When I started my career in the 90’s it was a buyer’s market with a lengthy market time, I farmed an area that the market time was at least 6 months. One of the things I learned early on in my career was that I was responsible for my own actions, another words if I listed an overprice house, whose fault is it anyways? Plain and simple, it was my fault, no one else’s.
See I am the professional, I am asked my professional opinion, and I want to do a service!!! I am proud to be a Real Estate Professional. I choose to either accept the task at hand or walk away!
Floyd Wickman taught me so much in the business, I can remember going on appointment after appointment with the same routine, arrive 5 minutes early, look in my rear view mirror and as I adjusted myself I would state out loud, “ I don’t know if I even want this listing.” It reminded me as a professional I can pick and choose how I wanted my business to be.
Back then I thought outside the box by offering a pre-listing termite and roof inspections. FREE, that’s right FREE; I had a great group of affiliates that I built 1 by 1. Each with the same standards and level of professionalism that I offered to every buyer and seller I came in contact with. I also offered selling bonuses. The bonuses didn’t mean much if the property was not saleable. Back then things were different, but one thing has always remained the same. PRICING…..SALABILITY….There is a price for everything; I actually sold a home that was just a shell. Again, it’s a matter of pricing. If a seller insisted on overpricing a property even though I brought them the facts with comps and a CMA, I chose to walk away. It wasn’t going to be my fault, not now, not ever. After all, it was my professional opinion and my reputation at stake.
I knew that I would be the 2nd professional in with a great shot at marketing the property after the first listing period. There were many occasions where I placed the home on the market the 2nd time around but with a happy ending. A closing!!! If a current seller wanted to look at homes, I did not always jump to show them homes right away. Why? Contingencies….”My buyer needs to sell their home first. “It is one thing if there is a contract on their current home but when an agent shows properties to people who do not have their current home on the market you have to ask, whose fault is anyways?
We tend to blame the seller’s for their “unrealistic prices,” but whose fault is it anyways? Aren’t we the pros? Is it the media with all the negative publicity? The cousin to the buyer or seller who is a realtor in another state? Or is it the Realtor so hot to get a listing, any listing at any price. Whose fault is it anyways?
Do yourself a favor and accept full responsibility, the bottom line is, you are doing business your way, so don’t list those overpriced properties, the unsalable listings. WALK AWAY! The active listings should be listings where seller’s need to sell. Be fair to those who really need to sell. Life sometimes happens, so for the seller that really needs to sell, they share the mls with 8000 other properties. How much inventory do you want at your fingertips? Just how many unsalable, overpriced listings does our MLS’s need? And do we even have to ask, whose fault is it anyways???
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