You deserve to have a loyal advocate when you SELL your home.
Loyalty is one of the 6 Fiduciary Duties (Obedience, Loyalty, Disclosure, Confidentiality, Accounting, Reasonable care and Diligence) a real estate agent and company owes to you as a client.
Why should you settle for anything less than that? You deserve to know that your real estate company, as well as ALL of its agents, will NOT compromise its collective fiduciary duties, including loyalty, to you.
Since 1995, PRAEDIUM Real Estate Services has had many clients who have a home to sell, as well as a home to purchase. We recognize that there is NOT a “seller half” and “buyer half” of a client. So often, the selling of a home is inextricably linked to the purchasing of the next home.
Yet, Dual Agency, transactional “representation”, etc., can ALL create difficulties for you, whether selling, and/or buying a home. Having a real estate company “in the middle” (be it as a dual, transactional, etc. “agent”) is equally as dangerous in the SELLING, as well as the buying, position.
Two recent court cases provide specific illustration of the negative aspects of dual agency, etc. if you are selling your home.
PRAEDIUM has developed a proven and extremely effective way to help you NOT have to settle for less than full fiduciary representation and protection when selling your home.
Here is a general 2 step process we use to coordinate your real estate needs without compromising our loyalty to you.
First, we will come take a look at your place through objective, unbiased eyes. We have spent 26+ years pointing out the good AND the bad in homes, as a fiduciary should. A PRAEDIUM agent will NOT be there to convince you to “list” with us (which can possibly lead to telling you what you want to hear).
We will give you our forthright and objective opinion as to what items (e.g., replace roof, change carpet, paint, update bathrooms, etc.) should be addressed to best position your home to sell. Further, we’ll give you an objective opinion as to a prudent listing/marketing price. We do not engage in “puffery” (i.e., artificially inflating the suggested price in order to convince you to “list” with us).
Second, we can place you in the hands of 1-3 real estate professionals who excel in “listing/marketing” of your home.
PRAEDIUM is a member of the West Penn Multi List. When we help a client in the purchase of a home, we have unbiased access to ALL that is for sale.
However, we never originate any “listing”.
Why? To lessen and almost eliminate the possibility of Dual Agency. By having this office policy, PRAEDIUM agents have access to all that is for sale, with allegiance to none of them. Our clients in the home buying position never have to worry about us having incentive to “push” any one home over another.
Generally, when “listing” a home in metro Pittsburgh, the real estate agent and company are charged with TWO main functions:
- Get the most money on the best terms for the SELLER. This is carried out through performance of the 6 Fiduciary Duties.
- Market the daylights out of the home. A significant element in the listing of a home is the creation and implementation of a marketing plan for its sale.
The marketing of a home can be a specialized and involved process. In this digital age, marketing a home has become extremely intricate and should be done by those who specialize in it. We at PRAEDIUM believe that the marketing of a home should be left to those real estate professionals who have a proven track record.
However, when a real estate company takes a “listing”, the company and agent, generally, also owe those fiduciary duties to the client. Assuming that company and its agents ALSO “represent” buyers, the potential for the difficulties of Dual Agency is high!
PRAEDIUM has spent the last 26+ years not playing both sides of the fence through Dual Agency. Yet, in that time we continue to learn which real estate agents and companies do an excellent job at “listing/marketing”. We know the “listing/marketing” community.
QUESTION: What about the convenience of having one agent/company in the middle of everything? Isn’t that always a good thing?
ANSWER: Generally, no.
Convenience can be a benefit in most every situation, even in the sometimes-multifaceted nature of a residential real estate transaction. Often, the sale of one home sets a domino effect in play, where one home sale triggers another, etc. However, convenience need not be at the expense of the protection of your interests, which is provided by loyalty and the provision of fiduciary duties.
The traditional path to the “convenience” of having one real estate agent/company “in the middle” generally comes through either Dual Agency or transactional (i.e., “facilitator”) status of the agent/company. In either situation, the protection afforded by those important fiduciary duties are effectively given up by you and thrown to the curb. That company/agent now “conveniently” in the middle generally becomes little more than a mediator…. effectively barred from giving proactive advice to EITHER side in the transaction.
With PRAEDIUM at the helm, you get the best of both worlds. By following our “listing/marketing” recommendation, PRAEDIUM agents remain positioned to give you, the CLIENT, independent and loyal advice, through those fiduciary duties, in the sale of your home. Plus, because we do NOT engage in Dual Agency, we remain on your side in the search and purchase of your next home!
THE PROOF IS IN THE PUDDING
Let’s take a look at some recent statistics of PRAEDIUM clients who followed our program.
These stats are for those PRAEDIUM clients who, by August 2021, had….
1) contacted us between September, 2020 and January, 2021. (pre the Spring 2021 selling season)
2) closed on their new home through Praedium PLUS,
3) closed on their former home via Praedium’s listing/marketing agency recommendation (this is key)
The results are very good. See below:
Sale of former home, originally purchased through PRAEDIUM
Average years of ownership 12
Average appreciation of sold home 74% (6.2% per year)
Average days on market of sold home 7.6 (17 national number*)
Percent of sale price to list price 106% (i.e., sold for 6% MORE than list price) (102% national number*)
*Source Redfin 2021
Purchase of current home, purchased through PRAEDIUM
Average number of homes viewed in person 4.7
Median number of homes offered upon to get current home under contract 1 (2+ national number**)
Percentage of homes that appraised for AT LEAST the purchase price-100% (i.e., no “appraisal gap”)
**Source Zillow 2021
Our policy that centers around loyalty to the client can work for ANYONE selling their home, not just clients who originally purchased through PRAEDIUM. We have had numerous clients reach out to us over the years simply to have us provide a recommendation for a listing/marketing agent even though they are purchasing outside of metro Pittsburgh. The protection PRAEDIUM provides in remaining loyal means that much to people.
By hiring PRAEDIUM to “quarterback”, at the outset, both the sale of the former home and the purchase of the current home, each of these clients not only had great success, but were ALWAYS able to turn to us to be a voice of reason, objectivity and advocacy from start to finish.
Hiring PRAEDIUM to navigate all aspects of your real estate journey provides you the highest level of protection, precision and privacy through remaining LOYAL to you, the client.