A testimonial on the benefits of an experienced Triangle REALTOR®

Buying and selling a home is one of the most significant financial decisions you will make in your life. Yet many buyers and sellers underestimate just how important their partners — especially their real estate agents — are on the outcome. The wrong agent can add stress and cost you time, money, and missed opportunities. If you’re looking for a Triangle REALTOR®, you need an experienced agent with proven experience.

That’s according to Shannon Layne, a former Triangle-area resident. When she got married in 2023, she and her now-husband, Alan, listed her home in Bailey and she relocated to Washington D.C. Throughout 2023 and 2024, the Laynes worked with three different real estate agents, each whom was unsuccessful at selling the home. After nearly two years on the market and endless frustrations, the Laynes finally called Kim Myers from The Jim Allen Group to sell their home. Their story shows just how important it is to find the right agent.

Layne said the timing of their first agent seemed right. The couple met her at a bridal expo in November of 2022. The agent took the time to reach out that spring, knowing that they were planning to list the home around the same time as their July wedding. “So we went with her,” she said. However, the agent’s inexperience quickly showed. “She was very young and new to real estate,” Layne explained. “(The agent) had to go to her broker-in-charge for almost all questions we asked. She was very nice, and we had a lot of showings the first few weeks, but no offers.”

Eventually, communication dropped off, and they learned after some time that the agent’s son had been sick. “She ended up letting us out of the contract because she didn’t have the time needed to dedicate to her clients,” she said. This led to the need to pursue a new agent immediately.

The couple ultimately hired their second agent because he was the agent Layne used to purchase that home. “We told him up front our primary goal was to break even and get my down payment back,” she said.

Problems began immediately when he pressured them to drop the price of the home several times as a marketing tool. “He told us (price drops) were all agents used for marketing. I work in marketing, so I offered a few suggestions, but none of them were tried,” she explained. “When we pressured him to do more marketing, he asked us what specifically we wanted him to do.” And while the Laynes gave him several suggestions, he ignored those recommendations. “He told us he left flyers at a restaurant,” she said, but that was it.

Eventually, they started digging deeper into concerns they had about the agent. “We started to get the impression he wasn’t being completely honest with us and just wanted to be done with the house,” she said. “When we told him we didn’t want to renew the contract, he pretty much said, ‘No further communication is needed.’ He was unprofessional.” They immediately scrambled for yet another agent.

Layne said they hired a third agent who had over 30 years of experience and a background in marketing. He worked with a small firm outside of the Triangle area, which was closer to Bailey, which they thought may help. “We told him up front our goal was to break even and get the down payment back,” she said. However, they were immediately disappointed. “The photographs that he posted of the house were horrible. They were dark and dreary. I knew right away that it was not going to generate any interest with those photos.”

It took one month before he suggested a price drop. “After another month, he tried to pressure us into doing a $30,000 price drop, which put it below what I paid for the house. We refused,” she said. By this point, she said they felt a bit hopeless, and added, “At the end of the contract, we took the house off the market.”

Layne said they were incredibly disappointed with their experiences, and that the problems were glaring. “Overall, all three were frustrating due to lack of marketing,” she said. “We told them up front that it was a new construction neighborhood, and that we were battling homes that were still being built. We felt marketing was the key to getting the house out there and competing with the new construction.”

A friend recommended Kim Myers from The Jim Allen Group. They contacted Myers immediately after pulling the house off the market with the third agent. Layne said that despite the fear they felt after their previous experiences, they immediately felt at ease with Myers’ expertise and the expert recommendations she made to stay competitive in the market.

“It felt like she listened when we told her we wanted to recoup the down payment,” she said. “She also marketed the house on the website Jim Allen has about moving to the area. Instead of pushing for a price drop, she suggested a cash incentive to the buyer at closing. She also checked to see what the new construction builders were offering and how to market competitively. A lot of them were offering a lower interest rate, or cash back, or cash to buy down the interest rate.”

Layne said they were impressed with the marketing tools Myers and the JAG team provided. “The photographs were professional, and she was the first REALTOR® to do one of the virtual walk-throughs of the property available online,” she said. And it was even the small details Myers did that put them at ease. “She wasn’t pushy with price dropping and was willing to find alternatives to marketing our home before we had to consider a price drop.”

Layne also said that the overall communication with Myers stood out in their minds. “She was very professional, and she communicated with us regularly,” she explained. “The previous two agents barely reached out while they had it listed, unless it was to talk about price. There were times that we would have to send multiple emails or text messages before we received a reply. Kim made sure to reply within the same day.”

Myers brought fast results for the Laynes. “I think we had an offer 5 to 6 weeks after it was posted,” she said. And that was after Myers relisted the property at a higher price. “It was $10,000 above what it was at when it came off the market with the last agent.”

Layne said it was an experience that gave her new insight into how to look for a real estate agent. The first learning, she said, was that she wished she had done more research to find the right Triangle REALTOR®.

“I would have loved to have connected with Kim sooner,” she said. “This is only the second time I’ve sold a house, and (selling a house in) Havelock was so easy. I was not expecting it to take almost two years. I guess I didn’t realize how important it was to have the right agent, I just thought any agent could sell the house.”

Layne said her experience gave her new insight into working with a real estate agent. “I wish I had known that I shouldn’t just randomly pick an agent, that they are not all the same,” she said. Her advice is simple: “Make sure you choose someone that has experience. An experienced agent will know different methods to suggest you that newer agents may not be aware of.”

In addition, Layne suggested doing your homework. “Check out their social media and see how much advertising they are doing online,” she said. “Research them and see how long they’ve been with their company. My second agent bounced around from one company to another, and that should have been a red flag.”

And most importantly, she said that given the growth of the area, it’s important to find a Triangle REALTOR® who knows how to compete with new construction. “I learned it is more difficult to sell a home in a neighborhood where it is a new neighborhood and new construction is continuously happening,” she said. “This makes it doubly important that you get an agent who knows what they are doing.”

If you’re considering selling your home, get in touch or start searching for an agent. As Layne suggested, make sure you research any agent you may be considering. Ask for references and see what they’re doing for marketing. And make sure to interview agents before you hire them to make sure you click with a person. Taking the time to find the right Triangle REALTOR® will save headaches and ensure you meet your goals when buying or selling.