Have you sold a home in West Seattle in the past 2 years? I want your agent.

[ALS]

We unsuccessfully tried selling our home a couple years ago and were not impressed with our agent. He wasn’t a specialist in W Seattle but claimed he knew the area well. In reality, he knew nothing about West Seattle and how as little as two blocks around here can make a huge difference in value and marketability of a home.

He also was not very internet savvy, and wasn’t even familiar with some of the websites I asked him to advertise our house (such as Zillow and Trulia). I feel it’s an agent’s job to get your house in front of as many people as possible and be up to speed on the latest technology – especially since the majority of buyers start the house hunting process online.

When our house went more than a month without even a single showing, all he did was give us empty pep talks about how it would all work out. He actually had the gall to tell us that even though no one came to our last open house, “the good news was that some people drove by.” Wha..?!?

A. people drive down our street all the time, so how does he know they were looking at our house?

B. if they drove to the house and made the conscious decision not to come in, that’s certainly NOT a good thing!

Never once did he offer any suggestions as to what we could do differently or better in order to draw more interest in our home.

At the time we weren’t that desperate to sell, so after several disappointing and frustrating months we took our house off the market. Now, 2 years later, we’re ready to try again.

This time around, I want to be smart about picking the right agent. I want someone who will give us guidance and expertise, even if it’s not necessarily what we want to hear. I want someone who knows what it takes to sell a home in this area, in this market, and who brings significant value to the table. I know a decent amount about real estate and I’m a marketer by profession, so sometimes I feel like I could just do it better myself and save some commission. I certainly could have done just as good or better of a job than our last agent.

So, for all these reasons I’m specifically looking for recommendations from those who have recently sold a home in West Seattle.

Help please?? Who would you recommend and why did you like them?

Share This

[hammy]

I recommend Mary Ann Vandergriff at Windermere Fauntleroy (206) 937-7600. She sold a house for us 2.5 years ago and we were very happy we selected her as our agent. We interviewed several candidates and Mary Ann stood out as energetic, caring, savvy, and experienced realtor. We had sold another house about one year prior with a different realor who was merely adequate. Mary Ann is an excellent communicator. She knows her market and she understands how to stage the house to maximize appeal towards potential buyers. She is super responsive and really went above and beyond to help us market our house. Selling a home is very stressful but we were very happy with our experience with Mary Ann. We were eager to sell our house and we were happy with the timeframe we put on the market, received offers and sold/completed the deal. Mary Ann knows the West Seattle market and she also is very involved in the community. I suggest that you meet with her to review her past sales and how she approaches placing homes on the market.

Share This

[TDe]

Joe Hunt… Works for Windermere in the Morgan Junction and is a long time West Seattle resident.

Share This

[ALS]

TDe, have you sold a house with Joe in the last couple years? Do you mind elaborating on what you liked about him?

Share This

[Lena]

We worked with one of the greatest teams to both buy our current home in West Seattle and sell my home in West Seattle.

We had used two other agents before them to look and sell my husband’s house and Bruce and Donna really stood out. They went well beyond what we expected and were able to sell my home with multiple offers for above asking price as the market was crashing (this was about 2.5 years ago) in three days.

They knew exactly how to stage, market and price to get the right people in and interested. We actually waited until the day before the open house to price so we could see exactly what was going on the market.

Very internet connected. Bruce also physically went to all the houses in our price range so he could compare and Donna helped us with decisions on repairs and upgrades.

I highly, highly recommend them!!

Here is the marketing page for my home

http://bruceanddonna.com/5032

and their website

http://www.bruceanddonna.com/

Share This

[jeanetteh]

I used Greg Ross to sell my home a little over a year ago, in October 2009. He is the best! He lives here in West Seattle, and specializes in this area. He is extremely professional and I trusted him absolutely. During the years I’ve been a homeowner, I worked with two other agents and both of them were competent, but not great. Greg is great.

Specifically, there were some things he did to make my experience relatively pain-free: he meticulously researched comps before we priced mine, and drove me around to look at the closest comps, so I had a crystal-clear understanding of my home’s competition and pricing. He marketed my home like crazy complete with professional photos and virtual tours. He made me feel like I was his only client, although of course, I wasn’t.

The most wonderful part of working with Greg was when it came to finding the home I am in now: thanks to Greg, my previous home actually sold so quickly that I was in a rental house for awhile, waiting for the perfect ‘new’ house to come along. Greg encouraged me to take my time until we found something just perfect – and after 2 months of him checking the MLS website multiple times a day, he did. He called me one afternoon with a new listing that had just gone on the market a couple of hours before. The sellers were out of state and had priced the house significantly under market value in order to get the cash, quick. We went to see it right away, and made a full-price offer that evening. By the next day, the sellers received 4 more full price offers, but accepted mine because I had submitted the first offer. Whew!

Greg’s cell number is 206-310-8132. He is with Prudential in Jefferson Square.

Share This

[singularname]

If you’re reminiscent for a “simpler business experience,” like saving yourself a huge wad of cash for easy work, and don’t have extenuating circumstances (like you’re already out of town), you might consider selling it yourself.

I “accidentally” bought my first house without an agent back in the mid-80s and since I’ve sold two and bought three houses that way. The only deal that ever fell through was when the buyer was an … agent. Refused to play those games most agents play.

Just a thought …

Share This

[TDe]

Actually purchased a smal business from him last year and demanded a lot of information from him before jumping in to buy. Now I have a customer who’s working with him on selling a house, who is very happy with him. Joe was the most honest, forthright and hardworking person I’ve dealt with to date. He has a lot of energy and worked diligently to meet all my expectations and requests for information. I would buy or sell with him anytime in the future and apparently my customer would as well. Check him out and see what you think. Tell him exactly what you want and expect from him and he’ll come through for you.

Share This

[Author]

Posts