You Needn't Be A Pit Bull To Represent Your Clients' Interests

OK, this post is going to offend all of you pit bull lovers out there, and I'm apologizing in advance.  I know there are many of these creatures who are wonderful pets.  But keep in mind that I'm talking sterotypes here.

These are some of what I consider to be important elements of doing a good job to represnet buyers in a real estate transaction.

• Stay on top of the market and new listings that might fit your clients' needs
  
• When they find "The One"  know how to put a good offer together and give advice on a strategy that will actually get the the house
  
• Be a better negotiator than most, usuing these skills to close the gaps between your clients' offer and the sellers' expectations
• Once the contract is ratified,  resolving all of the little problems and issues between agreement and settlement
• Working hard to keep a reputation for being reasonably easy to work with, and then actually being easy to work with
  
• Keeping your word in both large and small things throughout the transaction.
  

When I'm working with buyers, sometimes I might be just a little tough, but I am not a pit bull.

It's unusual for a transaction to glide to the settlement table with no glitches.  I mean, if it was easy, we wouldn't get paid so much for doing it.  But the way we negotiate the offer then work out the rest of the stuff that has to get fixed to make the settlement happen, well, that's where we make our reputations for being either really good agents or total pills.

First, we have to give up the need to be right.  

• You can share your opinion of a property's value, but in the end it's not that important.  You aren't buying!  You aren't selling!  Your job is to facilitate the communication between the principles who are, after all, the ones who will decide what the house is worth.
• When the home inspection list comes in, you might feel the need to hammer the sellers and their agent to make certain that every little ding in fixed.  Forget that your buyer's inspector may have qualified some of his findings on stuff like plumbing and wiring - you are demanding pipes or a breaker box be replaced.  But the way to fix the dings has to be decided by licensed contractors, not you.  And keep in mind that there may be many items on a list that your buyer could care less about. 
  
• When there is a problem with the appraisal or financing or anything else in the transaction, you need to be part of the solution instead of making things worse.  Screaming at the other agent won't help.
• If the other agent does something to screw up, don't spend your time placing blame and making her wrong.  Use your smarts to fix things, even if you were not the one to break them.
• If you don't maintain at least a modicum of good will with the other side, it will cost your clients at some point in the transaction when they might really need a favor.

We've started noticing that there are some agents out there who think that to represent their clients well, they have to be really, really tough - all the time.  They risk turning the situation into a totally adversarial Jerry Springer episode!  Forget that the agent's toughness might tick off the other side and contribute to the transaction's downfall.

And that's what being a pit bull can do.

The next time you're involved with a challenging transaction, try to be a Labradoodle.

Labradoodles bring lots of good energy to any situation.  They are smart, and they have an amazing attention span whenever they are trying to accomplish some task.  They know where the shoe they want to gnaw on is hidden and they will find it.  Labradoodles  are determined. 

And, most important, they are utterly charming and adorable, so that even when they are pissing you off, you don't mind too much.