Can’t Always Go by the Book

We’re careful people--the sort who read the Sunday real estate section end to end, clip key articles for future reference and take the experts’ advice seriously.

So when it came time to sell our two-bedroom, spruced-up Santa Monica condo, the only trouble we expected was from potential buyers. Little did we guess it would come in the form of our own real estate agent.

We were first-time sellers in today’s difficult market, so we knew that finding a good agent was critical. Our file of real-estate clippings was chock-full of tips on how to proceed. We dutifully followed the advice and invited agents from three top firms to come evaluate our property and make their pitches.

Agent No. 1 we’d met at an open house. He seemed intelligent and arrived well prepared, giving us a personalized packet of information on selling our home, complete with listings of recent comparable sales in our area and a detailed marketing plan.

After a brief tour of the condo, he suggested an asking price of $299,000--”but expect to sell in the high 80s or low 90s,” he cautioned.

We liked Agent No. 1 a lot, but he was new to the field and told us candidly that when he needed help, he went to more experienced colleagues.

Agent No. 2 (actually, agents)-- a team from another top firm--had represented us when we bought the condo. Unfortunately, they did little, if any, advance preparation for our meeting now. The only supporting material they brought along was a copy of the Sunday paper’s real estate section. They advised a listing price of $295,000--”and we’ll try to get you something in the 80s,” they promised.

These initial front-runners wound up in last place largely because of their poor presentation, but also because they were heavily involved with selling multiple units in new condo complexes.

Agent No. 3 came highly recommended by a co-worker. Although she hadn’t used him herself, many of her neighbors had, with much success. Like Agent No. 1, he too arrived with personalized information and marketing packet in hand, and his presentation was most articulate.

His asking price, however, broke new ground: $279,000 max--the price he thought we might actually get. “Buyers will recognize a well-priced property and you’ll get many more showings,” he explained reasonably. Of course, he neglected to mention that a property priced at or below market is an agent’s surest ticket to a quick commission.

Making a decision about which agent to choose wasn’t difficult. Although we weren’t pleased with Agent No. 3’s asking price (and ultimately upped it to $285,000 since we stood to make little, if any, profit after closing costs on both ends and remodeling expenses), we agreed with his reasoning and felt good about his recommendations and experience.

We signed a 60-day listing with an option to terminate after 30 days if we weren’t satisfied.

For the first few weeks things went well. There were many showings, and in fairly short order, we had an offer. Although at $255,000 it was out of the question, it had come from a particularly good prospect--one who intended to put a huge amount down (translation: smooth sailing in the loan department).

A long, drawn-out period of offers and counteroffers with this buyer followed. The only problem was, our agent skipped town halfway through the listing and wasn’t around for the action.

He dropped his bombshell a few days after the initial offer came in--when it became clear that “getting to yes” might take some time: He was getting married and would be out of the country for the last half of our listing period.

Needless to say, we weren’t pleased.

“I thought I’d be able to sell the condo before I left,” our agent said, trying to explain why he hadn’t told us about his impending nuptials before we’d hired him. Maybe in yesterday’s market, we thought grimly, but not today’s.

To make matters worse, now that he’d brought in a prospective buyer--one who promised to dicker in an offer-counteroffer situation for weeks--we weren’t free to terminate our listing and find another agent if we wanted to sell to that particular buyer.

Our choice was dismayingly clear: Either dump our agent and pray for a totally new, qualified buyer with a new agent, or accept our agent’s substitute and cross our fingers that things would work out.

By now, of course, our listing was no longer “hot”--plus, fall was just around the corner, a time when spring and summer buyers traditionally go into hibernation.

We decided to wait things out and hope for the best. What we got was the worst: an end to all showings other than the Sunday open houses (and an end to all other offers, since no one else was seeing the place), a replacement agent who had evidently decided that one prospective buyer was enough, and an assistant manager who relentlessly bullied us to accept our buyer’s unacceptably low offers.

Tired, angry and fed up, we eventually sold the condo to our sole prospective buyer for $276,000--$9,000 below our “very reasonable” asking price. Total profit from the sale, after closing costs and improvements: $340.

Despite this sorry tale, we learned an important lesson: Where selling real estate is concerned, carefulness only goes so far. Sellers must be wary, too: Not everyone plays by the rules.

Next time around, we won’t take anything for granted: not the agent’s reputation, not the references’ legitimacy, not the basic assumptions underlying a listing agreement--such as that the agent won’t jump ship.