Is Your Naperville Agent Really Working for You?

Let me ask you something about your agent, and actually try to answer it before you keep reading.

How would you know?

If your agent were quietly costing you money, if they were saying the wrong thing to the buyer’s agent, giving away where you stand, folding the second somebody pushed on them, how would you find out? Would somebody call you? Would it show up on a report at closing?

It would not. And here is the thing about how this actually happens. When I am negotiating a deal, I am sitting in my car. Or I am standing in my kitchen. There is no conference room, there is no witness, and there is nobody taking notes. It is two agents on the phone, wherever they happen to be, and sometimes one of them says something they should not have said.

Almost everything that decides how much money you walk away with happens in a phone call you will never hear. By the time you could tell it went badly, the money is gone and the house is sold.

So the vetting has to happen up front. Here is what to actually look for.

Is Your Naperville Agent Actually Working for You? Here's How to Tell

In Naperville, a sold sign proves almost nothing

This is the first thing working against you, and it is specific to a market like ours.

Homes in Naperville sell. A house in decent shape, priced right, gets attention fast. Think about what that does to your ability to evaluate an agent.

Because here is what a weak agent’s entire job looks like. He puts the sign in the yard. He gets the photos up. He loads the listing into the MLS. And then he waits, because the MLS does the work for him. Everyone shopping in the area has automated alerts running, so the second your house hits the system it lands in inbox after inbox without anybody lifting a finger. That is not marketing. That is a person who filled out a form and let a computer email your house to buyers.

And it works. That is exactly the problem. Your house sells, the sign says sold, and everyone decides the agent did a great job. He did not do anything. The market did it and he stood next to it.

In a slow market, a weak agent gets exposed. In a healthy market, a weak agent looks identical to a strong one from the outside. Same sign. Same closing. Same handshake. You never get to see the version of your sale where somebody sharper handled it.

The sold sign is not the scoreboard. It is just the receipt.

What a strong agent is actually for

Here is where the real work lives.

You get multiple offers. Three, four, six of them. Most sellers assume this part is simple, that you just take the highest number. It is not simple, and the highest number is frequently not the best offer.

One of those offers is from a buyer whose financing is shaky. One wants a long closing when you need a short one. One is loaded with contingencies and is going to come back at you after the inspection looking for money. And one is a little bit less, and is going to close quietly, on time, with no drama.

So the job is building the package that does two things at once. It has to actually get to the finish line, and it has to give you what you specifically want.

That second part matters more than sellers expect. If you need sixty days because your next place is not ready, then the offer that gives you sixty days is worth real money to you. A higher number that forces you out in three weeks is not a better offer. It is a worse one. Your agent should already know which kind of seller you are before those offers ever come in, which means they should have asked you.

Highest and best is almost never highest and best

Then there is the part almost nobody does.

When you call for highest and best, buyers do not give you their highest and best. They just do not. I am not sure why the industry agreed to pretend otherwise. You ask everyone for their absolute maximum, and they come back with a number they clearly plan to go above, because they are negotiating with themselves.

So you go back. You push. And that is the moment the urgency actually shows up for the buyer. Until then it is a house they are thinking about. Now other people want it and they might lose it, and suddenly they want it badly.

When somebody wants something, five thousand dollars stops feeling like five thousand dollars. They already have a number written down, so what is another five on top of it. It is the easiest money in the entire transaction to go get, and it is sitting right there.

An agent who simply collects the offers, lines them up, and tells you to pick the biggest one left all of that on the table. And you would never know, because you got a good price and a sold sign and it felt like it worked.

The back channel: what agents say about their own clients

I want to tell you about two things that actually happened to me. No names, no neighborhoods, nothing that identifies anybody, because the people are not the point. The behavior is.

The first one. I was on the other side of a deal from a buyer’s agent who was worn out. This agent had dragged their client through house after house, they had lost out repeatedly, and everybody was fried. On the phone, unprompted, this agent said to me that these people just need a home, what is it going to take.

Those were the words. And in that second I knew exactly where I stood, on the initial contract and again during attorney review. I knew how far I could go, and I knew they were not walking away. That agent did not get outnegotiated. They just told me.

The second one is worse. A listing agent, talking about his own sellers, told me they had already moved out, they were carrying two mortgages, and they were motivated to get it done. His own clients. Their pressure, their timeline, and their pain, in one sentence.

Here is what I think is really going on, because I do not believe either of those agents thought they had done anything wrong. There is an idea in this business that agents owe each other a kind of professional courtesy, that we should be honest with each other so the deal gets done. And there is an elephant in the room on a lot of those calls, which is that both agents want the same thing. We both want this to close so we both get paid.

That is the problem. You did not hire someone to get the deal done. You hired someone to be on your side of the table. When two agents start back channeling about their own clients so the transaction goes smooth, nobody on that phone call is representing anybody. They are cooperating on a closing.

And you will never know it happened. You are at your house, living your life, assuming you hired a professional. You get an offer that is a little lighter than it should have been, or you give up something you did not have to give up, and you assume that is just what the market said.

What you can actually watch for: at the listing appointment, pay attention to the ratio. How much did they ask you, versus how much did they talk at you? If someone spends an hour performing, walking you through their sales stats and their brochure and how many homes they closed last year, that is who they are. They are not going to suddenly become disciplined about what comes out of their mouth when they are on the phone with the other side. You already watched them do it to you.

The agent who talks gives it away. The agent who listens takes it.

The commission test, which most sellers run by accident

You push back on the fee. Totally fair. It is your money, it is a big number, and you should absolutely ask.

Let me be clear about how commissions work, because plenty of people do not know. Commissions are negotiable. There is no standard rate, there is no set number any agent is required to charge, and there never was. You can ask any agent for anything you want.

Here is the part people do not think through. It goes both ways. You can ask, and the agent can say no. You can walk, and so can they. Nobody is obligated to anybody.

My commission is 3.5%. If you push back on me and I cave, that should tell you something. Think about what you just watched. I backed down on my own livelihood. That is my money. That is the number I understand better than anything else in the entire transaction, and I folded on it in ninety seconds because you pushed once.

So why on earth would I stand up for yours?

That was the demo. You just watched that agent negotiate. And the buyer’s attorney is not going to be gentler with them than you just were. When a credit request comes over after the inspection, that same agent folds again, except now it is your money and you are not in the room. Saying no was always available to them. They just do not use it.

An agent who will not stand up for their own paycheck is not the agent who stands up for your house. Cheap is not a deal. It is a warning label.

The actual math on saving money on commission

A seller once pushed back on me and said, look, I just want to make as much money as possible. I said, so do I. We both want the same thing. Your house selling high is how I get paid more. There is no version of this where I am rooting against your number.

So let us do the real math. Say it is a five hundred thousand dollar house. The difference between a 3.5% agent and a 2.5% agent is five thousand dollars. That is real money and I am not going to insult you by pretending it is not.

But now count the costs you do not see and do not feel. If your house sits two extra months, you make two more mortgage payments. Two more months of property taxes, insurance, and utilities. Nobody hands you an invoice for that, but it left your pocket all the same. Then add one negotiation where your agent caves. One credit request they do not push back on. One inspection where they tell you to just pay it so the deal does not die.

That five thousand dollars is gone. It goes fast and it goes quietly, and you will never connect it back to the decision you made to save five thousand up front. Those figures are illustrative, but the shape of it holds at any price point.

What if I already signed with somebody?

This is the hesitation nobody writes about, so let me address it directly.

If you have read this far and you have been getting a little uneasy about the agent you already hired, I am not going to try to take you from them. That is not something I do. If you have a signed agreement with somebody, you have a signed agreement, and sliding in there to break it up is not how I want to work. It is also not how you would want me working for you.

Here is what I would actually do. Go have the conversation with the agent you have. Call them and ask them straight:

What do you say about me and my situation to the other side?
How do you handle a credit request after the inspection?
What would you do if I got four offers tomorrow?

I know that is an awkward phone call. Have it anyway. This is one of the biggest assets you will ever own, and ten uncomfortable minutes on the phone is a cheap price to protect it. If they give you a straight answer, that is a good sign, and you will know.

And if you have already moved on from an agent, that is a different situation, and I would honestly just like to hear about it. Not to pitch you. I want to know what went wrong, because that is how I get better at this.

The honest bottom line

I know all of this can read like I am telling you to go be suspicious of everybody. That is not it. Most people in this business are decent, and I believe that. But decent is not the same thing as disciplined, and you are not paying for decent. You are paying for someone who knows when to keep their mouth shut when it is your money on the line.

So do the work up front, while you still can. Watch how much they ask versus how much they talk. Watch what happens when you push on their fee. Those two things will tell you most of what you need to know.

Then let it go, because carrying all of it yourself is not your job. You will do this a couple of times in your whole life. I do it constantly. Let me line up the pieces, and you go pack your things.

Get the free Naperville Seller’s Guide here: https://gimpertrealty.com/go/naperville-seller-guide/

It covers pricing, prep, timing, and what actually happens after an offer comes in, so you walk into these conversations already knowing what good looks like. No cost. An email from me here and there, and that is it.

Curious what your home is worth before you talk to anybody? You can start with a free Naperville home value estimate.

Frequently Asked Questions

Are real estate commissions negotiable in Illinois?
Yes. There is no standard rate and no legally required number. Any seller can ask any agent for a different fee, and any agent can decline. Either party can also walk away. That is exactly why an agent holding their number is a meaningful signal rather than stubbornness.

How can I tell if my listing agent is negotiating well for me?
Most of it happens where you cannot observe it, in phone calls between agents. That is why the evaluation has to happen before you sign. The two observable behaviors are how much an agent asks versus talks during your listing appointment, and how they respond when you push back on their fee.

Is the highest offer always the best offer?
No. Financing strength, closing timeline, contingencies, and the likelihood of post-inspection renegotiation all affect what an offer is actually worth to you. An offer slightly below the top number that closes cleanly and on your timeline is frequently the better outcome.

Should I just hire the cheapest agent in Naperville?
You can, but understand what you are buying. On a five hundred thousand dollar home, a one percent difference in commission is about five thousand dollars. Extra months of carrying costs or a single weak negotiation can consume that quickly, and you will never see the line item.

What should I do if I already signed a listing agreement and I have doubts?
Talk to your agent directly rather than trying to break the agreement. Ask them what they communicate to the other side about you, how they handle post-inspection credit requests, and how they would manage multiple offers. Their answers, and how comfortable they are giving them, will tell you a lot.

NAPERVILLE SELLER RESOURCES

Most Recent Posts:

Sean Gimpert
O’Neil Property Group
630-315-0723
sean@oneilpropertygroup.com

Get the Free Naperville Seller Guide

Where should I send the guide?

Is Your Naperville Agent Really Working for You? Here’s How to Tell