I’m in a few real estate groups and in one recent discussion a member had said “real estate is an adversarial process”. It is hard to not view real estate that way when you have one party representing the seller and another party representing the buyer.
When I moved to Keller Williams I began looking at a real estate transaction as something that should be a win-win scenario. You have a seller who wants to sell their house and I have a buyer who would like to own this house. We have a common interest and we should work together to create an outcome which is beneficial for both parties.
It has become increasingly apparent to me that the biggest thing standing in the way of creating a win-win scenario and ultimately a real estate transaction is not the buyers or sellers… it is the agents involved in the transaction. It is the notion that we are fighting against each other, it’s me vs. you mentality that is ultimately affecting the consumer.
Agents will often resort to petty attacks such as “Your property is way overpriced, what the hell are you thinking?” or “Your sellers will never get that” and of course my personal favourite “Do you know how long I’ve been doing this pal?” All of those might actually have merit, but what exactly is that doing to serve your clients interests?
Far too often, what leaves a deal on the table is an agent’s inability to remove their ego from the transaction. You might be impressed by “the shark” when you are signing paperwork, but in reality, they are probably going to end up doing more harm than good. We are in a real estate market where almost every property is selling at asking price and where annual prices increases are approaching double digits in most markets. While they might be focused on getting you 5% below the asking price, they might not have stopped to realize that this particular property is priced 5% below comparable listings in the community and offers more features and is a great opportunity for you.
What you need out of a real estate professional is someone who understands the market as a whole and also has the ability to look at properties objectively and not based on how it will affect their personal statistics and more importantly than ever, you need an agent who knows the value of building up friendly relationships with people in the industry because you never know who will be sitting across the table from you, or who might just have the perfect exclusive listing for your client.
The days of kill or be killed no longer have a place in real estate. It is all about collaboration and the agent who prides themselves on bravado and ego will soon be extinct.