A lot of new agents come in to this business and they feel that they have to battle everyone. They think that they are walking into a gladiator arena and are just prepared to battle every single time. They believe that their job is to get every single penny and every single negotiation to fall in their favor.
This is not Sparta.
Surprising to some, that’s not actually the goal. The client’s goal is your goal; buy a house or sell a house. And while it sounded good to go fight for every penny, what I found over and over and over, is the people who act the most reasonable generally get the better deals.
You may go and beat someone up at the beginning for a low price. But maybe they are not gonna budge when it comes to inspection because they are going to take this personally. Residential is not commercial which almost always makes it personal.
I’ve seen some certain situations where are an agent will battle really hard on the inspection request and… then they need to ask for a favor for an extension on closing or whatever. And it won’t go well because you got some annoyed people on the other side. In real estate the agent on the other side is called a co-op agent because it is cooperation.
You are a Facilitator. You are not a Gladiator.
Don’t get me wrong there are times that we need to fight for our clients. But, the goal is to get a house closed for these clients. The whole line about you get more flies with honey than vinegar is very important and very true here.
I had a on offer by an agent that I knew was difficult to work with and she started that way right at the beginning. I sent a counter with a long window to respond in hopes another offer popped up. It did and even though it was $750 less, based on my history and what the clients had already seen of this agent, they gladly rescinded the counter offer to the first agent and accepted the second offer. It all went smoothly.
So put down your sword, and put out your hands, shake the hand, and go make some friends. I have had deals, and I have seen deals put together in multiple offer situations, where the agent that was liked by the other agent. If you have an option, you don’t want to go with the agent who is being a jerk that you know you have to battle. Your reputation will grow one way or the other over your career. People like to complain, and when they are not happy with you, they are going to complain to other agents about what a jerk you are, and you don’t want that reputation
