Toughen up Buttercup! Selling your home is doing business, it’s not personal.

You nailed it Sheila.  I love the way you put it.  Sometimes it isn't easy to hear feedback as a seller, but it is needed.                                                                                                                                          

Very well said and straight to the point. I have to say with some sellers I decide to use a softer approach and actually tell them, Lets walk through the house as you are the buyer and see what we see. To some it is eye opening.

Sheila-well said!  I often tell Realtors that I am their back-up.  I ask before seeing a property if there is anything they want me to address to the homeowner.  It seems that sometimes, homeowners just don't seem to get it the first time around.

Sheila, buyers should be aware that constructive criticism can only help them sell their home. Sometimes difficult when emotions are involved, but worth it in the long run.

The idea of or the very core of every Real Estate transaction is to get in or get out efficiently and effectively...Down time or wasting time is not go time well spent...Buy or sell...there is no try (yoda)

Great title...this is what writing blogs should do...bring the reader to the post. That said, sellers don't like hearing the truth, maybe none of us do. But if you can help them view it as business, that helps. 

Great post Sheila! Straight and to the point.

this is indeed a great post!

Sometimes you need to tell a seller a different version of the problem. One I used many times was when I was picking out the engagement ring to propose to my now wife of 52 years. My father was friends with a jeweler who started a chain of well known jewelry stores and I asked him about diamonds. He told me about the diamond cartel and their control of them and they were stuck with the quality of the shipment they received, they could take the shipment or forget doing business. He asked if perhaps I knew a diamond dealer and alas I did, the uncle of one of my best friends.

I went to see him and he explained about carbon specks and fractures in diamonds and when he would find what he called an investment grade diamond he put it in his personal safe. He showed me some average stones through his loop and then went to his safe and showed me a stone a little over a carat that was perfect. It was in some plain brown wrapping paper and didn't appear any different then stones he was shipping out but then he put it on a piece of fine deep red velvet and put some bright lights over it, and did the same with the poorer stone, both looked the same. He said the average buyer would pay the same for each, and then put the good stone back on the wrapping paper without the lights and said the average buyer would pay less for the good stone shown this way and more for the poor stone in its display. He said I want you to only look at the quality of the stone, not it's setting. He was gracious enough to sell me the stone at half of what he could easily sell it to a investor for.

But it points out what many sellers do, they have a stone as good as the other stones, if not better, but because of the way it is displayed, the buyers purchase one of the other stones being displayed better.

Hi Sheila,  Well said.  Amazing how difficult it is to separate the emotional aspects and physical issues from the sale of a home.

Sheila - Unfortunately not all sellers can handle honest feedback ..... I recently received an email from an anonymous seller who was unhappy with my buyers feedback about the smell in the house from her cats ..... not sure what her agent told her but boy was she upset.

Great post, Sheila! I'm going to bookmark this page to show my sellers next time they complain about feedback.

I love the title of this post. Toughen up Buttercup! 

Way Cool, Sheila! Toughen up, buttercup!. I love it it and will use it too!                     

Hi Sheila. It was a Blast meeting you and Kristin at our Meetup today. I found your featured post, and you are right on the money with this. Your title says it all. No, It's never personal. It's just business.