I actually called one of my competitors for no other reason than to compliment her on her modus operandi.
I was pulling October statistics for my area. I like doing it the long way, not the spoon fed way: I actually get into the history of an address and see if what appears under that listing number is the whole story. Many times I find that the property has been on the market for many more months than that particular listing number reveals. For example one property appeared to have sold within 86 days. When I pulled the history of the property I found that it had been listed with several other agencies, and it actually took 585 days to sell, instead of the disclosed 86 days. It also had a 28.92% price drop between the original listing price in 2006 and the price it actually sold for a couple of weeks ago.
I noticed that this particular agent had the good habit of adjusting the price down every 2-4 weeks until the property sold. She had several listings sold that way in October. In this market, that is a good habit to get into...
A day later, one of my agents showed one of this agent's listings. I was impressed by her prompt response to my agent's showing. It came by e-mail and said: "Annie, Thank you for taking your buyers to see my listing below. I shared your feedback with my seller yesterday after I spoke with you briefly. Since then, my seller has agreed to offer a $500 Selling Bonus to the selling agent! ...let's face it...times are tough! Just thought this might give you a little more of a reason to get their parents in to see this fine home. By the way, feel free to share with them that this is one of the last remaining few lots that will have a NEW construction on the Golf Course! The other homes in Colonial Charters that are backing up to the new signature course have some years on them. Good luck and I hope to be hearing from you soon!" WOW!!! This agent stays right on top of it!
You can understand why I couldn't abstain from calling her and complimenting her on her stellar performance. She was floored; then she paid me a high compliment. She said: "Wow! Coming from you, Mirela, this means a lot to me!" We talked for several minutes after that and she shared with me a few more valuable tips.
Competitor or not, I'm proud of sharing this business with agents like her!
Nanette, this one is about you... Keep up the great job!