Here’s a story about the Neighborhood Expert that had a 7% commission listing and lost it despite all his expertise.
Before I became a real estate agent, I actually used the services of Realtors many times. At one tme, I was living in a very popular ski resort town that was experiening flat sales activity after several years of double digit growth.
We decided to sell our home in the quaint mountain community we lived in. This was a little pocket community of winding roads with a mix of eclectic houses and cabins. It was a neighborhood that lended itself to the need for a neighborhood expert.
Here a few things that the neighborhood expert needed to know:
- What properties had sun exposure in the winter
- What the snow plow schedule was
- Where the school bus stops were
- The issues with school busing
- The water issues
- The snowfall issues (10 to 15 feet a year)
We had noticed, in our seven years of living in this neighborhood, that Daniel seemed to have more homes for sale at one time than any other agent. He also lived in the neighborhood. So, we decided to give him a call.
Daniel explained to us that he charged 7% not the typical 6% because of his extensive marketing. This was in the day when Internet marketing was just begining to have an impact and Daniel had his properties on as many sites as possible in addition to ads in an abundance of print venues.
We were fairly motivated to sell – we had no time pressures, just wanted to make a change, but we were pretty firm on our price. We also had pets and needed agents to be considerate of them and to insure that they did not get out.
So, Daniel did his thing. He was good at his marketing and he was good at communicating. In fact he was too good at communicating. You see, one day, in his haste to get the sell, he revealed some personal information to the other agent that should have remained confidential. And that one thing mattered more than all his other expertise.
Whether times are good or times are tough, our clients depend on us to keep their confidences. The more we understand their situation, the better we can serve them, but with that trust comes a huge responsibility and though we may be desparate for the deal to happen – there is no deal worth the expense of our client’s confidence and our integrity.
