“Location, location, location” is total BS.
Whoever started this little mantra should be taken out back and whipped like a child caught shoplifting.
If you believe this garbage about location, you are just stealing commission checks from your own account…and you deserve a good reddening of your butt.
I don’t like dummies, and I think you’re obviously smart, because you’re reading this and interested in learning from a guy who has sold thousands of homes. So let’s get right to the truth.
PRICE sells homes.
I don’t care what land of fairy dust and magical fantasy or what nasty stinking cesspool of a place that houses happen to be located.
Price them right. They sell.
So why don’t agents get it right? How DO you get sellers to price homes squarely on the money?
Well, instead of shoving a soapy helping of price demands down their throat like a disciplinarian, you let THEM choose the starting point.
See, there’s psychology at play here. They want to try unrealistic prices, but they don’t want the accountability for the mistake-especially if they are going to have to admit fault to their spouse. There’s a trick I use with husbands in front of their wives. It’s literally 3 words! Works every time. But that’s another lesson. I’ll share this magical phrase in The Agent On Fire Blaze monthly newsletter soon.
When you go in and “buy” a listing with an unrealistic price, even if they suggest it, YOU are the easy target for their wrath when the home rots on the market. With the weight off of them, they’ll “try” it every time.
To flip the responsibility and restore rational thinking, all you need to do is to use data and brainless logic to lead them to their own conclusion.
And if they resist, give the spouse a questioning glare!…No joke. Always brings them right back down to the land of reality. EGO is powerful…So is fear of looking stupid.
I have an old friend who is so good at this. I’m in tears when I hear her address a client with whacked out expectations.
At the listing she shows them data. They choose the price.
Incidentally, she takes the listing no matter WHAT the price is. Smart strategy. Listings breed more listings by virtue of no-cost branding.
Now here’s the brilliance in how she handles her price-gougers…
When offers come in to a dreamer of a seller, and they counter back with a head-in-the-clouds price, she says “I don’t care if you do this. It’s your choice to not sell it.”
She has guts!
She is one of the TOP AGENTS IN THE WORLD! She sells thousands of homes every year. And her sellers fall in line pretty fast…quickly going under contract shortly thereafter.
If you don’t take it from me, take a lesson from her. She knows a LOT about keeping sellers real.
If you want to stop letting sellers rob you of your chance to make a sale, go here:
-Mike Costigan
