What Happens When Your Real Estate Agent Doesn’t Know Your Neighborhood

APRIL 10, 2025

When you are picking an agent to sell your property, it is so important that they know the neighborhood. I can’t stress that enough. I have seen many examples of agents selling properties in my own neighborhood that don’t understand its complexity. These mistakes can lead to homes not getting under contract as quickly due to improper marketing, incorrect pricing, or misinformation that may cause issues once under contract or after closing. Below I will explain several examples in detail for better understanding.

Let’s start with what should be a simple task—listing the correct city and community that a property is in. Not that long ago, I saw a property in my community listed as if it was in Westminster. My community is in Arvada. Currently, there is another property for sale in my community that used the HOA name as the subdivision name (unfortunately, it was not even the correct HOA for that specific property). When looking for homes for our buyers, we use criteria that specifically targets certain towns as well as communities. If the incorrect location is used for a town or community, these listing will be missed in the home searches we set up for our buyers looking for these specific towns or communities. This means there is a lost opportunity.

My community is quite complicated with multiple different HOAs. Many of the properties have two HOAs. Even though homes in my community have similar features, such as white lattice fencing, and share the same master association, they still have two different secondary HOAs. My community can be very easily misrepresented if an agent doesn’t know the community. I have seen agents price a single-family home that has two HOAs with snow removal, landscaping and barely any backyard similar to a single-family home with one HOA, no extra services and a bigger backyard. These two homes are really not the same. So, properties are being priced higher than they should be because agents do not know the neighborhood, and they are using the wrong comps. The end result is that these incorrectly priced properties are sitting on the market instead of going under contract.

Another thing I have noticed is that some agents are not aware of what the current HOA amounts are. If you look up my community in the MLS, you will see properties listed with similar HOAs but with different HOA monthly/quarterly assessment amounts. This can cause a problem once under contract. It is important that a buyer is able to correctly calculate their monthly expenses when buying a home.

Of course, we are all human and can make mistakes, but it really does matter who you pick to sell your home. At TK Homes, we are very thorough and do our research to understand what we are selling. We even do our best to contact the HOA/HOAs before listing a property to ensure we fully understand what is and isn’t included as part of HOA responsibility. We want to list your home at the correct price and market your property correctly from the start. This way, we get your home under contract faster for the highest possible price. We also want to give potential buyers the necessary information upfront, so they are be able to make the correct decision to purchase your home and get to the closing table as smoothly as possible without unnecessary hiccups.

If you are thinking of selling (or buying) a property, contact a TK Homes agent today, and we will make sure we do the necessary research to be the neighborhood expert when we sell your home!

 

~ Written by TK Homes REALTOR®, Mary Smith