Occasionally in real estate we receive a call from a person that wants to sell a home and in the course of the conversation you start asking yourself if you even want the listing.  On most properties, we will drive by the day before an appointment to see if there are major negatives that would prevent a sale.  If  I do not think we can sell the property within the parameters of the conversation we had with the sellers...we wil bow out.    If that is the case, we will call the seller back and cancel the listing appointment gracefully.  On other listings, we will drive by and take a few digital photos an prepare a Free CMA, and marketing plan for the sellers.  There is nothing unusual about the way we do business, and I am sure this is pretty routine for anyone that lists homes in real estate.  However, once in a 'Blue moon' we get the call from the A++++ types that want to control everything.  The will actually act is if they are doing you a favor in just having the privilege to work with them and for them.  It has been my experience that once there is too much pressure to control all the details that this is just not going to work.  This is a battle of the wills.  Over the years in real estate this usually can start out with a dialog that goes down hill.  At first you are led to believe you are the only agent being interviewed, and then the seller may mention they are interviewing other agents.  I still have no problem with this, and this is still pretty routine in our business.  One owner a few years ago with a multi-million dollar property told us he would like to sell his home.  At the end of the conversation, he mentioned that he was interviewing 12 agents for the home all at the same time.  He wanted each agent to get up and state in font of the other agents what they would do differently to sell the home.  Please keep in mind that he wanted the home sold in 3 weeks and it was a 3 million dollar plus property.  I thanked him for telling me this, and then respectfully declined to be considered for the listing.  He was flabbergasted that we did not want to attend.  My response?  I told him, I do not do 'Dog & Pony Shows!'  The number one way persons search for a homes these days is the Internet, and for his special needs we show up #1 on the search engine for search engine placement.  Besides, his home was priced at least 1.4 million too high.

The interesting thing, is that this was presented to us as an opportunity, but it was not.  In stead I viewd this as a quagmire - dealing with a run-a-way seller's ego that I just did no have time to deal with.  To top it off, he wanted a discount on my fees, I do not offer that.  I offer great results instead.  Oh, and by the way, my gut instinct was right.  This is almost 3 years later, and the home is still for sale. The 'Dog & Pony Show' was not a solution or an identification of real estate genius.  There is no  point calling a marketing expert if you do not what to hear their thoughts and strategies.  No really good agent is going to share their marketing plans or stratgies infront of 11 other agents.  It is not going to happen.  They are our direct competition.