Why dont real estate agents listen to the seller?

[Adam Glassman]

So this is a long post but worth the read as it's educational, big time.
I am selling off some of my 2 family homes as you might know and my property managers who are also the agents for me wouldn't listen to me. I said to put into the listing AS-IS and deferred maintenance. So what do you think the moral of the story is? At the end I will tell you what I think it is.
Below is the email they sent to me.

Hazelwood Terrace

1. Asking price for the property is high for the overall condition of the property and expected more significant upgrades
2. The prospective buyer was concerned about future cost of roof replacement as the property disclosure indicated age of roof 12 years and it is a reroof.
3. The condition of the carpets are in poor condition and the buyer considered this an additional expense
4. The garage is fair to poor condition and the garage roof is at the end of its life
5. There are two orphaned oil tanks that buyer looked at as an expense for removal as well as a health and safety concern as well.
6. The front porch on the one side was a positive
7. The abandoned house that was next door was demolished. This was looked at as a plus.
8. 7 Hazelwood was in poor condition at the time of the showing and did not present well. I explained that this was a new tenant and we are in the process of having her complete an action plan to bring the apartment to a minimum standard.
9. The rear common hallway is in poor condition
10. The panel boxes are fuses and were a concern to the buyer as a future expense
11. 8 has vinyl replacement windows which was a positive for the buyer

Cedarwood Terrace
1. The over all interior was fair to poor.
2. Asking price for the property is high for the overall condition of the property and expected more significant upgrades
3. The prospective buyer was concerned about future cost of roof replacement. This roof is a reroof as well and is fair condition. Age of roof is unknown.
4. 17 has a long term tenant as has been in the unit since Adam has had ownership.
5. 17 - The unit is in poor condition and per the buyer would need a significant make ready.
6. The mechanicals are working but at end of life on both units.
7. The units both have had upgrades to the electrical panels at some point. That was positive.
8. 21 is a long term tenant. That was positive.
9. 21 did not show well due to the interior condition
10. 17 showed better and seemed to be better kept
11. 17 has multiple make shift cat houses on the front porch
12. There was no evidence of the cats living in the house. This didn't seem to be negative to the buyer
The biggest concern for this buyer was the asking price versus what has been upgraded on the properties. The buyer had an expectation that the units would be in more of an upgraded state based on asking price.

So the moral of the story is this and this is how I responded.

Alex-If you guys listened to me in the first place we would not waste the buyers time or your time to keep showing the properties. You could have called me with these comments instead of taking notes and spending 45 minutes typing them up to email them. These are things we already know. So now you probably wasted about 3 hours of time out of your day with a worthless buyer instead of focusing on selling these properties to someone that know they will have to put work into them.. And time is money in my book. Thats why I said to list them as AS-IS-TLC-NEED COO. Moral of this story is make sure your agents listen to you-the owner. Thoughts, comments, and shares are always welcome!