For Sale By Owner

If your brokerage firm has an active rental department, I suggest that you ask to transfer to rentals and become a rental agent. The result will be almost immediate rental commissions.

If your brokerage doesn't handle house or apartment rentals, perhaps you should switch to another brokerage or property management firm, one that specializes in residential rentals.

Then keep in touch with your renters with a monthly newsletter. If you did a good job for them, when they are ready to buy a house or condo, you will be the first person they call. You can then gradually ease into residential sales.

I know several super-successful real estate agents who started out as rental agents for immediate income and then switched to house and condo sales.

DEAR BOB: As a real estate broker for 17 years, I especially enjoyed the letter from a home seller who was unhappy about her four-month listing with a "bad agent." You gave an excellent answer, explaining what constitutes "due diligence" and suggesting that the seller meet with the brokerage's manager to perhaps transfer the listing to another agent. However, my question is: Who judges due diligence by a real estate agent? Some home sellers will never be satisfied, especially in the slowing market in most areas, no matter how hard the listing agent works. -- Evan R.

DEAR EVAN: Great question. Unless the listing dispute winds up in court for a judge or jury to decide whether there was lack of due diligence by the listing agent, it is up to the home seller to decide whether he or she is satisfied with the listing agent's performance.

Having been a real estate broker for 39 years, I recall only a few home sellers who were unhappy with my listing agent services. The most frequent complaint was, "You don't advertise my house enough." The reason was usually that the house was overpriced, based on comparable nearby recent sales prices.

However, there is another side to the story. As listing agents typically do, I often took overpriced listings where the seller insisted listing at a price I knew was too high. I always said: "Let's give it a good try for 30 days. But if we don't receive any purchase offers, then let's agree to reduce the asking price." That method usually worked.

Nobody can say for sure what is due diligence. But any agent who takes a listing, puts it into the local multiple listing service and does nothing else to get that listing sold is showing lack of due diligence. Unfortunately, such agent conduct occasionally occurs, especially when the listing agent expects a buyer's agent to see the MLS listing and produce a buyer without further effort by the listing agent.

DEAR BOB: I want to deed my house to my sister but keep the mortgage with my current lender. Can I do the deed transfer, record it and keep the current lender without an attorney? My sister will continue paying off the mortgage instead of getting a new mortgage, which would cost more money. -- Lien N.

DEAR LIEN: Yes, you can transfer title to your sister by executing a quitclaim deed and recording it with the county recorder of deeds. However, your sister won't have the benefit of an owner's title insurance policy to be certain she receives marketable title.

Your name will always be on that mortgage until your sister refinances, pays it off or sells the property. She is buying "subject to" your mortgage and should be aware that the lender might enforce the due-on-sale clause and call the balance due in full.