I'm hiring an agent, but DON'T do the one thing that will actually sell my house!

I had an interesting experience tonight with a brokerage firm that I have not dealt with before.  One of my clients, who I have been working with for a while, called me up to tell me that she had driven by a house that looked interesting but that she was unable to locate it on HAR.com.  I told her that I would track it down and find out what the story was. 

It was getting late and already dark, but I went over to the address to see whose sign was in the yard.  It was a company named "Assist 2 Sell".  I have seen this company around a lot but never have shown one of their properties.  After locating the broker phone number, I called and fully expected at 7:30 at night to either get no answer or a voicemail.  To my suprise, someone DID answer the phone. The gentleman on the other end of the line was cordial and helpful but what he said next about blew my socks off.  "That listing is on a fee program that does not list the home in the MLS".  Ok, say what?

The one thing that actually SELLS a home is not the sign in the yard. Not an open house.  Not flyers or 800 call back numbers.  Not ads in Homes And Land magazine. But PROPER REPRESENTATION ON THE MULTIPLE LISTING SERVICE (MLS). When I say proper, I mean that the max photos are used, captions are used on the photos, good descriptions are used, proper and easy to read directions are used and that the agent remarks are truly remarks to the showing agent to help them sell the house.  Not all homes get the "PROPER" listing protocol...I'm not sure why, but some agents just don't.

He went on to inform me that for that particular program, they were not offering a buyers agent comission except with a full price offer.  In otherwords, the people that own this house were trying to NOT do For Sale By Owner (also known as Unrepresented Sellers) so they hired a company to stick a sign in the yard to sell their home  and field phone calls for them (also known as generating SALES for the listing agent). 

So here was the house, with a sign in the yard and flyers in the flyer box and I'm sure the owners content that they are doing the right thing and saving a comission.  However, what happened next might have suprised them if they could have heard my buyers I am working with.  I called them and told them what the situation was and explained that this particular seller was not offering a buyers agent comission and we would have to work that out but that if this is the house the really want, I'm sure we can work around my fees somehow.  My buyer told me that he did not want to bother with the house as they wanted to make sure that I got my full fee as they feel I have worked really hard for them and that I have been available and responsive to their needs. 

So I have to ask myself,  do these people REALLY understand what they are doing is like trying to build a computer without knowing what components they need in the computer or what they do? 

I'm all for saving a buck.  And I think that when I pay someone for a service, I should see an adequate VALUE return for my money.  However, sometimes I've found that I can out save myself into having to spend MORE money!   These buyers are ready, willing and able to purchase something before the end of the next 30-60 days and they won't see this house now because of the market positioning they have used.  I suspect that this is something like what I talked about a couple of months ago, when I talked about using money saving brokers who claim they will find the buyer themselves and the stats in the MLS just don't support it.  I think the number was 1 in 69 listings that the listing broker brought the buyer on their own.

Please don't think that I am saying this to undercut discount brokerages.  I think some of them provide good service.  But to NOT put a listing in the MLS is like telling a carpenter that he can have every tool EXCEPT a hammer to do his job.  In that particular case, I just can not believe that was all explained to the sellers when they listed their house and it makes me feel very bad for the sellers.