Often times I'm called by a homeowner who has had his home listed with another agent. The home has gone month after month without being sold.
The listing is now expired and the homeowner expresses to me his exasperation. "What did Tiffany do wrong?" he asks me about his former listing agent. "She's with a big real estate agency. She came with high recommendations from John and Carol Schmidt."
I've learned that more often than not, that the listing agent did nothing wrong. In fact as I probe, I usually learn that the homeowner refused to let "Tiffany" do her job by accepting and following her marketing plan. In essence, he wanted it done his way.
If the truth be known, the homeowner is probably responsible for the lack of a contract, not Tiffany. Nevertheless, Tiffany and her agency take the full brunt of the blame.
I would be quick to criticize Tiffany for keeping the listing of a client who refused to follow her plan, but I can't be. You see, even after all of these years and the experiences I've had as a Realtor, I'm as likely to fall into that same trap as Tiffany was.
There is an irony. If a buyer for J.C. Penny's purchases more pairs of a certain style of shoes than the market will buy at $200 a pair, Penny's can still recover all or most of its cost by marking the item down to, say $100 a pair. Eventually most will sell; those that don't can be donated to a charity.
That's because those shoes are physical inventory, owned by Penny's.
Realtors have mistakenly adopted the term "inventory" to describe their listings. That is a gross misuse of the word. A listing is nothing more than the collateral to the listing contract. If it doesn't sell during the contract period, POOF, there is nothing left but a memory.
We have no inventory. So we shouldn't use that word because it tends to give us a sense of false security. The "inventory" belongs to the homeowner. In most cases, the real estate inventory on his personal balance sheet is one home for sale.
The problem is that the time and money that are spent by the agent to market a home is a 100% bad investment if the property doesn't sell. There is no way to mark down the listing contract so that the agent can recover so much as a fraction of the actual costs he incurs.
So I forgive less experienced agent for allowing themselves and their personal investments to be put at risk by their listing client. But it is totally unforgivable that I would continue to fall into this trap from time to time.
And you know what? I just did it again.
Patty said, "Are you mad?" I said, "Only at myself," then couldn't keep from falling into a belly laugh.
BILL CHERRY, REALTORS
DALLAS - PARK CITIES
Now Entering Our 46th Year
214 503-8563
Great advise
Ditto, and I'm doing a farwell open house this weekend. One last harrah before letting go. No buyer this year mabe next.
We are all guilty of falling into this situation. Especially now with the market slow. We all want the listing, it seems...sellable or not.
Don't beat yourself up too hard. Sometimes I have had reason to believe the owners have outside factors that influence to change attitudes in ways that may not be forseeable when I first took the listing.
So true, people are unrealistic and the must have kicks in.
Don't due it.
We walked away empty handed yesterday because the #'s don't lie and the people were emotionally tied to an over inflated #. We will see who gets it and how long it sits.
Enjoy the day
It's sort of like the "call of the wild" to a wolf! Can't be resisted...
It does seem unfair that the Realtor has no way of re-cooping the expenses when a listing expires. The only way I've heard of getting around that is to refer the client on therefore getting a referral fee.
I just did a consult for an agent who was picking up an expired listing. The sellers were re-visiting the listing price and open to my consult to prepare the property this time.