hiring a realtor

The realtor I showed the house to on Tuesday was the realtor who handled the sale of my Brookline apartment. I haven't signed anything committing myself to working with him. As far as the sale of my condo went, he was fine; he seemed to know his stuff, and things worked out OK. I brought a lot of my own clue into the picture. I overrode his decision on the listing price, and I proved to be right. And I knew to ask the fire department about the 26F, which was fortunate; if I hadn't done that until he mentioned it, that might've been too late. But, no big complaints, and he was very nice to work with. So when he was eager to help me sell the house in the 'burbs, I was like, sure, come take a look at it, and tell me what you think.

But I think he's more of an expert on property in the city, and I think that the market is so different in the Suburbs of Despair. He still hasn't gotten back to me with an estimate of the price we should list. Maybe he's as stumped as I am: it's much harder to figure out from the comps. When I sold my condo, there were 3 or 4 apartments of similar size for sale in the same complex. Extrapolating from that much data was easy. In the town where the house is, there are, maybe, 3 houses of the same size range for sale in the whole town, and they are all really really different.
( despair about house values in the Suburbs of Despair )

Anyway, not having given up yet on the value of the house, I have made an appointment to meet with another realtor, to find out what she thinks the house is worth. This one has an office a stone's throw from the house, so she should be a lot more knowledgeable about the market in that area. We'll see what she thinks!