Sometimes The Listing You Don’t Get Is The Best Listing Of All

by Doug Quance

Associate Broker

Author website

Looking For That Silver Lining – And Then Finding It

Around the beginning of this year, my favorite loan officer called me up to ask if I would list one of her clients homes for sale. He had fallen on hard times, and needed to sell quickly. He had only been in the property for a year, but had adequate equity to get him out.

The home was a fairly long drive (outside of my normal area) but I agreed to go and talk to him. I spent a few hours with him – including walking him through many low-cost steps to bring the home up to a more marketable condition.

I also educated him on the current market conditions – including the status in his subdivision. This education included a drive to inspect a couple of active listings (featuring a HUD foreclosure) so that he could see firsthand what he was up against.

The sad reality of paying too much for the house when he bought it (he was an unrepresented buyer); the current market conditions; combined with some damage from teenagers and dogs – meant he wasn’t likely going to get much out of the property when sold – especially since he couldn’t continue making payments.

So we pretty much agreed on the listing price, and that I would come back in a week after he had the chance to knock off the items on his punch list – as he needed to leave and take his kids to a special event.

I spoke with him a few times during the week to check in on his progress (which wasn’t going too well) but he assured me that he would be ready by the following week for me to come out and get the listing signed and the pictures taken.

Meanwhile, I ordered his website domain and sign for his single property website.

The day before going out to take his listing, I called him up to confirm our appointment… but didn’t reach him – so I left a voicemail.

He never called back.

So the day of the appointment, I called him… and again – no success. Normally, I would still go to the appointment… but this was a long drive, so I didn’t. I left him another voicemail to call me and reschedule.

He never called back.

Well I don’t chase sellers. Maybe I should – but I don’t. Neither the lender nor I knew what was going on for a couple of weeks until he listed with another broker.

Maybe he went with a less expensive broker, I don’t know. I knew I wasn’t going to work a potential short sale without proper compensation, that’s for sure. I mean after all – we can just stay home and go broke. We don’t have to leave the house.

Fast forward to today – while organizing my signs, I noticed the custom sign I bought for this listing – so I went to the MLS to see what the status was.

You can make what you will of the activity shown… just don’t think it was a clerk mis-inputting data, as this broker is a one-man show.

Apparently, the seller was more than just a month behind on his mortgage, as the foreclosure came mighty quick. I have it on good authority that the utilities were shut off in February when the seller moved out of state. To complicate matters, he left his two teenage sons in the property to further damage it… including building a bonfire in the back yard to keep warm.

In the final analysis, I’m fairly certain that this listing was a lot of work (as short sales often are) with a heap of hassles – all for no compensation.

I am thankful it wasn’t me who worked this listing. Well, more than I did. For free.