The Hard Conversation
August 11th, 2008 categories: For Buyers, For Sellers, Negotiating Contracts
Real estate is a great business. As a Realtor, I have the opportunity to represent people in the sale or purchase of one of their most significant sets. As a result, I am required to have ongoing consulting and advisory conversations concerning various aspects of a transaction. I classify these conversations into 2 groups, easy and hard.
All most anyone can have in the easy conversations. These include things like the following.
1. Congratulations your offer was accepted.
2. Your loan is approved.
3. You received a lower interest rate than we expected.
4. The seller took our price on the offer.
5. The seller agreed to close earlier and this will allow you to move in when you wanted to.
6. The seller agreed to pay $5000 of your closing costs.
7. The buyer is willing to pay full price.
8. The buyer is paying cash.
9. There are a myriad of other “good news” carrying reports.
Examples of hard conversations are as follows:
1. Your will loan was approved, but it’s at a higher rate than you wanted.
2. The buyer will be using a VA loan and this means you will be paying more closing costs.
3. Based on the condominium documents it appears there may be a special assessment made in the near future.
4. The open land next to this home is zoned residential and could be developed into a subdivision at some point in the future.
5. The buyers loan approval was due on Monday and it loan process doesn’t appear to be going well, you may want to consider canceling the sale.
6. We’ve been on the market 30 days and have not had any offers, based on this activity level, it is time to consider reducing the price.
7. If we don’t reduce the price you could end up getting less money six months to a year from now.
While almost any real estate agent can have the easy conversations. It takes an experienced professional to have hard conversations. And now you’re thinking what’s the point?
The point is this. A professional real estate agent is good at both conversations and goes out of their way to make sure that any required hard conversations are handled in a timely manner. A timely manner is key, because the longer a conversation is put off, the greater a potential issue can grow in magnitude. In my experience, many agents “go underground” when it is time to deal with inconvenient things. A professional wants to deliver a clear picture of the situation, possible solutions and potential outcomes of a course of action. Ultimately, the client is the party responsible for making a decision concerning their transaction, but a realtor’s job is to guide the process so the client can make the best decision for himself or herself.
In closing, when interviewing a realtor to represent you, be sure to determine that they were bringing the professionalism necessary to have the easy and, more importantly, hard conversations that will protect your interests.
; ?>/images/MatoChiclet.gif)
There is nothing worse than withholding bad information. I was taught long ago, when you have bad news, it’s like dead fish, after a few days it begins to smell. I’ve always lived with the policy that whether it’s good or bad news, the client needs to know, so they can make an educated decision which includes all of the facts. Strong agents tell their clients everything, advise accordingly and then let the client decide.