It's one thing to buy a home; an entirely different thing to sell one. I found out just how true that is when I decided several weeks ago I was going to sell my home. The agent who helped me buy this house was the only agent I knew, so I reached out & we set up a time to meet. Gail was nice enough to come quickly on a holiday weekend because my husband was working in Utica & was only going to be home for another day.
We talked about the market & how much we could expect to sell for. I asked her what I needed to do to get the house sale-ready, and she explained it's a seller's market & that I really didn't need to do anything.
Because my job does not allow me to keep my phone at my desk & because I sometimes need a reminder of my conversations, I prefer to do business via text or email. All of my communication with Gail was done electronically after our meeting at the end of May.
She asked me about a week later if I decided to sell & I said yes, but that I needed to de-clutter before having photos taken. I was worried I may not get an estate sale company very fast, though, and expressed concern over that. She asked if I was waiting until January & I told her that no, we would figure out a way to do it sooner. I ended up hiring Sandra Ziemer to do my estate sale, and reached out to my agent to give her the dates & to ask for flyers for the sale. She offered to do another market analysis, which I never got.
The estate sale was quickly approaching & no words from this agent. I was not about to chase someone down to help me sell my home. I reached out to the realtor my friend used & he came the next day. I decided to go with him because he was very proactive. He offered suggestions to me regarding small improvements I could make that would bring in more money.
The house went on the market the day after Labor Day. The realtor I originally approached never even noticed. I expected she would see the listing on her MLS or whatever that things is realtors see, and that she would reach out, probably upset. But she never even saw it. It was not until I posted it on Facebook as "Sale Pending" that I even heard from her again. Her response? "I was making your flyers!" You can read the exchanges below. I do regret not calling her to let her know I was going with someone else. That would have been the nicer thing to do. But to be fair to myself, it's a ton of work getting ready to sell a home & this house is huge & I was doing most of this by myself while packing the house, planning an estate sale, renting an apartment, taking care of a dog, and working overtime at my full-time job. I just didn't have time to chase her down.
I was honest with Gail when she reached out to me, and while I didn't need an apology, I kind of thought I'd get one, but there was no ownership and no apology. Instead, it was thrown back at me as being all my fault. read more