I’ve got a new rule that I’m calling the the 10% solution.
Earlier this year after dealing with a nasty and deceitful private home seller I decided to not work with them anymore. By ‘them’, I mean any private home sellers. I decided that the success rate of showing, and negotiating a successful deal were so low that I could afford to free up some time, that of myself and of my clients, by concentrating on the real real estate market.
Private home sellers make up about 10% of the marketplace. They always have. The do-it-yourself brokerages or mere listing posting services have done little to increase private homes sellers share of the market place.
They have always had about 10% of the marketplace but they don’t make 10% of the sales, that’s for certain. They do however waste more than their fair share of the time, and time is money.
So I know it is bad service on my part but at the same time if clients want to visit and maybe buy a private sale, they should be free to do so, so now I tell my clients to go ahead and deal with any private sales that they see by themselves. They are not bound to any contract with me. If they see a house and want to buy it, go for it. You are on your own. I will even give them the names of some really good real estate lawyers.
I was a little worried that I would potentially lose a sale or two, but frankly I am ok with that. The time it takes to deal with private sellers simply is not worth it financially or emotionally to me. Truth be told, I’ve been a realtor for ten years now and I’ve only successfully put one private seller deal together. So really, I probably should have done this years ago.
So, I get a short email from a client last week who visited a private seller. He said:
The owner is taking all of the appliances with her. She already has an offer but is looking for a higher offer, etc… We are not interested in this kind of a deal.
Sometimes you have to fail to win.
Maybe too, home buying clients will have an even better appreciation about how hard a realtor’s job really is.
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The 10% solution
I’ve got a new rule that I’m calling the the 10% solution.
Earlier this year after dealing with a nasty and deceitful private home seller I decided to not work with them anymore. By ‘them’, I mean any private home sellers. I decided that the success rate of showing, and negotiating a successful deal were so low that I could afford to free up some time, that of myself and of my clients, by concentrating on the real real estate market.
Private home sellers make up about 10% of the marketplace. They always have. The do-it-yourself brokerages or mere listing posting services have done little to increase private homes sellers share of the market place.
They have always had about 10% of the marketplace but they don’t make 10% of the sales, that’s for certain. They do however waste more than their fair share of the time, and time is money.
So I know it is bad service on my part but at the same time if clients want to visit and maybe buy a private sale, they should be free to do so, so now I tell my clients to go ahead and deal with any private sales that they see by themselves. They are not bound to any contract with me. If they see a house and want to buy it, go for it. You are on your own. I will even give them the names of some really good real estate lawyers.
I was a little worried that I would potentially lose a sale or two, but frankly I am ok with that. The time it takes to deal with private sellers simply is not worth it financially or emotionally to me. Truth be told, I’ve been a realtor for ten years now and I’ve only successfully put one private seller deal together. So really, I probably should have done this years ago.
So, I get a short email from a client last week who visited a private seller. He said:
The owner is taking all of the appliances with her. She already has an offer but is looking for a higher offer, etc… We are not interested in this kind of a deal.
Sometimes you have to fail to win.
Maybe too, home buying clients will have an even better appreciation about how hard a realtor’s job really is.
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