SELLING OUR HOME

SELLING OUR HOME

Everyone in our circle, including our neighbors, is aware that our home has been listed for sale multiple times, due to our past experiences with real estate agents. 

Mostly, it’s been an enormous shock.  Two critical, ethical sins were made regularly.

First, since no one else is in the room or can hear us on the phone (and without being in writing), the realtor can say whatever they want to clients, as no one will hear or witness it. 

And the second deadliest sin: 

The realtor figures that the sellers would be too embarrassed, too ashamed to say anything about what they said to them about their home. 

Capitalizing on class, socioeconomic, status anxiety, or any variety of shame is a pronounced strategy in the real estate agency world. And yet we keep reminding ourselves how strong we are, how damn lucky we are and wonder how bad it is for those without agency. 

Still, there’s so much to discuss about how much we have learned since our first agent.

And Robert and I come from families with parents who encouraged their children to become employed as soon as possible.  Most of the jobs we held in grade school and high school were forms of customer service. We put ourselves through college and grad school with side jobs, and both of us learned early on that if you don’t love your customers, you need to find a different line of work. 

Seth Godin has nailed it when it comes to understanding the client’s perspective: 

“No one is happy to call a real estate broker.

Not really. Despite what the broker is hoping, this isn’t often a 

joyous interaction.

They’re afraid.

Nervous.

Relieved.

Eager to get going.  

Anxious about moving.

Stressed about money.

Thinking about status gained or lost.

Concerned about the future.

Worried about the kids.

The broker is a speedbump on the way to their future.  And 

most of what he or she says is merely noise, a palliative, because

it all costs the same anyway.

According to statistics given to me by the National Association 

of Realtors, more than 80 percent of the people who hire a

broker do so by choosing the first person to return their call. 

Given that, here’s what I’d ask a broker seeking better: How will you choose to show up in the world? Will you reassure and soothe? Will you probe and explore? Will you claim that you’re better, faster, more caring?

Just as no one needs a drill bit, no one needs a real estate broker.  What they need and want is how it makes them feel to get what a broker can get them. 

(and the same thing is true for waiters, for limo drivers, and perhaps for you…)

Like real estate brokers, most of us do the most important work when we traffic in emotions, not commodities.” 

This Is Marketing by Seth Godin