Sibling caught in middle on fast or traditional sale of parents’ home

Two of the three agents interviewed to sell our parents’ home insist they have “buyers lined up ready to buy.” The third never mentioned he had buyers. My older siblings want a quick sale; my younger ones want a traditional sale process. How do I keep the peace as my parents’ trustee?

In The Great Recession, the speed of tandem-distressed sellers and properties entering the market created a total wipeout. Plus, the banks’ “loss mitigators” awarded vacant foreclosures to one-tenth of 1 percent of the nation’s 1.2 million Realtors. Foreclosure agents put under-serviced listings on the MLS, and walked away. Neighboring homeowners watched values race downhill through no fault of their own. Understandably, traditional listing agents wanted as much exposure as possible for their sellers’ homes. To that end, the bright chrome hub of their marketing was adding the property to the local Multiple Listing Service (MLS). The marketing spokes were broker tours, open houses, signage, print ads and especially the more than 80 real estate websites partnered with our MLS. Caravanning behind all that, listing agents would engage other licensees in the grip of conversation, only to switch gears to pitch their listing(s). All in the hopeful effort to crank up a steady cadence of agents leading buyers to their MLSlisted properties.

The Great Recovery saw our housing inventory deflate to records lows. Without warning, offtrack listing agents began jaywalking past the MLS in order to sell the property themselves, or in-house. Sidelining the MLS hamstrings the profitable cardio of marketing, derailing maximum seller proceeds. Curbing a listing from over 10,000 agents is known as Off-MLS. Applying the brakes on advertising allows the listing agent and brokerage to represent both the buyers and the sellers. In the nine Bay Area counties, on average, an Off-MLS home seller loses over $100,000 versus on MLS. Lest we forget, the derailleur (the Off-MLS listing agent/ agency) rides off with two paychecks instead of one. When I was on the OffMLS Task Force, legitimate reasons flagged for sellers to leave on average six figures at the homeselling starting line were: privacy, security, exclusivity and control. The economic chain of events suddenly had agents who were formerly fervent fans of the MLS soft-pedaling its advantages.

A steroid-using bike racer is asking to lose his or her title. A seller, who’s listing agent also represents the homebuyer, is asking to lose any post-sale litigation. Your parents entrusted you as the custodian and timekeeper — don’t make a mess of it.

Full-service Realtor Pat Kapowich provides old-fashioned service within a high-tech world. You can refer Pat to friends, relatives, or associates at 408245-7700 or Pat@ SiliconValleyBroker.com.