Kevin Ward (founder of YesMasters Real Estate success training) critiques a "lazy" listing agent who told buyers not to bother viewing a home because there was already a full-price offer. Using a recent house-hunting anecdote, he identifies two main mistakes: (1) making the property inconvenient to show by requiring the listing agent to be present, which discourages and annoys buyers; and (2) discouraging other potential buyers after receiving a single offer, thereby possibly denying the seller higher or better offers. He frames the agent's duty as fiduciary to get the best result for the seller and argues turning buyers away can cost sellers materially and hurt the agent's long-term business.
Chapters
Just like to me, it just epitomized lays a lazy realtor strategy. Hey there. It's Kevin Ward, the founder of yes Masters Real Estate success training. Helping you get more yeses and more successes in your business and in your life. I gotta admit, this one drove me a little crazy. We just recently bought our own house, bought another house, and we'd sold a condo and bought our bought a house. And while we were looking at houses, you learn a lot about being a realtor and you learn a lot about being a buyer or seller. And we're looking at houses and our agent. We were using one of my inner circle members as our agent and she was trying to schedule a showing with a property in Los Angeles. And we were there in the car with her and we're scheduling an appointment for later that day. And I heard the agent say, what your buyers may not want to bother. We already have a full price offer. Now, she was first off, she was explaining to my agent that she was out of town so she wasn't going to be able to show the property today. And so it was just like to me, it just epitomized a lazy realtor strategy. And I want to just talk about today what this lazy realtor did that I think was bad business for her seller and bad negotiating strategy and just bad representation all the way around so that you don't make the same mistake. I just, I think they're lazy realtor strategies are huge mistakes. So I want to break down what the mistakes were that she made and why they were mistakes and how not to do it. So the first thing that she did was the agent made it inconvenient for a buyer to see the property because it was inconvenient for her or whatever reason. So part of the showing instruction was agent must be present to show. All right, so first, that's a pain. And unless there is some really, really valid reason why it's important that the listing agent be there. Buyers don't want the listing agent there. Buyer's agents don't want the listing agent there. It doesn't help sell a property most of the time. So the first thing she did was she made it where that to make. And I think most of the time, I know a lot of the times that listing agents do this because it kind of validates their value, it makes them worth their commission. Is see how hard I'm going to work? I'm going to be at every showing so I can really sell the daylights out of your house. And you just, it doesn't work that way. Buyers aren't going to buy a house because you're a good salesperson. They're going to buy a house because they like it. They're going to walk in the house and they go like, I don't like this house. Well, no, no, no, no. Come in, come check this out. And then you try to convince them buyers like it or they don't like it. It's like they're going to live in this house. It's their home. Alright? So first is don't make it hard for buyers to see a house. The harder it is to show, the less likely buyers are going to look at it. And if they do look at it, they're annoyed. And when they're annoyed, they're not excited about a house. I want to fall in love with this house. And you already annoyed me just trying to see the house. And it's like if you're this, if it's this much trouble to see the house because the way you work, I don't know if I want to do a deal with this agent or these sellers because it's too much of a pain. And I'm telling you that as crazy as it sounds, buyers will literally pass on a house just because it's too much of a hassle. Buyers are emotional. It's their emotional creatures and they make emotional decisions. So one, don't make a house hard to show. And that's what she did. She made it inconvenient for us to see the property. One, to have it, agent must be present to show. And two, because it was that way she was out of town and it was inconvenient for her. So she made it inconvenient for us. Big no. No. Because we were highly motivated, highly qualified buyers who wanted to see this house. This seller lost out on us. So that was the first mistake is trying to make it making it inconvenient for buyers to see the house. The second thing was they already had an offer, which is awesome. Congratulations for the seller. Good for the seller. However, how do we know that's the best offer? So when the listing agent said, your buyers may not even want to bother seeing the house because we already have a full price offer, she was basically trying to talk us out of coming to see the house and trying to talk us out of coming and making an offer. Offer. What if we love the house? What if we were a perfect buyer and what if we were willing to pay more money for the house to the seller than the other buyer? Do you think the seller would want to know about that? Do you think the seller would want to give us a chance to write an offer? And the answer is 95% of the time, absolutely yes, because 95% of the time, the seller wants the best offer. And here was this agent had one offer in the hand, and they're turning away other offers. They're discouraging us from even doing that. So that's the second mistake, and that is turning away buyers because you may have a deal. They didn't have an off. They didn't have an executed contract. They had an offer, and apparently she liked the offer. I don't know, but here's what I know. Your responsibility as an agent is not to get the job done as fast as possible. Make it easy for you to get a commission check so you can move on. Your responsibility is to represent the seller's best interest in real estate. You are a, as a real estate agent, you are a fiduciary of the seller, which means you have a fiduciary responsibility and obligation to represent their best interest, which is typically to get them the best and highest offer on the property. Right? So instead of saying, you know, your buyers probably don't want to bother because it would be a pain in the neck for me to go show the house, so I'm just going to, you know, just tell them not to bother. We already have an offer. We're good, we're good, we're good. Is the right thing to do would be to say, that's awesome. We'll figure it out how we can get your buyers in there. We already have an offer, but the sellers are certainly open to getting a better offer. Okay, now you got the buyers. You want the buyers knowing two things. Number one, that the seller wants to sell on the house. They want them to see it. It's important. And letting them know they can't dilly dally around. There's an offer on the property, but the sellers want more offers. So you, your job is not to make, just to get the job done fast and make it simple for you, is to get the best results for your client. Now, it is very possible, very likely, that by turning away, if she turned away us, who knows how many buyers she turned away that day. In a seller's market, it was on a weekend, no telling how many buyers got turned away because it was inconvenient for this agent. And I guarantee you, the sellers never knew. It could have literally cost those sellers tens of thousands of dollars to one miss out on being in a multiple offer situation and two miss out on potentially getting the better offer was still out there. But they never would know because the agent turned buyers away. That, my friend, is a lazy realtor strategy. We got a full price offer. We don't need any more. Come on now. You represent sellers, get them better result. It's going to grow your business helping people win. They're going to spread the word about it and you're going to get more business that way. No lazy realtor strategies, please. Play to win and help your sellers win.
