Have you ever taken a listing, serviced it for 6 months, and then it expired? You wasted hours and hours or you time, but you didn’t get paid one dime. Not only that, but the seller kept beating you up, which caused you to lose confidence in your abilities. This is bad for any agent. How can we avoid this?
There is never any perfect hard and fast rule to gauge whether or not a seller is motivated. You just have to ask people questions. Why are you moving? Where are you moving to? If you can’t sell the home, what are you going to do? If the home does not sell, are you going to be willing to make an adjustment on your price?
Most agents are so excited to get a listing, they don’t ask these questions. Or, they are afraid to ask them. But, what would you think if a doctor just walked into the operating room and started cutting. No questions asked. No, “Where is it hurting you.” I would jump up and run out. That is, if I could still move. Ask good qualifying questions before you take a listing. Do it before you even waste time going on the listing appointment.
You can’t be scared to ask them, because it is expected of you. Maybe other agents won’t ask them, which will cause that agent to look weak. Here are a few other hard, fast rules for cutting down on the time nutty sellers cost you.
#1: Once the sellers go nutty, give them the listing back. If you have the sellers that want you to sell their home NOW for X, and they are not willing to adjust the price, then get rid of them. If the listing is at a price where it may sell before the expiration date, then you may want to keep the listing. Just tell them to either send the cancellation fee, or wait until the listing expires. I find that when I dump the nutty sellers early it saves a lot of time on my part.
#2: Get on your sellers early for a price reduction. What is the biggest complaint customers have of businesses? “They didn’t return my calls.” Or, “They never called me to let me know what was going on.” I call my sellers once a week just to give them updates on what is going on. Or, if not much is happening, just to remind them that I am still there.
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Ben & Chris Curry The Short Sale Agent's Advocate
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