This is not a rant, but rather a lesson learnt, obviously very much needed to share with all agents - especially when you plan to represent your clients in a specific neighborhood, be it if you are a listing or a buyer's agent.

Over the weekend, I showed a property in a Frisco TX neighborhood. The agent called for a feedback Monday afternoon. There's 2 things I learnt from the conversation:

(1) The buyer is ALWAYS right.

The listing agent went on and on the phone the whole time explaining to me what are the upgrades in the house. No question about that. However, in a home, whether it is a $1,000 custom made chandelier, or a $100 light bought from Home Depot, Buyers still expect lighting fixtures around the house.

The kitchen is installed with granite counter tops, stainless steel appliances and just tastefully done. But would you expect to sell the house without a proper kitchen? The conversation with this particular listing agent sounded as if these were "bonuses" to the house that you otherwise would not expect.

(2) Listing Agents must know the inventory in the neighborhood.

This neighborhood has high foreclosure inventory. Builders decided NOT to build in this neighborhood temporarily. The foreclosures are not rare-occasions. The only ones that are selling are foreclosures.

I explained that we acknowledged that this home is offered by a regular seller and he would never want to see an offer coming in with a foreclosure pricing. (Note that in presenting offers, Buyers seem to go much lower just to see how low the banks will go).

The question that appalled me in my 15 minute conversation was: How many foreclosures are there in the neighborhood?

I couldn't believed this question and my filters didn't work that afternoon. This is what I blurted out of my mouth:

"You are the listing agent for this house in this community. You should know your neighborhood invntory. I wont tell you how many foreclosure inventories are there because you can find it out on your own. I'm just going to say that there are a few too many".

Well, those that know me know that I'm not a rude, or straight in your face person. But I could sense some anger/ resentment/ disappointment in my tone because I was clearly upset that this agent knows nothing about selling homes in this neighborhood. I looked up his phone number. Sure enough, it was listed with a different area code, his office, some 45 minutes away.

What can I say? This home has been sitting on the market for over 150 days. It is clearly overpriced just with the market conditions and the listing agent is trying to get offers from any showing agents with no very good persuasion skills.

So, here's how you can become the best agent for your sellers:

(1) Set yourself up on property alerts for that neighborhood.

(2) Know every movement in the neighborhood.

(3) Make sure you stay on top of things by evaluating/ reviewing pricing at least every 2 weeks.

Until then, you havent deserve to earn your paycheck from your sellers. Be either very good or don't play. Don't ever let your Sellers know more or sooner than you do in his/ her neighborhood.

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Contact:

Loreena Yeo
Realtor®/ Broker of 3:16 team REALTY
(214) 783-2210
loreena@loreenayeo.com

Super-serving Frisco, Plano, Dallas, McKinney, Allen, Little Elm, Prosper, Celina, Richardson, Dallas M-Streets, Dallas White Rock Lake area communities and other surrounding areas.

Copyright © 2009 by Loreena Yeo (3:16 team REALTY)
Perfecting Your Inventory Knowledge in Your Neighborhoods