Jessica Cunningham

Jessica was introduced to us by an old friend who was in her church. That’s my mistake number one. We should have selected a broker based on someone’s experience, not just an acquaintance of hers. However, Houlihan Lawrence is the biggest local real estate agent in the area with excellent reputation. We figured that Jessica could draw on the firm’s resource. Barry Graciano, Jessica’s boss, came along for the interviews. We should have recognized that Barry was there both times to back stop Jessica. Our house was not the kind that buyers would rush to grab it on first sight. It was a decent house in a very desirable location. And it was priced at the lowest in the market for similar rooms/footage at the time. We knew up front it would take time and patience, plus the skill and effort of the listing broker to drum up interest. Jessica tried very hard in the first half of the contractual period. There were open houses both to other brokers and the public. But as the listing went past the second month, we sensed that Jessica was starting to get anxious. She raised the issue of proactively fix-ups and improvement for the house. We were selling what we had, not what the broker think what we should have (makes it easier for them to sell). Our agent should know the buyers are looking at a 40 year old house, not a new one. We finally had an offer. Things got really bad when buyers started to make demands that I think was unreasonable. Jessica was afraid to lose the deal and she sided with them in our negotiation. I had to remind her that she was our agent and she was there to represent our interest, not the buyers In hindsight, we wish we had a broker with a lot more experience and would stand up to fight for us instead of caving in so easily, just to make the sale. I definitely feel that we would have gotten a better deal if our broker is more experienced and patient.