Generic Answer: ‘It’s None of Your Business!’ First, a confession: when I’m swamped — as I am now — promptly turning around listing agents’ “showing feedback forms” is not my highest priority. Taking care of clients is. That said, “customized” feedback forms which pose open-ended questions — and lots of them — certainly don’t help matters...Read More
Working With Buyer Objections (Or Not) One of the things that happens when you list a home is that you find out all the reasons it doesn’t work for a given Buyer. So, the home’s too . . . big/small/expensive/cheap/dated/updated, etc. When that’s the case, a good Realtor — with extensive local market knowledge — will...Read More
Permission to Lowball . . . Denied As a listing agent (representing Sellers), I sure seem to be parrying a lot more of what I’ll call “verbal probing” these days. The gist of all the questions being lobbed by Buyers’ agents: “would the Seller consider an offer significantly below the current asking price?” Thrust — and...Read More
What Should the Runners-Up Agents Say to the Listing Agent? Assuming that the listing agent (representing the Seller) conducted multiple offers openly, fairly, was communicative throughout, etc. — vs. selling the home to their own Buyer* at midnight for $20k less than the highest offer — what is appropriate for the runners-up agents to say...Read More
Translation: ‘Are You Too Busy For Me?’ One of the questions that often comes up in a listing presentation — basically, a Realtor job interview — is some variation of, “how many other clients do you have right now?” The subtext — at least for a veteran agent — is, “do you have time for me?”...Read More
“Powell Doctrine” vs. “Kaplan Doctrine” Military action should be used only as a last resort. However, when it is used, it should be overwhelming and disproportionate to the force used by the enemy. –Powell Doctrine (my paraphrase) Buyers who have serious interest in a home should stay off the listing agent’s radar until such time...Read More
