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If I ruled the (real estate) world...

Okay, that's a little melodramatic and I don't have time to talk about everything I would change. And, frankly, I have no interest in ruling any world.

So, let me rephrase that. If I ruled my real estate company...

I'd pass this law: Any agent who works for me will have to prove to me, their queen, that the sellers they allow to hire them have either a strong NEED or a strong DESIRE to sell. No market-testers allowed.

My company's listings would be 100% marketable. My company's listings would sell. Buyer agents would flock to show my listings first because they are priced right, easy to show and smell good. Or if they aren't easy to show and/or smell awful, they are priced accordingly.

We'd take 60 day listing agreements and not a day longer. That's plenty of time to sell a home and frankly, I don't want my real estate sign sitting in front of a house any longer than that.

Sellers would have to sell themselves to my agents. My agents would have to sell their sellers to me.

If an agent didn't like my law, they could leave. But I think they'd love it once they understood it.

Read Part II Here

www.sellwithsoul.com

Copyright Jennifer Allan 2007

Posted by Jennifer Allan-Hagedorn, Author of Sell with Soul on 09/15/2007 02:59 AM

Comments (52)

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Originally posted at: Selling Soulfully with Jennifer Allan: If I ruled the (real estate) world...

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52 Comments on If I ruled the (real estate) world...

SEP

2007

Where do I sign up? Just fax me the application, so I can be your first agent. I like your guidelines!

Sounds like great rules to me too! BTW, I love your picture :)

Sounds good to me, I'm on board Jennifer!

Jennifer, I love your attitude. A true seller, as you so eloquently put it, "have the need and a strong desire" to actually sell their home. Too many agents just want to take a listing and hope that the home sells. Sounds like your customers are sellers and not just a listing. Keep up the good work.

Queen Jennifer, are you franchising an office in the Birmingham area? I know a Buyers Agent. You wear that crown quite well. I guess it really comes down to expectations doesn't it?

Yeah! It's a paradigm shift - Stop begging for business and let your prospects convince YOU that they are worthy of your efforts! This would be an industry-changing concept if embraced by the masses.

Stephen - I don't know photoshop, so I'm pretty impressed with my crowning-efforts in Publisher. It looks really nice, doesn't it????? It's good to be the QUEEN.

Jennifer - That would be great. I just don't understand sellers at times. Now that there is so much inventory they might just change their view about sale price.

I think I will like that rule!!! It has a plan of action and there are no time-wasters (mine or theirs)...

I don't think you have ever been accused of being shy! Great post and lots of fun! Keep it up.

It has been said : You Clain What You Proclaim...keep those positive affirmations and your business will change !

Great Post

Grace Safrin

Queen Jen, I too would want a chance to be one of your "royal subjects". Long live the Queen! (and all of her great ideas).

Jennifer that is a great rule!! In fact it's been the rule in my office for years. Every listing has to be approved by me. Of course, being as how I am the only one in my office it makes things easier:)

I just made it to chapter 3.

There was a lyric from a band I liked in college that went something like this:

If IFs and BUTs were Candies and Nuts,

It'd be Christmas every Day

I like it! :)

On this day, and forever more Her Highness of Dothan Alabama Real Estate, Queen Jennifer "Aretha" Allan does DECREE that there no longer shall exist "stinky listings", overpriced listings or unaccessible listings throughout the LAND. All associates in her realm shall Champion the Queen in all endeavors or be banished from the territory, and so it is DONE! Sincerely, the Towne Crier.

LOL !! Kevin I mean Towne Crier that was funny. Now all we need is a round table and a few banners....

Kevin - You Rock! You can be the court jester (as well as towne crier). No More Stinky Listings!

I'm with you on everything but the 60 day listing period. We have 2.5 years worth of inventory right now and the average time on the market for a properly priced listing is around 9 months! The only ones that are moving fast are the ones that are priced BELOW everyone else.

Queen Jennifer Her Royal Highness,

Great post, and a great philosophy. What concerns me are all of the "ifs" and the "woulds". You DO rule your company, and they WILL do what you train them to do. So go and do it! What are you waiting for? :-)

Me Lady, can you say - "SHE, SHOWS and SELLS STINKY, SMELLY LISTINGS" - ten times, Fast! Have a humorous weekend. The Court Jester

SEP

2007

Good idea:)

Oh! I've always wanted to be queen too! :-)

And I agree with your laws 100%. We need to be careful picking our buyers too. The "oh maybe I'll buy a house if it's the perfect price, color, shape and on the perfect street with the perfect neighbor, but I really don't have to move out of my place until I die because I'm paying awesome rent" client should be weeded out before agents waste their unpaid time catering to their needs.

Oh, if I was queen, I'd be so happy!

Jennifer I just wrote an email to a seller who has a very overpriced listing that I only took because he was a past client and his wife swore they would lower in two weeks if no activity. It is now 5 months later and two very good offers that they rejected. I have basically said "Get real or I am taking my sign back". I can tell you it isn't worth the drama. I would never do it again for any SOI.

So I'm not the only one up at 3am...

Ashley - let me know how your seller responds!

Jennifer - Sign me up! I loved Kevin's "stinky listings"! Our market is still good, but nothing kills a deal faster than an overpriced listing. I turn down as many as I take it seems. Don't need the stress of the phone calls and, "Why hasn't my home showed and there are no showings?" Just don't do it!

Well ... I'll be the Devil's Advocate and tell you of story from 1982. I was new to the business back then. One of the older, veteran agents in my office had just sold a home that she had listed for over a year. She said something to the effect of "If you can just hang on long enough, you can get the job done."

As we re-enter a slow market, and yes it is slowing here in Los Angeles, the unfortunate truth is that even with spot-on pricing, staging, and aggressive marketing, some properties are just not going to sell quickly.

We all may need to adjust to the concept of "hanging in for the long haul". :-/ !!

Jennifer, love the posts, title, graphs and the message.

Linda - the stress is NOT worth it! Every time I've taken an overpriced listing, usually out of ego, I regret it. Nobody wins and nobody has fun.

Cheryl, I agree, when I sold real estate full time, most of my listings did sell eventually. Even the dogs. It's a whole new world out there and we'll just have to see how it all shakes out. Maybe a year to sell a house will be reasonable... but it's hard to imagine that with an abundance of inventory, a 365 DOM home will sell at a price acceptable to a seller. In the old days, sellers could eventually accept a low-ball offer because they had the equity. But now with the 100% mortgages & re-fi's out there... that may no longer be the case!

Jeniffer -- let me be the first to say, you allready are the Queen of your own company. If you are like the vast majority of Realtors, you are an independent contractor, which means you do set your own rules.

You can start the paradigm shift by starting with yourself. Set your own standards and follow them. If it works, others around you may begin to emulate you, (flock to the queens' banner?) and the shift will happen over time.

Good luck to you, your majesty.

Rich - well, here's the thing. I don't sell real estate anymore, so I'm counting on YOU to start the paradigm shift... if you wanna! Pick up the scepter! (sceptor? skeptor? secptor?)

I love your rules! The queen rules...yeah!

What a great message.

As Broker Bryant says... I feel another blog coming on.... stay tuned.

This is definitely a passionate way to get the job done.

Sign me up too Jennifer,

Like you said - "too bad the real estate masses won't follow these perfect guidelines".

But, if they did, would all the houses sell?? and what if there aren't some "skanky", overpriced ones around for buyers to compare with our good ones.

I love it when I have a listing that's accessible, clean, staged and priced right in the same neighborhood with a listing that is not accessible and overpriced or "skanky". It helps my listing sell for more and faster!

I am thinking the 60 day listing agreement is a good concept! Price it right so it sells right away. Right now we are chasing are market down and it is hard to compete (a "normal" listing) vs short sales, foreclosures & new construction. I have one listing expiring next month, have brought three offers and we are still chasing tail. I am not going to renew these types of listings anymore if they can't listen to me when I tell them what is going on! Give me 60 days and if I don't sell it, I don't want it :)

Sign me up that is a great idea. I agree I like the 60 day agreement. This market is not for the faint of heart or like you said those that want to test the waters.

It takes a lot of guts to take a picture with a crown on your head but you did it with poise and style!

Tracy - thanks! I have to admit, the crown comes naturally. I'm fairly bossy and a little high maintenance. My friends used to call me Princess and it wasn't a compliment.

Queen Jennifer,

I love it!!!! I recently 'offered' to cancel a listing if the seller wanted to try to sell it themselves because it was sooooo overpriced and I couldn't get them to come down.

Their complaint was that if someone would make an offer they would figure out a way to make it work.......my comeback.......'well, first we have to get them through the door and when there is a model match down the street for $20K less........where do you think they're going to go first?'

I learned the hard way and I couldn't agree with you more.

P.S. I love the picture!!!!!

And if I were the King... (cont. on your part towo post...

What a great concept. I suppose the only way that would ever work though is if sellers agreed to pay a substantial non-refundable retainer, say $2000.00 to cover marketing costs and their agents time. Getting them a little more invested in the process would certainly motivate sellers to clean their houses up and price them right as well as keep the market testers away.

Awesome photo "Queen Jennifer"...."You go girl!"

If only - in a perfect world. Oh well, back to reality.

great company you run!

Great rules. Should be the same at EVERY real estate office.....

Long live the queen.

Jennifer their response was "they are perplexed that I didn't mention this during the negotiations.". I just don't understand which of the 12 emails and 10 phones calls where I told them the current market they missed.

SEP

2007

Ashley - I know what you mean! Here's a thought... apparently they didn't hear you. So, in retrospect, how could you have shared this information differently so that they would hear you? This situation will come up again, so use it as a learning experience to do better next time. For example, if my home were on the market and my agent sent me a chart or graph every day showing me how my home compared to the competition, I probably wouldn't look at it because I don't like graphs. They don't speak to me. I'd be just like your sellers perplexed that my agent didn't warn me.

So, I wonder how many different delivery systems there are for communicating market data? Oral (out loud conversation), written (an explanatory, non-data email), CMA with photos & data emailed (that's what works for me), CMA with photos snail-mailed or delivered, tour of the competition, graphs and charts (Loreena does these exceptionally well)... what else?

Maybe we need to evaluate how our sellers best "hear" and work accordingly.

Ok. I accept you as queen of real estate. When does your rule take effect?

SEP

2007

It takes effect TODAY! Just give me a little notice and I'll be delighted to review your proposal and determine if your potential listing is worthy of your sign.

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Jennifer Allan-Hagedorn, Author of Sell with Soul

Pensacola Beach, FL

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