not ready to do that cut them and get someone else.

In a declining market you need to be priced on the lower end of the curve/average. If you are not priced at the bottom of your range then you are overpriced.

The one thing the internet has done is educate buyers. In this market buyers are looking for a deal. Buyers do not even consider properties priced on the higher side of average.

Not defending the agent but the real problem is your price.

"more active = more listings= more showings =more contracts"

This gives insight into what quite a few seller's are thinking. One thing to consider is if an agent has a large number of listings, how much time can they allocate to yours? Super Realtor made a comment that you should consider in finding a new agent and that is to pick a "top producer" that aggressively manages a smaller number of listings say 10-20. As a broker, this is the type of person I would find if I were selling somewhere else.

Many of the agents have commented on this and hopefully you can take this point is that there is not enough marketing or any top prodcing agent that can sell an overpriced listing. You MUST be priced properly in order to sell.

First, you will need to analyze the situation:

-How many showings? Your agent and the other agents. If there are no showings from other agents, you have a price issue.

-Feedback from other agents and their clients. You should be able to identify the problem.

-If the property is on the market over 30 days, you should have a price reduction plan.

While buyers are coming also from other sources, almost all the time is another agent that is bringing in a buyer.

Roger I have 2 words for you


'Absorption Rate'



as for the top producer in your properties area … I’d recommend scouring the real estate print media and find the RE agent with the biggest brightest set of teeth in the magazine … realtor with a big smile is sure to get that property moving …

How would you go about finding an agent with a great internet presence, who is more active, who is good at marketing?

Look online.

I have more leads than I can handle right now (referring people out) and it's all because I'm all over the Internet.

Look online - see who's most active - who has a regular real estate blog that is actually worthwhile? Go to ActiveRain.com and look for someone in the area where the house is located.

And think about the price.

After wasting several months with a putz of a realtor, I found my new realtor on homethinking.com. She sold 20 homes last year while the putz sold 0.