Unfortunately, I have been hearing a lot about expired listings in the past year. As a real estate agent, this is a sore subject because it essentially means that someone in my industry failed at their job. Although I don't like this any more than you do, I'm going to talk about this phenomenon in further detail and what we've put in place to prevent this.
The Expired Listing
An expired listing is a home that was once under contract with a real estate agent. These contracts last for 3-9 months and the owners and the agent agreed to a number of terms in which their home had to be sold. For whatever reason, the agent failed to get the home sold under the terms that they had agreed upon.
- About 2/3 of the people that we've talked to with expired listings felt that they were put in a position where they could not succeed. This could be negligence on the part of the agent or their own misunderstanding of the market. Either way, it always disgusts me to hear about this as a real estate agent.
- When the client backs out of a contract with an agent, they are often not able to list their home again because they are still under contract, and even worse, they still have to pay the agent commission for the job that was not done properly.
This is a problem within my industry, and one that irks me to no end. I absolutely hate to see people in these kinds of situations because here at the Miller Realty Group of Long Island, we truly care about the welfare of our clients.
What We've Done to Help Our Clients
In order to solve this problem and serve our clients better, we've come up with a program. We call it the Cancellation Guarantee or the One Day Listing.
- What this means is that you have the right to terminate your contract with us for any reason whatsoever. There is no listing obligation or commission obligation. If we weren't doing our job, why should we be getting paid?
- You're then free to list your home with someone else or sell it on your own. We will not hold you hostage.
- We will only need 24 hours to take your home off our listings and marketing systems.
- When you hire us to sell your home you get to use our marketing and sales systems for free until we sell your home.
If you choose not to work with us we still want you to be aware of the contracts you're signing with listing agents. Make sure to have your agent put down in writing that you have the power to terminate their services if you are unsatisfied with their work. It's important to protect yourself as a seller.
I recently sat down with a client that signed a one year contract with a leasing company. Five months in to the agreement, they felt that it was a bad decision and decided to cancel the services, however,
they were under contract and could not sell their home for another 7 months. This is a nightmare for home sellers because real estate market conditions here in Long Island are subject to a vast amount of change.
Here at the Miller Realty Group of Long Island we promise to serve you better with our Cancellation Guarantee Program. It's just one step we take to protect our clients and ensure the best service possible.
If you need help buying or selling real estate in the Long Island area, then please contact me because I would be happy to assist you. Call me at (516) 248-5007 or email me at Dean@MillerGroupOfLI.com
