It's a line from one of my husband's and my favorite movies "A Few Good Men" starring Tom Cruise and Jack Nicholson. So many lines from this movie have stuck with me, and although this one was delivered by "the bad guy", it came to mind a few weeks ago after writing an offer for a client.
Here are the details:
- The offer was low.
- The property has been on the market, on and off, for more than a year.
- The buyer is pre-approved and expecting a counter-offer
Here was the Listing Agent's response:
"Sigh, Sigh, Sigh, wow, it's really low"
(Wasn't that low, definitely within offer range for a property on the market this long)
"What are your buyers basing their price on?"
(Um, I don't know. Maybe the fact the property has been on the market for a long time and prices are continuing to soften and they want to make sure they aren't leaving money on the table?)
I soooo wanted to ask this agent how many properties he/she had sold or offers he/she had written in the last 6 months because it definitely felt as if he/she had NO IDEA what was going on with respect to offers and negotiating these days.
But I took the high road. (I'm getting good at that)
So the counter came back and it wasn't good and my buyer passed.
I can't help but compare this experience to another I had a few months ago when I wrote an offer on a house which had only been on the market for about 15 days. It was a LOW offer (lower in terms of percent to list price than the offer mentioned above). The buyers were coming in from out of state and had been listening to the news about "a strong buyer's market".
When this agent received my offer, the response was, "Colleen, thank you so much for an offer to work with. I look forward to having a response to you soon."
Far different from "Sigh, Sigh, Ugh, Sigh"
The sellers came down with a reasonable counter. My buyer paid more than they thought they would have to, and the sale closed roughly 40 days later.
So to the listing agent of the property STILL on the market......rather than sigh and act as if I've caused you a big headache by writing an offer on your listing...."I'd rather you just said thank you and did your job of presenting it to the seller without emotion or predjudice because you haven't a clue what's going on in the market right now"
That's actually not the real line from the movie.
The real line is" I'd rather you just said thank you and went on your way"
Close enough
Colleen Fischesser is the Broker/Owner of RE/MAX Select in Maple Valley, WA. She has been successfully selling and marketing properties all over South King & North Pierce counties since 1990 but specializes in the Maple Valley Washington area. She may be contacted directly at: 425-432-5400
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Colleen Fischesser is the Designated Broker amd Owner of RE/MAX Select Real Estate. She has been successfully helping clients buy and sell real estate in the greater Seattle Washington area since 1990 and specializes in South East King County including the communities of Covington, Renton, Auburn, Kent, Ravensdale, Black Diamond & Maple Valley. Voted by clients and industry professionals as one of Seattle Magazine's 5 Star, Best in Client Satisfaction for six years running, she and her team rank in the top 50 of RE/MAX teams in the entire Northwest region. Colleen is committed to remaining on the cutting edge of real estate marketing and technology while providing value-added, personalized service.
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Me thinks you could have used the line "You can't handle the truth!" somewhere in that first discussion :0)