Big Top
When you go on a listing presentation do you bring the whole circus? Do you bring the cats and the rings of fire? Do you wear the announcer’s top hat and use your authoritative voice to announce the upcoming slide-show? Do you bring a tight-rope to balance on across the living room? I’ve done the dog and pony show many times. I’ve brought the slicks, the testimonials, the award announcements, the sales statistics; I’ve brought it all. I’ve even put my head in the lion’s mouth and cut my commission.
The Clown Show
Listing presentations can become a clown show. I know they’ll want to talk about the price — too high — and they’ll want to talk about the commission — too low — but they don’t care that I’ve sold a gazillion houses or won the Barnum and Bailey award for 2006. Or that Homes and Land Magazine doesn’t sell houses. Not only don’t they realize that cutting commissions are as controversial as dual agency, they don’t care.
It’s All About Them
And it should be. They want to know what I’m going to do for them. They want to hear me announce that their house is the best I’ve ever seen. That I’m going to put it up in lights on the boulevard, on bus stops, in magazines, on the divider at the grocery check-out. That it’s going to sell for more than they ever dreamed, in just one day. That the first buyer who walks in is going to love it, have to have it, offer an enormous amount of money and pay them to stay while they shop for their new house – oh, wait a minute. That was another market.
Lions and Tigers and Bears
I don’t bring the lions and tigers and bears anymore. I’m sure there’s someone who wants to see all of my dogs in tutus walk on two feet and bark the National Anthem. Seems to me those are the ones that can never be satiated. I can twist my body like a pretzel or be the bearded lady, it won’t matter. Every time I’ve walked on fire to get a listing I haven’t gotten it. Now I go with the comps, paper and pen. Seems to work. I like it. I end up working with people who are real and aren’t interested in a side-show and I don’t pull any muscles trying to prove I’m the strongest woman in the world.
