To Tell The Truth
If you are reading this then . . . Congratulations! You have paid your Tallahassee Board of REALTORS®, Florida Association of REALTORS®, and National Association of REALTORS® membership commitment for another year!
Whew! I don’t know about the rest of the TBR members, but I am glad that the 2007 real estate market is behind us. I love a roller coaster as much as anyone else, but give it a rest! As tough as this has been for our profession, it pales in comparison to what this past year has been like for our sellers. How many times have you been at a marketing meeting and heard a fellow REALTOR® get up and tell a heart-rending story about the terrible situation their sellers are in? And to “please bring an offer; this family really needs to sell their home.” Despite the challenges we face in this present real estate market, we are not facing many of the real-life challenges that this market has brought to the sellers.
So, how do we best help our sellers now? I was going through and organizing the piles of great notes and marketing ideas that all of us tend to accumulate during the past year. One of the stacks of notes I found was from the past FAR conference that addressed this very issue. How do we best help our sellers now? It’s pretty simple: tell them the truth. So, what is the truth? The truth is it does not matter one little bit what they could have gotten for their home two or three years ago, it does not matter how many late night shows they watched on TV about flipping property, it does not matter that they really need to sell this property in order to join their spouse who has already moved to the new job, it does not matter that they raised their children in this house and it is full of sweet memories. What matters is how well it is priced, how easy it is to show, how well it has been maintained, and how flexible they can be during negotiations. It is simply a matter of “do you want to stay or do you want to go?” If a seller is ready to go, then they must listen to the market. REALTORS® do not set the price that people will pay – the buyers do. And there is a price point at which any property will sell. For some sellers, this price point is just too low. Then they must stay and wait until the market changes. If this is not an option for them and they want to go, then we must tell them the truth. The truth is this is a less than desirable time to be a seller, but there are homes selling every day and theirs can, too. But no one is willing to pay an inflated price for the seller’s sweet memories or pay for poorly maintained/renovated property. There are just way too many other choices and buyers will just move on to the next ten houses on their list.
So, this year I resolve not to tell sellers what they want to hear, but instead tell them what they need to hear. It is their responsibility to choose if they want to stay or if they want to go. It is our responsibility to tell them the truth; they look to us to help them know what it will take to move on. This is a tremendous responsibility. And part of the truth is that buyers are starting to stir around out there, and if a house is priced right it will sell. I truly believe the buyers’ wait-and-see attitude is coming to an end and that this has the potential to be a very good year. Some of the best real estate decisions and purchases ever made will occur in 2008. It is great time to be a buyer and the choices are almost endless. I encourage you to hold tight these next few months, tell your sellers the hard truths, and help your buyers take advantage of what is a GREAT market for them.
And once again, congratulations for making the commitment to your real estate career for 2008. I hope you have one of your best years ever! And, hey, please go show some of my listings (“this family really needs to sell…”)!
— Patti E. Ketcham, CLG, CRS, e-PRO, GRI
Ketcham Realty Group
