Top Agents Have Calm Poker Faces!
By Gerri Leventhal - Real Estate Broker/Realtor-Instructor
“The best way to solve clients’ problems is, of course, to prepare for the worst in advance.”
Top Negotiating Agents Keep Their Cool
Knowing what usually goes wrong with Real Estate Deals and Projects then preplanning solutions for the most common problems, just in case, will cut down on the gravity and drama of handling difficulties when they arise.
There are commonly occurring Real Estate problems and the usual fears that all clients come to face at some point during their property purchasing process. You will encounter these typical roadblocks as you gain more and more experience.
Whatever you and your client have to do battle with, know that there are Agents who have warred with something similar. Someone experienced can help you. Do not be afraid to ask a long time, TOP AGENT in your Brokerage Firm or a Manager, what you should do.
We have a MENTORING HOT LINE for our mentees to contact us when they are challenged and at a loss as to what steps to take next.
My point, now, is to remind you that once you have clashed with something and won or lost, learn from the experience. Think about how you and your future clients are going to assure that you do not walk into the same ambush in the future. Devise ways to avoid the trouble you know is out there!
There will be surprises. No one can prepare for every threat but you can put up defenses to warn off hostile parties and set up systems and fail safes to alert you to potential hazards, looming perils right around the corner or approaching dangers.
Work out ways to overcome difficulties, so when you do find yourself involved once again in these often party ruining dilemmas, you are not blindsided.
You need an alarm system so the bells go off before disaster strikes. It is all about being prepared, staying alert and looking for the signs that say, something is not right here.
Many times in Real Estate, unscrupulous Sellers and/or their shady Agents or building contractors, try to trick you and your client. Other times delays and hold-ups are simply due to your client not completing the task you advised them to do, in a timely fashion and some deadline has past. Forget about the reason. Last minute surprises need to be welcomed and celebrated as the gifts that they are.
NEVER TURN & RUN FROM CHAOS or TURMOIL!
During Stress is when we Realtors get to play HERO!
Know that, if you do not panic and get a little creative, you can almost always save the day!
Your clients will be grateful and your legacy as a Local Realtor Extraordinaire will grow by leaps and bounds. Plus, win or lose, you will always have a… fantastic story to tell for years to come!
There are obviously so many varying types of problems that could possibly arise in the Real Estate Fields. Here are a just few examples that Realtors often have to take care of:
Costs of key construction items suddenly go up in price! Yipes!
Supplies are delayed or someone shipped the wrong color or the wrong size parts.
A financer has second thought and pull their funding.
Building permits are takin too long to get approved…
The local Plumbing Union decides to go on strike!
We cannot possibly tackle all of the dilemmas that clients need Realtors to work on, here in this one blog post. Our goal is to mold your way of thinking so you get ready for everything and expect anything.
Problems do and will pop up during a Real Estate Venture, transaction or project. YOU CAN COUNT ON IT!
The great Realtors do not wait until they are in the heat of the moment to respond to a crisis. The Best Realtors are always on their guard. I want you to be ahead of the game. We get paid the big bucks, to assure the crisis never occurs…
Here are some of the most easy to implement yet very powerful solutions to implement in advance, to safeguard against and cut down on many of the pesky problems that we Agents and our clients often confront. Unfortunately most Agents learn these lessons far too late, after they are afflicted with a catastrophe that they could have easily avoided and never had to happen.
TIP-1: Straight from the gate, at the time that any transaction is being seriously discussed, it is important that you stress to the opposing party that your offer has a certain set date or deadline in which it expires if not acted upon. Force folks on the other side of the negotiating table to make their decision timely. The longer people hem and haw, diddling around, taking their good all time to sign a contract the more chances are that someone is going to back out of the deal. Your job, as Real estate Consultant is to keep things moving along, smoothly for your client, towards the finish line.
TIP-2: Make sure your opposing seller or buyer knows and agrees that unannounced or last minute adjustments or changes to the deal agreed upon, comes at a cost such as a (5-20) percent increase in price for the Buyer or 5-20 percent decrease in price, as a penalty for a Seller.
NOTE: You must stand firm with these agreement penalties because the Local Real Estate Agents working in your territory do talk to one another and once they know you are willing to forgive the penalties you insisted on, the word will get around. The other Agents will test your resolve.
Only by letting your opponents know that they will pay with real money, will you get their full attention, participation and cooperation with getting all your client’s questions answered fast and every step of the transaction process accomplished, well before the deadlines.
TIP-3: Keep Deals Simple! The more complex and complicated a transaction is, the more opportunities there are for stuff to go wrong.
Go over the language of documents and all correspondence, two or three times minimum, to check that they are easy to understand, before you hit send. One tiny typing error can cause all kinds of chaos.
Misinterpretations cause most of the deal breaking problems. “I thought you meant this!” But, “No I meant that!”
Emotions run high during big money deals like real estate purchases. Make sure everyone is on the same page. If someone is caused to lose face, the whole deal may be called off, due to one player’s pride being hurt. Now everyone’s hard work goes down the toilet.
TIP-4: Make it clear to all parties involved that Good Communication is the most important thing for pulling off a smooth property transaction. “We all want to get this done. We share the same goal. We have to work with one another.”
Next, exchange phone numbers, email and text message addresses and other contact info from and with everyone involved.
HELPFUL: Before you leave a meeting or hang up on a phone call that concerns your deal, be sure to add all the contact info, of the important people involved with the deal, directly into each other’s cellphones, for easy accessing.
Stress that problems or changes concerning the deal should be addressed with all the other members involved in the transaction as soon as possible. “No matter how dire the situation seems, let’s talk about it. The earlier we all know about a challenge, the easier it will be to adopt, accommodate and find a solution that satisfies everyone.”
TIP-5: Whenever possible, during the course of a Real Estate Project, do a VISIT to the actual site to check on the property and confirm how a project is progressing.
Bear in mind that contractors and the seller and the seller’s Agent and team, may have an interest in concealing things from you and your client. Many problems can be uncovered by conducting both scheduled and some unscheduled visits.
Nothing satisfies and calms the nerves like seeing what is actually happening first hand with your own eyes.
It is my opinion that you can never visit a construction site enough. Every time you go, you discover something you did not know. The lazy Realtors, who assume that stuff is just happening exactly as it was planned to happen, are the ones who get caught napping.
TIP-6: Pre-event meetings with your client and the rest of his team members, staffers or assistants can allow you to make sure everyone knows their role on game days! If the event is a very complicated one, like a price negotiation, you may even consider having a dry run rehearsal. Thorough preparation is the key to achieving stunningly successful and unforgettable results every time!
I cannot state enough how constantly briefing and updating your client and all his other team members is paramount to your success. As the Realtor, you are responsible for setting everyone up to be able to complete their parts and thus, hopefully, the whole team will over achieve with the final results.
Remember, most Real Estate Property Project Situations change from the time they were first being perceived to the actual day your client gives the go ahead actually launching the dream into a reality.
Yes, to bring some projects across the finish line, you are going to find yourself doing things you had no idea you would be involved in, when you first were told about your client’s project. That is all part of the game. It is why Real Estate is one of the world’s most exciting industries and why you choose Realty as your profession.
As various deadlines approach or especially as the big final project completion day nears, keeping in constant contact with your client and everyone involved, will help you cut down on the stress of managing last minute adjustments.
TIP-7: Checklists – A Realtor is usually working for multiple clients at any one time. You cannot expect yourself to be able to keep track of everything just in your head. You have to learn to be very organized, to guard against things falling through the cracks. Do not expect to be able to just wing things as they come up.
The best way that I know of, for avoiding unnecessary screw-ups, is to work with the help of checklists.
Checklists keep you grounded and moving in the right direction. They help you to not forget to do stuff. With a quick glance at your checklist, you can tell how much has been completed and know what is left to be worked on.
Your clients have put up a lot of money and there is a lot at stake. They are counting on you to pull them thru whenever the going gets tough. They hired you because of your reputation of being the Can-Do Local Realtor. The folks who recommended you to your client said that you were very thorough.
Your custom and thorough checklists, that you created yourself, help you to stay on top of things. By checking important items, tasks and challenges off of your list as they are started then crossing each off when completed, you can be sure that you and everyone else, working on your projects, have everything covered.
Your checklists tell you that all involved are working on and completing everything that was assigned to them, on time. You can also see instantly if someone is struggling with an assignment and thus you can arrange to get them some help.
*Many Sample Checklists, pertaining to all sorts of Real Estate related activities are included in our Realtor Business and Marketing Courses. [just click to learn more!]
*We also include, Checklists in the pages of many of our Realtor Business Guide Books in our Realtor Library!
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