Understanding
Key Elements of Seller Representation
At
one time, before the 1990's, the sellers in a transaction
were represented by all the agents in a transaction, and buyers across
the country were completely on their own. This is no longer an advantage
that sellers can count on. Most buyers have their own agents representing
them, many of which are skilled negotiators. A seller that doesn't
have an agent with strong negotiating skills can lose a lot of money.
The
seller's agent has a lot of responsibilities. Before the property
goes on the market, the agent needs to counsel the seller on how to
get their house ready, how to behave around buyers and what steps
they need to take to prepare to sell. Then as soon as the house is
on the market, the agent must begin marketing to buyers and other
agents. The level of marketing varies from agent to agent, so the
seller should make sure they work with someone who is going to make
an extensive marketing effort.
During
both the marketing stage and the negotiation stage, the agent has
to be careful not to give away any of the seller's bargaining positions.
A seemingly innocent statement could cost a seller a lot of money.
I've made thousands of dollars extra for clients just by keeping my
mouth shut, while the other agent in the transaction spilled the whole
recent history of their client, and in the process, let me know that
their client was in a desperate bargaining situation.
An
important responsibility of the seller's agent (as well as a buyer's
agent) is to read over any contract offers carefully, make sure they
fully understand everything and to make sure the seller completely
understands what they are agreeing to. Failure to carefully examine
a contract can have serious consequences. Agents in offices I've worked
in have received contracts with Home Inspections that would require
sellers to make unlimited repairs. This would mean if the sellers
agent allowed their seller to sign that (or worse, if the seller didn't
use an agent and missed this), and there was a fifty-thousand dollar
problem with the foundation, the seller would be OBLIGATED to fix
it.
Once
the seller has entered into a contract, the sellers agent has to make
sure that all deadlines are met, that every aspect of the transaction
is being taken care of and that the buyer and/or buyer's agent is
doing everything they are supposed to do. If any problems come up
during the transaction, the seller's agent normally has to find a
careful balance between having problems decided to the seller's advantage
and keeping the buyer in the transaction, but if the seller decides
the buyer is not going to be reasonable and the seller wants out,
the seller's agent then has to do what they can to get the seller
out of the transaction.
The
seller's agent has a responsibility to attend the settlement. Most
of the time the agent has nothing to do at this point, but if anything
goes wrong, the agent becomes very important. Many issues at settlement
can be decided in favor of either the buyer or the seller. If the
agent is not looking out for their client at settlement (or worse,
isn't even there) the client may get burned without ever realizing
things could have turned out much better for them.
