Working With Real Estate Agents - Part I

I always receive questions from both Buyers and Sellers with regard to their relationship to their agent. Indeed, it can be confusing at times. I thought it would be a good idea to break it down into the 3 main types to help alleviate some questions or concerns that are floating about. Today, we'll start with Seller's Agent:

As an agent that represents a seller there are many duties that the agent has to the seller.

• Promote your best interest
• be loyal to you
• follow your lawful instructions
• provide you with all material facts that could influence your decisions
• use reasonable skill, care and diligence
• account for all monies they handle for you.

In addition to the duties owed to a Seller by an agent there are services:

• help you to price your property
• advertise and market your property
• giving you all required property disclosure forms for you to complete
• negotiate for you the best possible price and terms
• review all written offers with you
• promote your interests

For representing you and helping you sell your property, you will pay the listing firm a sales commission or fee. The listing agreement must state the amount or method for determining the commission or fee and whether you will allow the firm to share its commission with agents representing the buyer.

Once you have signed the listing agreement, the firm and its agents may not give any confidential information about you to prospective buyers or their agents without your permission so long as they represent you. But until you sign the listing agreement, you should avoid telling the listing agent anything you would not want a buyer to know.

Please remember, it is important to know whether an agent is working for you as your agent or simply working with you while acting as an agent of the other party. When speaking to a prospective agent be sure that you receive the "Working with Real Estate Agents" brochure. It is a wealth of information and it will help you to understand your relationship with your agent.

Until next time......

Happy Schucking!

OPEN HOUSE

Saturday, April 28, 2007
2 - 5pm
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Wakefield Plantation
Call or email for directions! Hope to see you there!
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Closings rise, but more homes sit unsold.....

Triangle home sales rose modestly in March as the national housing slump continued to pinch the area's largest business.
Brokers in the area closed on 2.5 percent more homes in March than in 2006, but all the news was not good.
The inventory of unsold homes rose 13 percent, and the number of sellers dropping prices increased 16 percent compared with a year ago.
"There's no question things are slower," said Mark Vitner, an economist with Wachovia in Charlotte.
Closings in Wake, Durham, Orange and Johnston counties totaled 2,606 in March, up from 2,543 a year before, according to the Triangle Multiple Listing Service. But sales for the first three months of 2007 were flat compared with the first quarter of 2006. By comparison, first-quarter sales in 2006 jumped 20.1 percent from a year before, according to the Triangle MLS.
"The Triangle is doing very well, but we're seeing it slow all over the country and the Triangle is no exception," Vitner said.
Nationally, home sales began slowing more than a year ago as markets became glutted, hurt by speculative buying that had pushed prices up. The Triangle was spared much of that as steady job growth here continued to bring in buyers.
But this season has had a much weaker start because job growth has slowed and transplants are still having trouble selling their homes in distressed areas. Sales likely will cool further.
Residential building permits -- an indicator of future sales -- declined in March. Wake County issued 11.3 percent fewer permits in March than in 2006; Durham County was down 48 percent.
Vitner said Triangle sales could decline 5 percent to 10 percent in the second quarter because of declining demand and tougher lending restrictions.
Still, some brokers are happy, particularly when they look at other parts of the country. Fourth-quarter sales were down 30.8 percent in Florida, 36.1 percent in Nevada and 26.9 percent in Arizona, according the National Association of Realtors in Washington, D.C.
They also point out that home prices in the Triangle have continued to rise. The average sales price of $233,763 in March was up 6.1 percent from a year before.
"Compared to the rest of the country, we're doing well, but we're seeing more and more people who can't buy 'here' because they can't sell 'there,' " said Shields Pittman, a broker for York Simpson Underwood in Raleigh.
Pittman has sold 12 homes this year, slightly ahead of last year, but could have sold four more if owners moving here could sell their houses.
Susan Holbrook, a broker at Coldwell Banker Howard Perry and Walston's office on Falls of the Neuse Road, said its sales are ahead of last year. Last year, first-quarter sales totaled 366. This year, quarterly sales totaled 375, a 2.4 percent increase, and volume doubled to $80 million.
But she too is losing sales as transplants are unable to unload their former homes. She also said tougher lending restrictions in the subprime market have eliminated a few buyers. But "2 percent over a record year is an incredible number," she said.
"At certain price ranges, if you list today you will have competing offers and it will sell tomorrow at above-list price," Holbrook said.

"From the News & Observer, staff writer, Dudley Price"