Jim Hurley

Hi Nancy,

Listing your home is not a difficult process. As recommended you should do a little research. You are looking for an agent not necessarily a company. Company support is vital but your agent will providing the services and expertise to not just list your home but to get it sold in a highly competitive market. An experienced agent will provide you with invaluable information, help you stage, provide details of marketing, help you decide on the proper pricing and more. If you would like to discuss this further please don't hesitate to contact me. - Tue Apr 29 2008, 09:40

Hi Joe,

I believe you have received sound advice from the professionals that responded. Below is another rescource for education information. Your crietera is well related. Good schools and a family friendly area usually provide appreciation for the property owners. You commute time allows for a location nearly anywhere in St. Louis and St. Charles Counties except perhaps southern St. Louis County and western St. Charles County. Since your home is sold you'll want to act quickly to avoid a "double move". Once you have identified a property that you like there is nothing wrong with taking a close look at the neighborhood. Knock on some doors, meet the neighbors, drive the adjoining neighborhoods and most importantly look at the comperable properties in the area and whether recent sales have provided appreciation for the sellers.

Best of luck and if you are not working with a REALTOR let me know if I can be of assistance. - Tue Apr 29 2008, 07:18

If your condo is not listed with an agent I can help. I have 20 years experience in the business and I'm happy to help. Please let me know where your property is located. I'll research the comparable properties we'll discuss the terms and I can start marketing it right away. jhurley@STLexpert.com - Thu Apr 17 2008, 21:32

I agree with John. Unrepresented sellers are not taken seriously by agents. You may get a few that want to solicit your listing. We get flyers and emails from unrepresented sellers that offer to compensate agents to bring a buyer to the property, or have an open house, etc. and they are mostly discarded. I think that either the agent feels the seller is not serious or that they will be doing the work of a dual agent for the compensation of a buyer’s agent.

Even agents have a hard time getting other agents to their agent open houses in my market. Food is a must but it is really the network of the agent (among other agents) that will generate traffic to an agent open. It’s one of those intangibles that experienced agents bring to the table. One of our agents has good success by hosting agent and public opens at the same time during the afternoon/evening. They are mostly attended by the agents he knows and works with in the market and usually at least a few buyers.

For not much more than you are offering to compensate a buyer’s agent you can get representation and marketing too. For example we have long term relationships with investors that provide that we identify property for the investor, help with information and trends for the remodel based on the market and comps, and we start marketing the property right away. Of course every market is different. - Tue Mar 25 2008, 07:40