The center of Influence for buyers and sellers can come from some very unexpected places. I just wrote a post about knowing who the decision maker is when representing buyers and sellers.
The center of influence can be co-works that share what they think they know. It could be a evening or afternoon party when the conversations turns to real estate. It always turns to real estate, at some point.
I never bring up the subject oif real estate, when I am out at a party. Many of those attending the party know I am a
real estate broker, others not so lucky! It is surprising to hear how much and how little people actually know that is factual.
I am getting ready to list a client's home that he purchased some 10 years ago right after I sold his previous home. This client has a good grasp of Michigan real estate law. He is a real estate attorney and managing partner for a big firm with national locations.
His center of influence is his family, but he knows to market his home for sale he needs a real estate broker. He wants to maximize his properties exposure to qualified buyers.
Can he do the paperwork to sell the property? Of course, he knows the disclosure laws, lead based paint requirements and he could use a few websites to drift around and get a few calls. But being the smart guy he is, he knows that marketing his home properly is going to get it sold.
For that service he is willing to pay a fee.
Many times buyers and sellers listen to people with good intentions that cause more harm than good. Sellers have real estate agents do the market studies only to not take the information presented as factual at times. This is because someone has told them how beautiful their home is and how much they should be able to get. That center of influence unintentionally caused sellers to ask more than their property was worth. In turn the property lingered on the market and cost the seller more of a discount than normal because buyers thought something must be wrong!
Friends, neighbors, relatives, former agents all have an opinion but are they really in tune with the market more
than the full time agent that has access to current home sales and listing data? No, what these well intended centers of influence are offering sellers and buyers is their opinion. An opinion based on a nightly news broadcast that may not even be data from the local housing market. They quote national opinion polls, but what was the source of the opinions and how was the question asked?
The bottom line is your Center of Influence needs to be real data, that pertains to your situation. Not some comment of a friend of a friend or a person that used to be in the business of selling real estate. Because they took a couple classes. Just like so many of us that took driver education and obtained a drivers license, doesn't mean I can drive a Semi!
Somebody once said, common sense is uncommon. I don't think it is so uncommon as long as you know where the information is coming from and it is based on fact from a reliable source. Sorry, that scoop from a friend of a friend isn't a reliable source.
Photos provided by Microsoft Software User License
Comments(2)