THE MOST DANGEROUS THING YOU CAN SIGN is a "standard" selling agreement. Thousands of sellers make this mistake - they signup with an agent without realising what they are doing. Once you sign, you are at the mercy of the agent. You have lost control. That's why many agents describe sellers as being "controlled" - it means the agent has control.

Agents may say their agreement is "standard". But it is designed to the agent's standard, not to your standards. It totally protects agents. It barely protects you.

Be careful. An agent's selling agreement is a legal contract. Treat it seriously

 
IF YOU DON'T TRUST THE AGENT, DON'T HIRE THE AGENT.

The most important ingredient in any relationship, business or personal, is trust. Before you choose your agent, ask many questions, check references, insist on a GUARANTEE, test their negotiating skills and ask yourself a BIG question: Do I feel comfortable with this person handling the sale of my family home? If your answer is 'no', do not hire the agent.

 
ONE OF THE MOST COMMON MISTAKES made by sellers is believing the price the agent quotes for the sale of their home.

Once you sign-up with the agent, if the selling price is less than the price you were quoted, too bad. There is nothing in the "standard" real estate agreements that compels agents to honour their quotes.

The 'Quote Trap' catches thousands of sellers who are told one price before they sign-up and another price after they have signed-up.

As absurd as it seems, if a home sells for any price, the agent still gets paid.

 
CHOOSING AN AGENT BASED SOLELY ON A HIGH QUOTED PRICE and a low commission rate can be a dreadful mistake. Agents who offer low commissions can be poor negotiators. You are hiring an agent to negotiate the best market price for your home. Take the time to 'check out' the agent. A little research can mean BIG savings for you.

Once you have signed up with an agent you may be horrified at the things the agent says and does when handling the sale of your home. Many agents openly encourage buyers to offer lower prices. Many agents reveal confidential information about sellers, such as "These people are in trouble." If you have a pressing personal reason for selling - illness, divorce, financial commitments, the agent may tell buyers about your reason. This really weakens your position.

 
THOUSANDS OF SELLERS GET CAUGHT WITH THE WRONG AGENTS. lf you sign a 'standard' real estate agreement, and, later, you are not happy with the agent, it is very hard to get out. Once you sign-up you are 'locked-up' for the time period you signed. This is one of the most frustrating mistakes made by homesellers.

 
IT IS A BIG MISTAKE TO PAY ANY MONEY IN ADVANCE Many sellers hand over thousands of dollars and lose their money. Consumer advocates call this the 'Advance Fee Scam'. In real estate, it is called "up-front" money. The excuse is advertising, which involves some of the worst traps for sellers. It is a very easy mistake to make.

It is also very easy to avoid.

 
CONDITIONING IS ONE OF THE CRUELEST REAL ESTATES TRICKS. It has one purpose: to convince sellers to lower their prices so that their homes can be easily sold, thus ensuring that the agents get paid.

There are two classic symptoms of conditioning. The first is when the agent praises your home before you sign and then criticises your home after you sign. The second is when the price the agent quotes you becomes much less after you sign.

Conditioning works in two stages. The first stage is the 'Activity' Stage. This is when the agent creates lots of activity - which causes your home to be sold for a lower price. The second stage of Conditioning is the "Crunch". This is when pressure is applied to you to reduce your price.

Conditioning is a common real estate trick. It is taught in several real estate courses. Most sellers are no match for trained agents. They do not realise what is happening until it is too late.

 
THOUSANDS OF SELLERS DO NOT REALISE HOW AGENTS USE ADVERTISING TO PROMOTE THEMSELVES. And very few sellers realise how advertising damages the value of their homes. Typical real estate advertising often gets lower prices. It is a "conditioning weapon" to convince you to lower your price.

The more a home is advertised and the longer it remains unsold, the easier it is to persuade you to lower your price. When buyers see a home advertised week after week, they wonder what is wrong with it. It can easily become known as a lemon. And lemons get lower prices.

Agents say that advertising attracts buyers. But almost all buyers never buy the homes they first called about and even those who do, would still have bought the homes. Buyers do not buy because of advertising. They buy because they like the homes.

If advertising really was the cause of selling your home, why would you need an agent? You could put ads in the paper yourself and save thousands in commission.

Agents may say your home needs lots of "exposure". But exposure is like sunburn. The more you expose your home with typical real estate advertising, the more you burn your price.

Many agents who have stopped typical real estate advertising have saved sellers thousands of dollars and achieved better prices.

 
AGENTS WHO TREAT BUYERS BADLY WILL ALSO TREAT SELLERS BADLY. If you have ever tried to buy a home you will know exactly what this means.

Buyers like to deal with agents who will listen to them. But thousands of buyers complain at the lack of courtesy from agents - especially when it comes to returning phone calls or keeping in touch. Many agents advertise constantly rather than keeping in touch with buyers who enquire to their offices. This is inefficient, incompetent and lazy.

Agents often tell sellers that they have to "find a buyer". But this makes almost no sense. If the agent is efficient the agent should already know who is looking to buy because all buyers come in to an area before they buy. It's obvious, but most of us don't think about it like that.

If the agent does not treat buyers well, it means the agent is losing the people you need. Stay away from such agents.

 
THE MAIN REASON HOMESELLERS LOSE MONEY IS BECAUSE SO MANY AGENTS ARE POOR NEGOTIATORS.

There is a big difference between what a buyer pays for your home and what that buyer would have paid. Most agents do not know how to obtain the best market price. Just ask anyone who has bought a home what was the price they paid and what was the price they would have paid. Thousands of buyers are able to buy homes below their maximum price because so many agents are such poor negotiators. It is astounding.

 
AUCTIONS ARE THE REAL ESTATE INDUSTRY'S GREATEST FRAUD.
Thousands of consumers are being cheated.

The greatest myth with auctions is that they are "the best way to sell". This is not true. Auctions are one of the worst ways to sell your home, no matter what area you are in or no matter what the market conditions are like. AUCTIONS GET LOWER PRICES.

Agents are the big winners with auctions. Consumers are the big losers, because they are so easily caught by the deceit and the tricks. One of the greatest tricks is the "reserve" price. Agents will say that homes often sell above reserve. But the reserve is your lowest price. It is the minimum you will accept, under pressure.

Auctions involve extreme pressure to sellers - "crunching" them to accept whatever price is offered at the auction. Agents are taught to use auctions to "condition sellers". The Real Estate Institute of Australia published a book describing auctions as "the fastest and best conditioning method"

Very few people, other than agents, understand the scale of auction fraud. As one lawyer commented, "The auction system is just one gigantic scam and everyone in the industry, other than consumers, seems to be in on it."

 
YOU MUST NEVER ALLOW AN AGENT TO USE A FALSE LOW PRICE TO ATTRACT BUYERS TO YOUR HOME.
This highly deceptive form of selling may be sold to you as a "new way of selling" By Negotiation, Offers Above, Price Guide, Set Sale.

The agent may say that offering a lower price "attracts more buyers". But it attracts buyers who only want to pay a lower price. The lowest price they see is the highest price they will want to pay.

Bait Pricing also does severe damage to the value of your home because it creates the impression that your home is worth less. Even buyers who could afford to pay more for your home will still want to pay the lowest price mentioned.

By using bait prices, agents commit a dreadful marketing blunder. It is a basic principle of marketing that you must market your product to buyers who can afford it. If not, you can easily be forced to sell under pressure at a lower price.

 
A PRICE WHICH IS TOO HIGH CAN MAKE BUYERS IGNORE YOUR HOME.

A home will quickly become 'stale' if it is not sold in a few weeks. And stale homes get lower prices because buyers wonder why others rejected it. Your home must never be seen as a reject.

But if you price your home too low, you might sell it too low.

 
THERE ARE TWO BIG DANGERS WITH OPEN INSPECTIONS - first, they are a security risk and second, they can easily damage the value of your home.

Despite the warnings and the enormous evidence, many agents continue to allow hordes of strangers to wander through family homes. Most people who visit open inspections are lookers, not buyers. Thieves also visit open inspections and check the home for a future break-in. Your home is probably not insured from theft caused by an open inspection.

But the purpose of open inspections is not to sell the home, it is to create the impression of activity and "condition" sellers to lower their prices. Sellers believe that the people looking at their home are 'buyers'. This makes them easy to persuade to reduce their prices. Sure, some of the people at the open inspections will be buyers. But the agents rarely know who is a real buyer and who is a looker. The agents then say to the sellers, "See, it didn't sell. They all think the price is too high. " As with typical advertising, one of the reasons the home does not sell is because the real buyers wonder what's wrong with it. Hence the value is damaged and the price has to be lowered.

Open Inspections are also used by agents to find sellers of other homes in the area. This is one of the most common behind-the-scenes tricks in real estate.

 
IT CAN BE A BIG MISTAKE TO REJECT EARLY BUYERS FOR YOUR HOME.
Many sellers have discovered, from bitter experience, that the buyers they rejected when their home was first placed for sale were the buyers prepared to pay the highest price.

An efficient agent will have a `bank' of buyers waiting. The agent will select the best buyers and bring them to your home. This can be your best chance to get the best price. If your home does not sell to any of the buyers in the 'bank", you will have to wait for new buyers to enter the market. The number of buyers for your home will get lower not higher, as time goes on. And your price will often get lower too.

Agents who say it may take many weeks to find a buyer are admitting that they are inefficient - or they are failing to tell you the truth about the value of your home. They know your home is priced too high and they have to "condition" you down in price. The purpose of advertisements and massive numbers of inspections is not to "search for buyers" - the buyers are already in the area - its to "condition" you with lots of visible activity. This activity damages the value of your home. It tells buyers that your home is not sold. It also makes you think the agent has worked hard. But hard work is not the same as efficiency

How many times do you hear of sellers having their homes for sale for a long time and getting a higher price? Almost never.

High prices come early. Low prices come late.

 
TOO MANY SELLERS PAY FAR TOO MUCH COMMISSION.
The most important point is what you get for the commission you pay. lf you get a lower price than the agent quoted you, then you should not be paying any commission.

The wrong agent can do tremendous damage to the value of your home. Some agents not only get lower prices, their lack of competence can cause your home to be sold for a lower price. And many of them charge high commissions. These agents are bad value at any price.

The most important qualities in an agent are honesty and good negotiating skills. Honest agents are prepared to prove themselves bynot charging until after your home is sold and you are satisfied.

 
DULL HOMES GET DULL PRICES.
But a home which sparkles, and has the right feeling, always sells for a higher price.

Be careful what you spend on improvements to your home. What suits you may not suit every buyer. You rarely get back more than half the cost of your improvements when you sell. Do not spend large sums on home improvement immediately prior to selling your home.

Pay attention to the little things which create a big impression.

 
EACH YEAR, THOUSANDS OF HOMESELLERS ARE HURT
- both financially and emotionally by unethical agents and flawed real estate systems. If you are not happy - you must complain. Even if you feel you will not be helped, your complaint will encourage the real estate authorities to introduce increased protection for consumers. It is the lack of willingness of many consumers to complain that allows agents to continue to hurt consumers. Your complaint will help. If you are hurt - either financially or emotionally - consider others who will be hurt too if you do nothing about it.