What Every Home Seller in Rocky Point NC Must Know Before Signing a Listing Agreement — Brittany S.'s 5-Star Story

Google Review from Brittany S: Star Rating: 5/5 Review: Working with Buddy was a night-and-day difference compared to our previous realtor. From our very first meeting, we were impressed by his communication, professionalism, and the clear plan he put in place to help sell our home. Buddy and his wife, Erin, made the entire process as smooth and stress-free as possible. They took the time to explain every step, making real estate terminology easy to understand and ensuring we always felt informed and confident throughout the sale. If it hadn't been for a friend and fellow realtor from out of town recommending Buddy to us, we may never have found him—and we're so grateful we did. Choosing Buddy was one of the best decisions we made. Our home sold seamlessly, and the experience exceeded our expectations. We highly recommend Buddy to anyone looking to buy or sell a home. You won't be disappointed with the level of service, care, and dedication you receive! Property Address: 331 W Huckleberry Way, Rocky Point, NC 28457, USA Additional voice context: I wanna get back to real estate a little bit. I wanna tell you a story I want you to think about. If you are thinking about selling your home no matter where you are, I'm gonna give you some advice and you may not like it or actually realtors may not like it, but it's what I do. A long time ago, I got into the business because of a really awkward relationship with a real estate agent I was using to list a piece of property that a friend of mine had built together and we were gonna sell it and I couldn't get out of a listing agreement. Never heard from the person. They didn't communicate with me and I was okay with dropping the price, doing whatever they had asked to do, but they just didn't wanna have those hard decisions and it is hard to talk about price with people. There's no question about it because it's not what sellers wanna hear, but they probably need to hear it because the quicker they deal with it, the more money they're going to net. I can tell you that, I don't care where you are in the country, the quicker you eat that, the better you're gonna be. So the other thing I wanna tell you is I couldn't get out of that listing and ended up going to real estate school and quite honestly, my attitude was, if that person can do it, I know I can do it. So I got into it and worked really hard and had a lot of support, made a lot of mistakes over the last 28 years, sold somewhere between four and 6,000 homes between myself and over the teams I've had over the years. So made a lot of mistakes, had a lot of successes too, but definitely learned from my mistakes, which is the way I tend to operate. But last, I guess about three weeks ago, I got a call from some folks that wanted to sell their house and they had it for sale, it was listed and I looked in the MLS and they were telling me about the situation. Of course, I have to be really careful because I'm not gonna down talk another agent, never gonna do that. And I'm never gonna tell them to get out of a listing. or anything like that. But I looked at it and it was on what's called a withdrawal hold status. And that means they can't list it with anybody else. So they were confused and I didn't have no idea what was going on. I wasn't going to step into that. So I simply said, listen, there's nothing I can do. I wish you guys the best, but my best suggestion is have a conversation with your agent and talk to them and figure out what to do. I didn't hear anything else. And then I get a call and they're like, okay, we're ready to list. And I pull it up in the MLS and it's canceled, which means it can't be listed again. So I go to their house and these wonderful people, sweetest couple, sweetest family I met in a long time, and they need to sell their house. Well, what they had done is apparently in the listing agreement, in some type of addendum, the previous agent or company or whatever, I don't know if it's a company policy, agent policy, it's not illegal, it's not immoral, it's not wrong in their book, not technically, but they had basically charged them $1,500 to cancel the listing because of all the money that the agent said they spent on it. That really, again, I'm not saying it's wrong. A lot of agents would argue that, hey, I made this investment, I did all this, but that's kind of what we get paid good money to do, is take risks. And I've been doing this for a long time and I have never charged somebody to get out of a listing. As a matter of fact, a long time ago, I don't even know how long ago, probably 20 years, I put up front, proactively in all my listing agreements, it says, the seller and or listing agent may terminate this listing at any time while it's not under contract with the buyer. Now, we have to have a beginning and ending date on the listing because that's just the rules and the state forms that we have to operate on. under, but we basically have the right to fire each other every day we wake up because my attitude is I want a person to work with me because of what I'm doing. And it creates another level of accountability for me because if I don't communicate with them, if I don't do what I say I'm gonna do, then I need to be held accountable. And they have the right to fire me. Have I been fired over the years? Yeah, I've been fired. Have I been fired for not doing what I said I would do? A few times over the years. But most of the time that we've parted ways, it has been because something changed in their life and they decided they didn't wanna sell, which I think every seller should have the right to do. But you just need to keep an eye on your listing agreement and understand the documents that you're signing, especially in today's world where we're electronically signing things and there's 18 pages, 17 pages, whatever your listing agreements may be, and you just click through and sign, you don't read anything. Well, I think you need to slow down and understand what people are signing. I try to go over every one of them in person if I can. And if not, I do a screen share video explaining it, whether it's the contract, the offer to purchase, the settlement statement or the listing agreement, because I want people to understand what they're doing. Now, whether they take the time to watch it, that's up to them, but I get it out there to them. And that's just the way we operate. And I've taught everybody on my team to do that over the years. But I think that it just really got to my heart because these are really good people that wanted to sell. Well, fast forward, the good news is we put that house on the market for the exact same price that they had it on the market for when it canceled. And they hadn't gotten anything on it. And I'm not going to say we had magic dust, but we did an amazing job. of turning it quick and getting all of our marketing in place, we spent money on it up front, because that's just part of what you do. And that's why we make good money, is because we take financial, emotional, and time risks. And we have an experience, and honestly, I think that's the most important thing when you hire a listing agent now, is the experience and their negotiating ability and things like that. I think that's what gets it done. Getting it under contract and finding a buyer, that's just one step. And most of those are coming from Zillow or Realtor.com or things like that. Fancy videos, fancy all this stuff is not what's going to necessarily sell your house. Now, there'll be people that argue about that, I get it. Makes sellers feel good to see that stuff. Makes agents feel good to see that stuff. But I'm more of a very direct approach, and I think that the conversations, even when they're hard to have on both sides, and they can be confrontational sometimes, get angry. But I think it's very important, and I think negotiating is a huge tool, because we still got to sell that thing to the buyer, to the buyer's agent if there's one. We got to sell it to the home inspector. We got to sell it to the pest inspector, to the HVAC inspector. And if there's a loan, we got to sell it to the appraiser. And then we got to get it closed and make sure everybody gets there, doesn't lose their job, doesn't get hit by a bus on the way to closing, or just doesn't have buyer's remorse. So there's a tremendous amount of work that goes into it, and it takes time, and I think it takes experience. But I want to tell you the good news is, you're going to see down below the review that we just got from these folks. We put their house under contract in a matter of days, full price, I can tell you that now, because it's already closed, closed in two weeks, okay? Two weeks cash, and we were able to negotiate in and included two weeks seller possession after closing, which means the sellers get to stay there. they got their money for two weeks so they can make their move that they need to make. I'm not gonna say that we had a magic trick or anything like that. I am gonna say we positioned everything perfectly and there are certain rhythms in the market that you can feel and not feel when you've done it a long time. And right now I'm feeling that rhythm because there's a lot of people not putting their houses on the market and they're gonna be coming soon again. Another flow of it's gonna hit. We've had some hit and it's kinda slowed the market a little bit because of the inventory rise. But now that's weaning through and people have quit. And I think it's a great time to put your house on the market right now. I think we're in one of those runs that we're gonna see a lot of activity. But that's just me and I just wanna share the information to, and it's argumentative depending on the agent. Your agent, I can assure you, I'm gonna tell you there are tons of agents out there would tell me I'm crazy and tell me I'm wrong and tell me all these things. But I'm gonna say this, I got more faith in my client than I do a piece of paper. And if it takes me going to a piece of paper to get myself paid, then that's a problem that I have. And I don't want it to be the only reason that you pay me and that you feel like I did my job. Anyway, have a great week. If we can help in any way, let me know and we need homes to sell because we are very empty in our inventory. Thanks a lot, have a great week, bye-bye. YouTube Video Context: Video Title: Undertand Listing Agreement Transcript: I want to get back to real estate a little bit, and I want to tell you a story I want you to think about. If you are thinking about selling your home, no matter where you are, I'm going to give you some advice and you may not like it, or actually, realtors may not like it, but it's what I do. A long time ago, I got into the business because of a really awkward relationship with a real estate agent I was using to list a piece of property that a friend of mine had built together and we were going to sell it. And I couldn't get out of the listing agreement. Never heard from the person, they didn't communicate with me, and I was okay with dropping the price, doing whatever they had asked to do, but they just didn't want to have those hard decisions. And it is hard to talk about price with people, there's no question about it because it's not what sellers want to hear, but they probably need to hear it because the quicker they deal with it, the more money they're going to net. I can tell you that, I don't care where you are in the country, the quicker you eat that, the better you're going to be. So the other thing I want to tell you is I couldn't get out of that listing and ended up going to real estate school and, quite honestly, my attitude was if that person can do it, I know I can do it. So I got into it and worked really hard and had a lot of support, made a lot of mistakes over the last 28 years, sold somewhere between four and six thousand homes between myself and over the teams I've had over the years. So made a lot of mistakes, had a lot of successes too, but definitely learned from my mistakes, which is the way I tend to operate. But last- I guess about three weeks ago, I got a call from some folks that wanted to sell their house and they had it for sale, it was listed. And I looked in the MLS and they were telling me about the situation. Of course, I have to be really careful because I'm not going to down talk another agent- never going to do that- and I'm never going to tell them to get out of a listing or anything like that. But I looked at it and it was on what's called a "withdraw hold" status, and that means they can't list it with anybody else. So they were confused and I had no idea what was going on. I wasn't going to step into that. So I simply said, "Listen, there's nothing I can do. I wish you guys the best, but my best suggestion is have a conversation with your agent and talk to them and figure out what to do." Didn't hear anything else, and then I get a call and they're like, "Okay, we're ready to list," and I pull it up in the MLS and it's canceled, which means it can be listed again. So I go to their house and these wonderful people- the sweetest couple, sweetest family I've met in a long time- and they need to sell their house. Well, what they had done is, apparently, in the listing agreement in some type of addendum, the previous agent or company, whatever- I don't know if it's a company policy, agent policy, it's not illegal, it's not immoral, it's not wrong in their book, not technically- but they had basically charged them $1,500 to cancel the listing because of all the money that the agent said they spent on it. That really, again- I'm not saying it's wrong, a lot of agents would argue that, "Hey, I made this investment, I did all this," but that's kind of what we get paid good money to do is take risks. And I've been doing this for a long time and I have never charged somebody to get out of a listing. As a matter of fact, a long time ago- I don't even know how long ago, probably 20 years- I put up front, proactively, in all my listing agreements, it says, "The seller and/or listing agent may terminate this listing at any time while it's not under contract with a buyer." Now, we have to have a beginning and ending date on the listing because that's just the rules of our forms and the state forms that we have to operate under, but we basically have the right to fire each other every day we wake up. Because my attitude is I want a person to work with me because of what I'm doing, and it creates another level of accountability for me. Because if I don't communicate with them, if I don't do what I say I'm going to do, then I need to be held accountable, and they have the right to fire me. Have I been fired over the years? Yeah, I've been fired. Have I been fired for not doing what I said I would do? A few times over the years. But most of the time that we've parted ways, it has been because something changed in their life and they decided they didn't want to sell, which I think every seller should have the right to do. But you just need to keep an eye on your listing agreement and understand the documents that you're signing, especially in today's world where we're electronically signing things and there's 18 pages, 17 pages, whatever your listing agreements may be, and you just click through and sign- you don't read anything. Well, I think you need to slow down and understand what people are signing. I try to go over every one of them in person if I can, and if not, I do a screen share video explaining it, whether it's the contract, the offer to purchase, the settlement statement, or the listing agreement, because I want people to understand what they're doing. Now, whether they take the time to watch it, that's up to them, but I get it out there to them and it's just the way we operate, and I've taught everybody on my team to do that over the years. But I think that it just really got to my heart because these are really good people that wanted to sell. Well, fast forward- the good news is we put that house on the market for the exact same price that they had it on the market for when it canceled, and they hadn't gotten anything on it. And I'm not going to say we had magic dust, but we did an amazing job of turning it quick and getting all of our marketing in place. And we spent money on it up front because that's just part of what you do, and that's why we make good money is because we take financial, emotional, and time risks, and we have an experience. And honestly, I think that's the most important thing when you hire a listing agent now is the experience and their negotiating ability and things like that. I think that's what gets it done. Getting it under contract and finding a buyer, that's just one step, and most of those are coming from Zillow or realtor.com or things like that. Fancy videos, fancy all this stuff is not what's going to necessarily sell your house. Now, there'll be people that argue about that, I get it. Makes sellers feel good to see that stuff, makes agents feel good to see that stuff. But I'm more of a very direct approach, and I think that the conversations, even when they're hard to have on both sides and they can be confrontational sometimes- get angry- but I think it's very important, and I think negotiating is a huge tool because we still got to sell that thing to the buyer, to the buyer's agent if there's one. We got to sell it to the home inspector, we got to sell it to the pest inspector, to the HVAC inspector, and if there's a loan, we got to sell it to the appraiser. And then we got to get it closed and make sure everybody gets there, doesn't lose their job, doesn't get hit by a bus on the way to closing, or just doesn't have buyer's remorse. So there's a tremendous amount of work that goes into it and it takes time, and I think it takes experience. But I want to tell you the good news is you're going to see down below the review that we just got from these folks. We put their house under contract in a matter of days- full price, I can tell you that now because it already closed. Closed in two weeks, okay? Two weeks, cash, and we were able to negotiate in and included two weeks seller possession after closing, which means the sellers get to stay there after they got their money for two weeks so they can make their move that they need to make. I'm not going to say that we had a magic trick or anything like that. I am going to say we positioned everything perfectly, and there are certain rhythms in the market that you can feel and not feel when you've done it a long time. And right now I'm feeling that rhythm because there's a lot of people not putting their houses on the market, and they're going to be coming soon again- another flow of it's going to hit. We've had some hit and it's kind of slowed the market a little bit because of the inventory rise, but now that's weaning through and people have quit. And I think it's a great time to put your house on the market right now. I think we're in one of those runs that we're going to see a lot of activity. But that's just me, and I just want to share the information too- and it's argumentative, depending on the agent. Your agent- I can assure you, I'm going to tell you there are tons of agents out there who would tell me I'm crazy and tell me I'm wrong and tell me all these things. But I'm going to say this: I got more faith in my client than I do a piece of paper. And if it takes me going to a piece of paper to get myself paid, then that's a problem that I have, and I don't want it to be the only reason that you pay me and that you feel like I did my job. Anyway, have a great week. If we can help in any way, let me know. And we need homes to sell because we are very empty in our inventory. Thanks a lot, have a great week. Bye-bye.