Request for realtor review

Rosealexis

New member
I live in Orchard Hills and am looking to put my home up for sale. Price will likely be in the 3M+ range. We are considering Cindy Chin with KW- anyone have experience working with her (positive or negative)?
 
I don't have any personal experience with her but it looks like some of her stuff sits on the market. Have you looked into her MLS stats?
 
Homes in the multi-million range don't exactly sell like hot cakes though so it isn't quite fair to say her stuff sits. I don't know if there is any agent that can consistently sell multi-mil homes in 30 days or less.
 
Just a suggestion for the OP to look into. Maybe compare it to his/her other frontrunners. I agree that the super high end stuff will take longer to sell but your average OH home? Shrug.
 
I've attached Cindy's listing stats and my listing stats for the past 3 years for comparison's sake. Cindy has closed 31 listings in the past 3 years and she had more listings that didn't close that closed while I've closed 48 listings in that same time with almost 90% of my listings closing.  My average time to escrow is around 3 weeks and my average original listing price to closing price is just a hair under 100% and NO listing agent can beat that those two stats.

When picking an agent, you should look at the time that their listings take to go into escrow and the original list price to the final sales price.  These two metrics will tell how good the agent is at properly pricing their homes and how well they negotiate on behalf of their seller. Don't get fooled by Chinese or Korean agents telling you that you need an agent that knows how to speak Mandarin, Cantonese, and Korean because that's just not true. I've sold dozens of listings to FCB Chinese and Korean buyers without any issues (I can pull in assistants to help me with Mandarin, Cantonese, and/or Korean if needed but I've never really had to even when the buyer's agents English wasn't great). My listing track record speaks for itself and I can sell any home at any price range in any location because a good salesperson is a good salesperson.

Yes, it is true that higher-priced homes do take longer for the seller but the same simple principles hold true....price and presentation will make the difference between any home sitting or selling in a timely manner.  For higher end homes, it's a fine balance of pricing with leaving some room to negotiate down a bit to where both the buyer and seller feel good about the ultimate sales price.  Presentation is that much more important for higher-end homes where you need to declutter, clean, and/or stage as necessary along with getting high qualify pictures, a virtual tour, ariel pictures, and/or videos. 

Stats never lie only idiot realtors do!
 

Attachments

  • Cindy Chin - 3 year Listing History.pdf
    977.4 KB · Views: 79
  • Martin Mania - 3 year Listing History.pdf
    744.8 KB · Views: 75
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I went through her listings and noticed she sold a home for $10M in Newport Coast in 14 days. Cash buyer. This is just a whole 'nother lever of wealth man.

And she has this gorgeous listing at 1 Bode Dr, Los Angeles 90069 which has been sitting for 200+ CDOM. $23M.
 
Cares said:
What Martin has no listings with "A" status?! What is going on here!?!?!?!

All in escrow with 2 pocket listings and one coming soon. My listings don't stay active for very long. ;)
 
Martin issues a challenge to other realtors to bring it...since his stats are better than yours.

Show me what u got.  The prize is a $3 million listing.
 
zubs said:
Martin issues a challenge to other realtors to bring it...since his stats are better than yours.

Show me what u got.  The prize is a $3 million listing.

Haha  Too funny.  You know, I've very proud of my stats mainly because it shows how well I take care of my seller clients.  I have a simple philosophy that I work by, help buy and sell my clients' homes as if I was buying or selling my homes because I want to build relationships and not just do transactions. I'm proud of the fact that my listings sell quickly at very good prices.
 
No input on Cindy or KW but I would vouch for USC. We worked with him for 3 purchases, 2 sales. PS home sold in 3 weeks, Altair home sold in 2 weeks.

He's local so prices well. I argue initial listing price is huge. Some agents promise unrealistic pricing, home sits for months, occupants deal with multiple open houses and the home goes into that pricing death spiral because the buyer pool thinks somethings got to be wrong with the house since it's not selling. Martin and I visited the competing homes for sale and I'd see base flooring, non premium lot listed for more than ours. Doesn't make sense.

Open houses also suck. Cleaning, staging. It's worse with covid because everybody has to come at a different time. We have little ones and we'd be out most of the day on several days to accommodate buyers.  We toured some resale homes that were sitting and you could tell the sellers were burned out, nothing was cleaned up, dirty dishes were in the sink, it just killed the mood since home buying is such an emotional process.

I'd also argue for a local agent. One of the resales we wanted to see, the sell agent was located in the SGV and response time was definitely slower, both for scheduling tours and getting a response to offers.

Not sure why language is an issue. Both our home sales were to Asian buyers. Everybody speaks in dollars.



 
USCTrojanCPA said:
I've attached Cindy's listing stats and my listing stats for the past 3 years for comparison's sake. Cindy has closed 31 listings in the past 3 years and she had more listings that didn't close that closed while I've closed 48 listings in that same time with almost 90% of my listings closing.  My average time to escrow is around 3 weeks and my average original listing price to closing price is just a hair under 100% and NO listing agent can beat that those two stats.

When picking an agent, you should look at the time that their listings take to go into escrow and the original list price to the final sales price.  These two metrics will tell how good the agent is at properly pricing their homes and how well they negotiate on behalf of their seller. Don't get fooled by Chinese or Korean agents telling you that you need an agent that knows how to speak Mandarin, Cantonese, and Korean because that's just not true. I've sold dozens of listings to FCB Chinese and Korean buyers without any issues (I can pull in assistants to help me with Mandarin, Cantonese, and/or Korean if needed but I've never really had to even when the buyer's agents English wasn't great). My listing track record speaks for itself and I can sell any home at any price range in any location because a good salesperson is a good salesperson.

Yes, it is true that higher-priced homes do take longer for the seller but the same simple principles hold true....price and presentation will make the difference between any home sitting or selling in a timely manner.  For higher end homes, it's a fine balance of pricing with leaving some room to negotiate down a bit to where both the buyer and seller feel good about the ultimate sales price.  Presentation is that much more important for higher-end homes where you need to declutter, clean, and/or stage as necessary along with getting high qualify pictures, a virtual tour, ariel pictures, and/or videos. 

Stats never lie only idiot realtors do!

Hey do you think you can run some stats for me for Regina Chen? Or if you can show me how to run it that would be great too. Thanks!
 
sleepy5136 said:
USCTrojanCPA said:
I've attached Cindy's listing stats and my listing stats for the past 3 years for comparison's sake. Cindy has closed 31 listings in the past 3 years and she had more listings that didn't close that closed while I've closed 48 listings in that same time with almost 90% of my listings closing.  My average time to escrow is around 3 weeks and my average original listing price to closing price is just a hair under 100% and NO listing agent can beat that those two stats.

When picking an agent, you should look at the time that their listings take to go into escrow and the original list price to the final sales price.  These two metrics will tell how good the agent is at properly pricing their homes and how well they negotiate on behalf of their seller. Don't get fooled by Chinese or Korean agents telling you that you need an agent that knows how to speak Mandarin, Cantonese, and Korean because that's just not true. I've sold dozens of listings to FCB Chinese and Korean buyers without any issues (I can pull in assistants to help me with Mandarin, Cantonese, and/or Korean if needed but I've never really had to even when the buyer's agents English wasn't great). My listing track record speaks for itself and I can sell any home at any price range in any location because a good salesperson is a good salesperson.

Yes, it is true that higher-priced homes do take longer for the seller but the same simple principles hold true....price and presentation will make the difference between any home sitting or selling in a timely manner.  For higher end homes, it's a fine balance of pricing with leaving some room to negotiate down a bit to where both the buyer and seller feel good about the ultimate sales price.  Presentation is that much more important for higher-end homes where you need to declutter, clean, and/or stage as necessary along with getting high qualify pictures, a virtual tour, ariel pictures, and/or videos. 

Stats never lie only idiot realtors do!

Hey do you think you can run some stats for me for Regina Chen? Or if you can show me how to run it that would be great too. Thanks!

It comes from my MLS so you may not be able to run it without MLS access.  PM me your email address and I'll email you her 3 year listing history. 
 
Nothing slimly about an objective comparison based on results that might provide the OP with a second option to consider.

Haters gonna hate.
 
Rosealexis said:
I live in Orchard Hills and am looking to put my home up for sale. Price will likely be in the 3M+ range. We are considering Cindy Chin with KW- anyone have experience working with her (positive or negative)?

Ive worked deals (including big) with Cindy have nothing very negative to say. Theres nothing wrong with using her as a listing agent.
 
A friend of mine used Cindy in 2019 to sell a home in Irvine. He said the transaction was done smoothly and professionally. Although he almost never dealt with Cindy directly after signing up, it was another agent working for Cindy.

I've always felt using the stats (% of listing closing & the average time to escrow) to judge agents is somewhat flawed. It heavily favors agent who are conservative in pricing the home.

My personally experience selling my investment condo 5 years ago involve both USC and this so I thought I'd share it. 

And this is in no way a negative review towards USC for those who only want the TLDR version. Martin was very responsive and professional in both emails and in person when we interviewed with him. He was even gracious to provide us vendor referrals even after we told him we were going with another agent.

We interviewed many different realtors including USC and the range of recommendation for the listing price ranged from $375k to $450k. USC was one of the few who came in the higher range, confident at 425k and maybe can get 450k. Also USC was the only one who provided an unique seller friendly commission structure as well.

But we ultimately didn't go with Martin because we were very confident our condo could fetch much more than 450k.  1) this was a very unique unit (6th floor, 180 degree panoramic view, elevator, penthouse in Santa Ana) 2) we did a complete remodel that came out great 3) we've done 2 other remodel flips in Santa Ana and are confident about price. Also this condo was cash bought, so we didn't feel pressured to get it sold quickly.

It took us awhile to find a competent agent willing to list it for 480k. And it took 6/7 weeks to sell. But we were able to get 494k for it.

I'm pretty certain if we had gone with a lower listing price we would have sold quicker but at a lower price.

Therefore I feel using the stats (% of listing closing & the average time to escrow) to judge agents is flawed. It heavily favors agent who are conservative in pricing the home.
 
Not only this but stats can be gamed, and don?t show a huge number of commercial/ and other deals not advertised.
 
Nguyen80 said:
Not only this but stats can be gamed, and don?t show a huge number of commercial/ and other deals not advertised.

How can you explain and give examples of how the stats be gamed?  I'm taking the data straight off MLS for residential sales as PDF files and can easily be verified by going onto Redfin or Zillow. Also, I have posted all of my listings as threads on TI so the transparency is all there for my listings.
 
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