It happened to me again this week as it has many, many times before. I sat in at the tail end of a listing presentation and the homeowner turned to me to ask about the feasibility of advertising his home in the New York Times. Our “web based” listing presentation contains a slide illustrating that print advertising over the past 6 months has only accounted for 3% of residential home sales in the United States. I suppose that, if he did see that graphic, it certainly didn’t register.
Past Experience
“We found our house through an ad in the “Times!” he excitedly exclaimed. “How long ago did you say you bought it?’ I politely questioned. “Well it’s almost 40 years ago now.” he replied with a smile. “That’s certainly not a surprise then.” I calmly retorted. “That was long before the internet.” I continued, “Did you know that print advertising accounted for only 3% of the buyers over the past six months? Nearly 45% actually found the home that they bought via the internet.” “Wow is that right?” he responded. “I suppose things have changed.”
And Again
I recall a similar experience about ten years ago. A non-team member asked me to share a listing that she was pitching within my neighborhood of expertise . I agreed, and at the end of the presentation the homeowner reviewed the listing paperwork. He questioned the lack of specificity regarding the room dimensions of his home. The other agent quickly piped in, “Oh we can add them, I’ll do that right now.”
Not So Fast
“Let’s think about this first.” I challenged the homeowner. “With the increased popularity of the internet (this was in 2002), do we really want someone whose moving across the country to decide that your home isn’t suitable for them because they calculated on the internet that your dining room won’t accomodate their furniture?” Let’s have them fall in love with the house first and then make that determination.” “Great idea!” the homeowner agreed.
Path of Least Resistance
Realtors who are at the top of their game don’t tell clients or potential clients what they want to hear. They give them their best advice. In return, they gain their client’s respect and help them get to the closing table more often than others do. Anything short of that is simply enabling them to believe what they believe, whether it’s accurate or not. And that, while unintentional I’m sure, is misleading.
Can you think of a time when you avoided challenging your client’s distorted beliefs about the process of getting their home sold?
How did it work out for you?
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