Hello,
Was wondering if anyone had experience contacting agents local to the land you’re selling for advice on pricing and other questions about that specific market. I don’t have the intention (yet) to list through an agent, so I’m wondering what incentive they would have to actually answer my questions. I guess because it’s possible that maybe later I’ll come to them asking them to help me sell it? Is this a common thing? What do you say to them when you call them?
Ryan
@rmiller1291 said in Asking Agents for Pricing Advice:
I guess because it’s possible that maybe later I’ll come to them asking them to help me sell it?
I think you just nailed it. As harsh as it sounds, most agents (in my experience) are used to having their time wasted by answering questions and running errands for people who will never do business with them. Unless the agent is very good at protecting their time, this kind of thing comes with the territory… so if you’re asking them to spend a little bit of time looking at a property to give you their opinion, many of them will happily oblige IF they believe there’s a realistic chance you will give them a listing at some point (assuming it’s a listing that will make them more than chump change).
The real trick is finding an agent who actually knows what they’re talking about. Most of them will tell you their opinion with confidence, but only a small segment of them will actually be qualified to give you an educated opinion.
You could say something like,
“I’m looking at buying an off-market property right now and if the deal goes through, I’ll need help selling it in the next few months. Do you have a few minutes to help me?”
When you proceed to give them the details, they’ll see that it’s a vacant lot and they’ll know whether it’s a super-cheap, super-expensive, or somewhere-in-the-middle property - and based on that, they can tell you whether they want to go any further in helping you.