Be Professional & Tell it as it is!
Andre de Villiers - Blog entry: Sun 13 July 2008
The client is not your friend! Just like the family needs their doctor the family needs their real estate agent to 'give it to them straight' and yes - with compassion when it's needed.
Today I came back from visiting my agent's show houses in my area, and the one property I called in on was way over what it should be on the market for - even when times were on the seller's side!
It was clear to me that my agent who is an enthusiastic charming and polite lady is having a problem telling the seller what she needs to hear. The seller (who has already complained about the size of the display ad we gave her) has over capitalised on the property and maintains a very personal attachment to her home and has a high regard for the value of her improvements. My agent needs to take the facts of the market and equate them to the selling price of comparable properties but I see the problem - the seller clearly does not believe her house is comparable to any other property in the area.
There is no easy answer to over capitalised properties but one thing is to ask the seller that if they knew when they were spending the money that they would be selling would they done so? The answer is hopefully "no" and then the follow up question of course being "why?" and hopefully the seller then says something like "because we probably won't get our money back". Hello!
Some fixtures can be removed and taken by the seller to their next property. Encourage this as it starts a process of real quantification of the values as in many cases the real value to the subject property for the item is very little as it is a matter of subjective personal taste and preference. This property for example had three precast water features in a tiny garden and encouraged me to find out where the loo was after being there for two minutes. Removing the item from the sale will allow the seller to maintain some 'victory' in the price adjustment and may be a great relief to there buyer! For the seller it allows them to rationalise a drop in price. Quantifying the second hand value of items also gets the seller to start looking at the itemised value and not the total package that seems to encourage the overwhelmingly optimistic comparison of their home to the next door neighbour's property!
The point is we need to be firm on competitive pricing or we do the seller no favour at all. Too often estate agents are overly concerned with the seller's ego and think that if we do not share their 'dream vision on price' they will think we are unenthusiastic. That's like going to the doctor when you have tumor and respecting his professionalism because he chooses to go with your opinion that you just have a headache when he knows better. Is that the type of doctor your seller wants? Ask them!
The vast majority of sellers who are over priced know it! They are playing a game and they have you to play with! As long as the agent 'plays the game' we encourage (at our and our company's great expense) everyone to waste their time and to lose valuable selling opportunities by driving potential buyers into the arms of the house and agent around the corner!
Not being truthful with our over priced sellers is a dishonest disservice to them and to ourselves and nobody has anything to gain.
Andre de Villiers - Chas Everitt International (Southern Suburbs and False Bay) Cape Town South Africa
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