Real NEastate: When to fire your agent

Q: We had our house in Burholme on the market for several months and we have had only four showings and no offers. Our real estate agent is blaming the market, but other people in the neighborhood have sold their homes. My husband wants to renew our contract with this agent because he knows him, but I want to find another agent. What can I do?

A: Did this agent even try to market your home? Can you find it on the Internet? Has he shared feedback with you from the four showings? It makes me wonder if he put any effort into it if he is blaming it on market conditions. Whatever his excuse, there’s no reason a house should not sell in any market. Every home just needs to be priced correctly in the market of the moment to sell.

Did your agent do a Comparative Market Analysis for you? A CMA shows what the homes like yours in Burholme have sold for and gives you a good reference on how to price your home. It’s really the buyers who set the price. Whatever the buyers are willing to pay for homes in your neighborhood sets the market value.

It is one thing to get many showings and no offers, but when buyers don’t even want to come see your house it’s always a pricing problem. If your agent did a CMA and gave you all the information to price it correctly in this market and you and your husband have chosen to price it higher however, then maybe it’s not entirely his fault. Four showings in several months would indicate a price correction may be needed.

I wouldn’t renew the contract just because your husband knows him. You’ve obviously given him a chance to sell your home and it did not happen. I’d say interview some more agents (at least three) and see what they have to say about your home. Maybe you will find one that can do a better job.

Stacey McCarthy is a real estate agent with the McCarthy Group of Keller Williams. Her Real NEastate column appears every Wednesday on NEastPhilly.com. See others here. Read other NEast Philly columns here.