[Dee L Graber]

Dee L Graber

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This is a spinoff of a couple of other discussions on houses under listing agreements not selling, and what it takes to implement a master leasing strategy. If a house owner can agree to a price drop (as often happens after a request by the realtor, eg), cannot that same house owner also decide to INCREASE the asking price instead? The sneaky underhanded motive for that could be to (1) convince the listing realtor that said house has zero chance of selling before the listing agreement expires (as an incentive for an OK to cancel that listing agreement, and (2) to get an early start on a master leasing tenant who understands that a listing agreement is in force which has zero chance of surviving a skyhigh house asking price, and that the odds of being able to remain in the house for a very long time are excellent — whether the listing agreement is allowed to die early, or whether the listing realtor chooses to be a snot even if there’s not personal benefit to her/him.

Disclaimer: I’m not an attorney. Not only do I not play one on TV, I’m also not an expert in all the ways that a listing agreement can or cannot die. So I’m very interested in anyone’s expertise to shed more light on this puzzle.

–Dee

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[Deb Krantz]

Deb Krantz

Great topic Dee!

In my area there aren’t a ton of properties that are sitting long on the market. At least our agents are wise to counsel their sellers on realistic and attainable list prices. But there are some that are sitting due to location, unrealistic seller expectations, etc. The distressed stuff to which a typical buyer will say no.

I’m sure the tide will turn in the next 12-18 months, if this “irrational exuberance” can last that long.

[Carlyn L]

Carlyn L

Typically if the homeowner tells the realtor that they’ve decided to rent the house instead of selling, the realtor will agree to cancel the listing agreement.

[Dee L Graber]

Dee L Graber

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Carlyn, I appreciate your perspective on this. I’ve not been in the middle of rent versus sell conversations with a realtor in a very long time. This example should make the point. I was renting out a house, and because it was 400 miles away from where I lived (and long before I learned about master leasing, etc), I had one exploratory conversation with a realtor about the feasibility of listing, about numbers, and about strategies. That was it. No contract was signed. No verbal agreements were even made.

None of that stopped that over-enthusiastic realtor from driving out to the property, without any prior notice to me, and shocking the bejabbers out of my good, dependable, long-term renters with “Hi there — I’m going to be “your” realtor.” Needless to say, they felt betrayed (as they were), as did I, and they moved out ASAP.

You might say that that sad experience caused me to limit any contact with the realty industry for a very long time. (I wound up using an auctioneer to sell that property — which proved to be a far more efficient process.)

Again, I appreciate your input.

—Dee