Why What You Want to Hear Isn’t What You Need to Hear
Posted on February 8th, 2007 by Jonathan Dalton
Where does a real estate professional prove his value? Is it in the laser-light show accompanying a listing presentation? Is it in the slick marketing materials? Is it in the beauty of the flyers? Is it only when a home is sold?
The latter’s the obvious answer but reaching that point takes more than a cute beagle and a glossy flyer. Part of the job is knowing the local market and being able to educate a potential client about that market.
I failed recently - failed to educate the client about the realities of the market around them, failed to earn their trust and ultimately failed to get the listing. Instead, the sellers opted for an agent willing to tell them what they wanted to hear rather than what they needed to know.
Speaking in broad terms, the seller wanted to list their home about 10% over the last sale price and 6% higher than a current home on the market.
My choice was to tell the seller that their desired price was too high and, even in the extremely unlikely event someone looked at the house and even unlikelier event they made an offer, it was going to next to impossible for the home to appraise.
Someone else’s choice was to fuel the seller’s hopes under the theory of “plant a sign under any circumstances.” (The seller didn’t want a sign in the yard, but I digress.)
At the end of the day, I will not be the listing agent. But I walk away knowing that I had provided better service, even if it was in the form of news the sellers didn’t want to hear.
Technorati tags: phoenix arizona, phoenix arizona real estate, market conditions, establishing sales price
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Well done JD.
Thanks, Athol … I end up as frustrated for the sellers as for myself on these. One more bit of ammunition for the anti-NAR crowd.
Don’t feel to bad Tobey.
As they say, losing a listing for the right reason is better than taking one for the wrong. You know that you could have “bought the listing” and sat it on the market for the term of the contract and said “well now what?” Watched it expire and they move on to agent #2.
However, hopefully when this expires with no real interest — you’ll be there on the rebound when they REALLY want to sell their home.
[…] Jonathan Dalton and Tobey presented Why What You Want to Hear Isn’t What You Need to Hear” from Phoenix Real Estate Blog. When you sell your home - especially in this market - price is one of the most important variables and Tobey (with Jonathan’s help) shares the need to realize this for consumers. […]
[…] We mention this because it’s a very good idea which clearly was overdue. We also mention it because we earned top prize this week for “Why What You Want to Hear May Not Be What You Need to Hear.” […]
Jonathan, Congratulations on “taking the pole” . A great post and we’ve all had that experience. It’s particularly frustrating when you have competitors who are willing to “buy” listings but I think in the long run that honesty and realistic thinking about the market will pay off.
I hope so anyway, I’ve bet my career on it!
I’ve got to run, need to put more wood on the fire, temperature is down to -6 and there’s a storm coming in. Stay out of the hot sun.
Thanks, Jim … we’re down to a nippy 59 right now. But with the wind chill it’s all the way down to 58.
One of the odd things about this listing was it was a relocation client so in theory my market analysis and the other agents’ need to be within 5% of each other. Yet he listed for 7% above what I recommended.
So be it … I’ll have a chance when it goes to inventory.
[…] A couple of weeks ago on my Phoenix Real Estate blog I wrote an article about why as a seller, what you want to hear isn’t what you need to hear. Feel free to take a look at the full article, but the gist was there always will be a real estate agent willing to put a sign in your front yard at any listing price you may demand, regardless of whether that price was realistic. […]
[…] it appears the owners may select the agent most likely to tell them what they want to hear - that the home should be sold for appraisal value - than what they need to hear - that there are […]