Real estate is rewarding. I like my job. Sometimes, though, I get frustrated with my clients when they won't let me perform to the best of my ability.
For example, I once listed a spectacular Penthouse here in Miami Beach. Against my better judgment, we list the property at a price that I know is waaaay too high, of $3,800,000. We immediately get an offer for $3,000,000. Of course the owner is appalled at the "lowball offer". I try to reason with him, to let him know that we should be seriously considering this offer. I present him with all of the comps and the rationale for my thinking, but I just can't get through to my seller client.
When you hire a professional to assist you in the sale of your home, do your best to take advantage of all that professional has to offer you. Why pay for the services of a professional, and then ignore the cold, hard facts?
Two years later I re-listed the property at $2.8M! This is a text-book case of the frustrating part of my job. I would have loved to help my seller client make more, than he now can, two years later. My knowledge and intuition, plus the comps in front of us, told me we should have taken the first offer of $3,000,000.. I tried with all my might to convey this to my client. The Penthouse sold for $2,600,000. That is $400,000 LESS than had my client followed my original advices.
In this case I wasn't given the ability to 'work' for my commission.
I guess you could say it was harder work to try to convince him, as that took many hours of my time.
But I don't see my value in increments of time.
I guess you could say having to list it twice, two years apart, was more work on my part.
But I don't see it that way.
Perhaps if he had listened to me the first time around and taken the offer of $3,000,000, he would have felt that he undersold it. Clearly he knew it wasn't my fault, given he listed the property with me two years later. He didn't blame me when he eventually received $400,000 less, than had he listened to me two year's prior. I wanted to help him more than I did, but he just wouldn't let me.
When the owner made $400,000 less on the Penthouse; I still made my commission. What bothers me the most is had he taken full advantage of my skills, to his benefit, he would have been happier and so would I.
Sure, agents in my office congratulated me on my "big sale" and my "big commission", but I didn't feel as though I earned it as much as I would have, if the owner had taken the $3,000,000 offer per my advices in the first place. I sometimes think I am overpaid, when my clients ignore my best advices.
