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Seeing Other Agents
Cate Engel and her husband had been trying to sell their house in Gaithersburg for nearly six months when they ended the contract with their agent.
(By Katherine Frey -- The Washington Post)
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Skylar Rampersaud can't prove that switching agents led to the sale of her Logan Circle condominium. But she thinks it helped.
Rampersaud's first mistake was letting a family friend sell her one-bedroom condo. The friend, whom she declined to name, had successfully sold another of Rampersaud's properties, a single-family house near Takoma Park.
Rampersaud's original asking price for the condo was $314,000. She received an offer in June, two months after putting it on the market. Then a flood damaged the unit. Rampersaud repaired the hardwood floors, but the buyer was not satisfied, so the contract fell through.
Her agent, she said, "wasn't used to selling condos, and the fact that we had the contract fall through really flustered her, and she didn't know how to advise us."
Rampersaud told the agent that it wasn't working. The agent agreed, Rampersaud said. The agent's broker was willing to let Rampersaud out of the agreement because her condo was deemed a "problem property."
"I think we were just both ready to be out of that business relationship," Rampersaud said.
Rampersaud, by this time living in Hawaii, where she works for the Defense Department, searched the Internet for a new agent. She wanted someone who specialized in condos and stumbled upon the Web site of Rachel Valentino, an agent at Long & Foster's Friendship Heights office. She interviewed Valentino a few times by phone. She also dispatched her mother, who lives in the District, to meet her.
After seeing the condo, Valentino recommended that Rampersaud have it painted. She had professional photos taken for an Internet ad and added lamps for better lighting.
"I really liked the fact that she had the ideas and I wasn't the one who had to come up with ideas and figure out how to sell my place," Rampersaud said.
Rampersaud also liked that Valentino was so easy to reach. They talked by phone at least every other day and e-mailed frequently. Valentino said she believed the relationship worked because Rampersaud was clear about her expectations and Valentino was clear about how she would meet them. Valentino said she gives her clients a summary of exactly what she will be doing on their behalf each week. She relisted Rampersaud's property in late December for $299,999. It sold for that much in a few weeks.
"Once you go through a bad experience, you know exactly what you don't want going forward," Valentino said.
