Whoa! What a fun ride we had on this transaction! The property was listed by 2 previous real estate agents from other companies in Glastonbury, CT. The unit had only 2 bedrooms that were both upstairs in a complex that senior citizens love. The owner wanted to beat the sales price in that complex for a 2 bedroom unit - at least for the past 7 years. The colors of most of the rooms are probably not on the palette of most desirable colors of most people these days and the owners were not going to re-paint the rooms. The owner had a niece who is a real estate superstar in MD and wanted to know about the transaction every step of the way, give her input and she wanted to get a sizable referral fee. So I wondered...did I want this listing? Could I help them? Would they be happy at the end? Would we all be getting stressed?
After quite a few days of both the owner and I thinking about whether we should partner on this trek the customer calls me and asked "Do you want to sell this home?" I told her "my most important mission is to make sure her and her husband understand and are happy with my approach and the way I do business...I don't like to make up excuses and I need the seller to be in it with me during the rough times because just when it looks like it's a dead end in real estate, in many cases that's when the buyer sees our hard work and shows up. We need to stay inspired. We need to run on batteries when the electricity isn't working. I will look for every opportunity and stay positive." She responded by saying, "ok."
So here we are executing our custom marketing strategy for her home. All the circuits are firing...the Multiple Listing Service with professional pictures and full description (we revised the remarks 3 times), listing on over 80 websites world-wide, Open Houses, The Hartford Courant multiple times, custom lead generating, data capturing website for her home, instant info text messaging service, postcards, premium listing placement on the most popular websites (Zillow.com, Realtor.com, Trulia.com), phone calls to prospects, emails to prospects and area agents and more! We were on our way, started getting showings and all were happy!
Then we received the feedback: buyer wants bigger, buyer thinks it's priced too high, buyer doesn't like that the bedrooms are upstairs, buyer wants more sunlight in living room, buyer wants a finished basement, buyer wants a larger garage...BLAH, BLAH, BLAH. Then we get our first offer: 25% lower than our list price. Boooo! That's not good. The buyer thinks they taste blood and are going in for the kill! The seller is offended by the low-ball offer and doesn't even want to respond. I told her ok well then let's move on! Let's go! We can do this! Let's stay positive and inspired! I reminded her that I am relentless when it comes to making my clients happy. She responded wearily, "ok." Honestly I thought to myself, are they still with me? Will they hang in there? Do they value my efforts?
So I start another round of marketing! Open Houses, Hartford Courant, postcards, emails, phone calls and more as you know....and we get an offer! The buyer is in FL and saw the property online! Yes, they are a cash offer! Yes, they want to make a reasonable offer! Yes, the sellers are happy with the results! Yes! Yes! Yes!
I learned from this transaction that in many cases we need to be resolute! We can't give up - be determined. We need to stay inspired and help the seller to be inspired and see hope for their end game. Endure the challenges in life and try to stay as positive and focused during them. Sometimes the conversations are long and there is a lot of hard work to do. Would the buyer have known about the listing if I did not have premium placement in the largest websites, had professional pictures, full description of all rooms, revised the remarks 3 times, scheduled Open Houses online and much more? We are not the "practice squad." This is not a hobby. Let's play the game as professionals! Devoted - all in and all the time.
Lastly I want to say I truly appreciate the clients. I learned from them as they were very vocal about what they wanted and what they expected from me and my team. We stepped up our game - this is not a part-time gig! We would not allow ourselves to get burnt-out by high demands, we stayed on course with slight improvements to our marketing plan and had patience. Thank you to my sellers for their business and the experience of working for them and building lasting relationships. I actually have quite a few friends that I stay in touch with and enjoy talking with them...that resulted from a real estate transaction. I'm still seeking wisdom, building connections and I love getting these 5 Star Surveys for our hard work! LIVE. LOVE. REAL ESTATE.
After quite a few days of both the owner and I thinking about whether we should partner on this trek the customer calls me and asked "Do you want to sell this home?" I told her "my most important mission is to make sure her and her husband understand and are happy with my approach and the way I do business...I don't like to make up excuses and I need the seller to be in it with me during the rough times because just when it looks like it's a dead end in real estate, in many cases that's when the buyer sees our hard work and shows up. We need to stay inspired. We need to run on batteries when the electricity isn't working. I will look for every opportunity and stay positive." She responded by saying, "ok."
So here we are executing our custom marketing strategy for her home. All the circuits are firing...the Multiple Listing Service with professional pictures and full description (we revised the remarks 3 times), listing on over 80 websites world-wide, Open Houses, The Hartford Courant multiple times, custom lead generating, data capturing website for her home, instant info text messaging service, postcards, premium listing placement on the most popular websites (Zillow.com, Realtor.com, Trulia.com), phone calls to prospects, emails to prospects and area agents and more! We were on our way, started getting showings and all were happy!
Then we received the feedback: buyer wants bigger, buyer thinks it's priced too high, buyer doesn't like that the bedrooms are upstairs, buyer wants more sunlight in living room, buyer wants a finished basement, buyer wants a larger garage...BLAH, BLAH, BLAH. Then we get our first offer: 25% lower than our list price. Boooo! That's not good. The buyer thinks they taste blood and are going in for the kill! The seller is offended by the low-ball offer and doesn't even want to respond. I told her ok well then let's move on! Let's go! We can do this! Let's stay positive and inspired! I reminded her that I am relentless when it comes to making my clients happy. She responded wearily, "ok." Honestly I thought to myself, are they still with me? Will they hang in there? Do they value my efforts?
So I start another round of marketing! Open Houses, Hartford Courant, postcards, emails, phone calls and more as you know....and we get an offer! The buyer is in FL and saw the property online! Yes, they are a cash offer! Yes, they want to make a reasonable offer! Yes, the sellers are happy with the results! Yes! Yes! Yes!
I learned from this transaction that in many cases we need to be resolute! We can't give up - be determined. We need to stay inspired and help the seller to be inspired and see hope for their end game. Endure the challenges in life and try to stay as positive and focused during them. Sometimes the conversations are long and there is a lot of hard work to do. Would the buyer have known about the listing if I did not have premium placement in the largest websites, had professional pictures, full description of all rooms, revised the remarks 3 times, scheduled Open Houses online and much more? We are not the "practice squad." This is not a hobby. Let's play the game as professionals! Devoted - all in and all the time.
Lastly I want to say I truly appreciate the clients. I learned from them as they were very vocal about what they wanted and what they expected from me and my team. We stepped up our game - this is not a part-time gig! We would not allow ourselves to get burnt-out by high demands, we stayed on course with slight improvements to our marketing plan and had patience. Thank you to my sellers for their business and the experience of working for them and building lasting relationships. I actually have quite a few friends that I stay in touch with and enjoy talking with them...that resulted from a real estate transaction. I'm still seeking wisdom, building connections and I love getting these 5 Star Surveys for our hard work! LIVE. LOVE. REAL ESTATE.
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