When a Real Estate Lead Turns into a Volatile Client

Very well written post and absolutely a great attitude to help survive this ever changing market. I believe that Carra Riley summed it up very well with her SWSWSWN mantra. Some will...Some won't...So what...Next.

Sally:  Nice post.  And this is why it is more important than ever to have a LOT of irons in the fire to compensate for when the inevitable "shift" happens!

Sally,

We need to look at the big picture and have a positive attitude at all times in this crazy business. If a setback occurs - and we know that it inevitably will - we have to know and believe that the next one will work out...or the next one...or the next one.

Sally--Thanks for the inspiring post.  Just had "shift happen" this morning when I learned that a new buyer actually bought without me in a town completely outside the area she had specified with me!  Time to move on...

I too have learned this about Real Estate and when it happens, I just say "that's Real Estate!" Then I move on.  Not so non-chalantly of course - true be told, sometimes it really hurts.  But you always have to be ready to move on and try to capture your next good lead.  That's Just Real Estate.

We had a very unusual situation in our office this week.  A seller changed his mind the day of closing not to sell his house to a cash buyer that was moving here from AZ.  The moving truck was sitting in the seller's drive.  Attorneys got involved and there was some pretty nasty things being said on both sides.  After about 5 days, the seller realized he couldn't back out of the contract without incurring significant expense.  He reluctantly sold his home.  Kind of surprising that a seller would think he could just back out of a deal at the 11th hour when all the stipulations of the contract had been fulfilled.

HI Sally - great post and I think I will adopt the statement "Shift Happens". It most certainly does, and sometimes we just need to move on.

Hi Sally,  Being a numbers game our business assures us that some of the best leads will not result in a positive outcome and some of the weaker leads will !  Good selling to you !

We just don't get 'em all. We just do our job, do it professionally and when the time is right, IT does/WILL happen. If real estate has taught me anything, it's to try and be patient. :-)

Its true in this day espescially. We find that warm leads we always had a good relationship with end up very frustrated with the market and look to us to blame.

Sally I just got a call from a couple that I met out here seven months ago and they want to meet next week to look at houses. I tried calling them in that time and they never returned my call, just goes to show, you don't always have to hear from them.

We can't win them all, and we certainly can't force them all to close. We just do the best we can with the info we're given. It's what we do.

Acceptance and understanding are definitely important to our job.  We have to understand that lives change.

The world around us, and the art of real estate sales, marketing and service is by no means perfect. It's important that when we fall, we get up and try again.

I had an unusual one last week.  My sellers passed a lead to me that contacted them through tax records to buy their home.  She was an energy vampire wanting info on this, that, the other.  She started tearing up my phone line on Saturday night when I was hosting a dinner party at my house.  She found the listing here at active rain and was contacting me.  I think there was some animosity towards me aggressively marketing the property.  (too bad so sad right?)

I excused myself to answer her email and explained in very polite terms that I have a life and this can wait till am.  In the meantime before any more time or enery is spent on her she needs to produce a pre-approval letter.  My phone was ringing until 9 PM.  All of a sudden she had an agent.  Basically I told the agent to put it all on paper and do not forget to submit with a pre-approval letter.  This was Sunday morning.

Today is Wednesday and have I seen an offer?  Nope, I had a hunch she couldn't be approved!  It is seriously always the super aggressive ones who do not have the ability to perform.

Sally, Indeed … shift does happen. I recently had a big shift in a transaction and all parties aligned to solve the issue … I so appreciate collaboration.

It's very true that many deals just fall apart at the end most times because of the loaning process. We can't stubbornly hang on to a deal that will not work.

There is a certain percentage of deals that crash and burn...I use 35% although I have no basis except maybe experience. Like you say, shift happens!

You can never predict what will happen.  I have had two deals fall out because the buyer developed cancer that required heavy surgery and a long convalescence and they couldn't buy my 2 story listing - they needed to have their bedrooms on the ground floor.  It's almost enough to make me want to list only one story homes!