Ask An Ambassador: Choose To Walk Away

Hello Bill (and Liz too) - one of my favorite sayings is every contact is not a connection.  And the applicability of that statement relates to so much in life, not only the blogosphere.  

So true Bill. Some of us have not only been in the business long enough, but have lived long enough to trust and never question our instincts AND listen when our instincts tell us to walk away.

An agent recently told me about a client who talked over him, refused to listen to any advice and never allowed room for him to speak. Ugh! Not someone I'd choose to work for, Bliz. We only have so many rotations and I want to increase mine, not deplete them.

Sometimes walking away is the very best thing you can do and it’s not for other people to question because it’s your life after all

Time is precious , I agree ,it's a show stopper when one of the first questions is: "how much do you charge?" or "how much will you rebate me?".  In Maryland rebating is illegal!

Yes indeed. When those calls do come, it's up to us to decide who we want to work with. There are definitely those we hear from who will take a lot of time and effort and in the end it will be for naught. The longer we are in the business, the better we can get at figuring out which is which.

Being able to attract the clients that we WANT to work with seems like the ultimate goal.  Saying no to clients that we don't want to work with feels so good!

Great Post, good for newbies and awesome reminder for those of us with experience. 

Monday of this week.  (No Joke)

Referral from an out of area agent who has referred us mulitple times. 

Scenario: Referring agent has close Friend who had home listed at $328,900 and was under contract 2 times that fell apart.  Seller fires agent. Could not get exact reasons why.  Was on the market for over 120 days which is long in our markets.

My (extremely successful) agent met with the owners and they were adamant about re-listing but wanted the new list price at $350,000.  And if we would not agree to the list price even though No comps come even close to that...well they have another agent they are talking with who will list it high.

My agent calls me and wants my opinion.  ME: "RUN!  Tell them we are not a good fit for their goals and RUN!  Blame it on me!"  "Then call the referring agent and explain why and if needed...blame it on me!" 

And she did...and we walked away. And referring agent totally understood.

Never be afraid to walk away or in some cases...RUN!

Thanks for standing by to help!   

I finally realized that I don't do crazy - I keep a  stuffed white whale to remind myself of what happened to captain Ahab with Moby Dick  (Spoiler alert - the whale killed him) 

Ah, yes! The ones who shop for their "discount parachute" are really easy when it comes to just saying no!

Hi Bill,

Love your post because its so true! Never be afraid to walk away..I walked away from 4 listings last year from those who only cared about the break I was going to give them in fees. Over the years I've learned to listen to my gut!

Being able to walk away or fire a client is SO liberating!!!! We need to remind them that we're assessing their fit with us too... not always just the other way around.  Solid post! Congrats on the feature! 

I have fired more customers than I would have thought in my younger years. 

Liz and Bill Spear,  You hit the nail on the head with this one. My time is very valuable. I will not work with people who do not appreciate my time. Those days have been over years ago. I know what I am worth.  People looking for a bargain agent may go elsewhere 

You are so featured in BananaTude!

Blogging is also a stress reliever as well - there are some crazy days out there in the real estate world!