Demanding Sellers Waste Your Time
Truer words than you can imagine. Yes, demanding sellers can waste the time of the listing agent. And sometimes they are just flat out wrong and are counter-productive. Just yesterday I had a parting of the ways with a control-obsessed seller who wanted things done his way. I even brought him a ready, willing and able buyer, but he hosed the negotiations when we were just $2,000 apart. I slept really well knowing he's going to be someone else's problem tomorrow.
We all have sellers that occassionally waste our time with unreasonable requests for us to do something special with their property. I understand they are concerned and just trying to help us do our job, but are they really helping? Most of the time, they do not understand what is going on and what we are doing to market their property. The requests they make may not work with their property for one reason or another.
There is the occassional seller that wants to write the ad copy we use in our ads. Why they think they know better what needs to be said, I have no idea. We are the ones that have sold hundreds or thousands of homes and they are telling us how to do it. Really?
Yes, we know they need to sell soon because they only have a short time before the bank forecloses or whatever. They are in a hurry. Since we do not get paid until we sell it, do they ever think we might be in a hurry too and having to deal with them constantly takes away our time that we could be talking to potential buyers about Their House? Do they ever consider this?
They are stressed. Do they really want us to be stressed too? Will that help us sell their home or make it harder? Do these sellers ever put themselves in our shoes? We can follow directions and do it just like they say and maybe get results or not and if not, who gets the blame? Or we can do it our way and we still get the blame if it doesn't turn out the way we all want. No way to win here.
My advice to sellers: IF you hired a professional Realtor®, Let them do their job. They know what to do and how to do it or you would not have been impressed with their credentials in the first place, if you did your job right in interviewing agents.
Being so hard to deal with can cause your agent to lose enthusiasm for your property and they will shy away from it. You don't want that. You want them thinking about it positively many times a day. Being harsh or negative with your agent can cause subconscious thoughts to affect how one feels about a property and everyone knows a salesperson sells what they like and believe in.
Have you ruined that image with your agent by your interference? If so, stop it right now and start thanking your agent for all they are doing to help sell your property. You can turn this around just by your actions and words. Or you can hold that property for a long time. Houses do not sell themselves, no matter how pretty they are. You need a good agent that wants to work with you.
Ricki Eichler Real Estate, your Texas Hill Country connection www.reretx.com
511 Junction Hwy Kerrville, TX (830)257-2520
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