We interviewed two female agents from two different companies who specialize in selling homes in this golf community, I was surprised about the difference I felt about both of them.
Perhaps it was not fair to one of them because I have met one lady 3 years ago when Victor's college friend from Connecticut came down to bought a home inside our gate. So we have already met and know about each others, but I did not call her first, I called the one whom I do not know first, to gave her a tour of the house and show her what kind of renovation we put into the house 6 years ago, in order to update the house to current standard.
This first lady was enthusiastic about the things we put into the house, the faucets, the vessel sinks, the steam shower room, brand new kitchen, hurricane impact glass window and french doors....etc. She gave inputs of how to show the house better, what plants to eliminate and what mood should be set for showing....etc.
The one we have already known gave us a different approach, victor gave the same tour and the same explanation, she went through everything but it just does not interest her as much. I guess because she was in our house before, delivering contracts while Victor's friend was staying with us.
We further spent time sitting down at the dining room to discuss the market and strategy of selling homes nowadays in this tough market, she emphasized the buyers are very difficult to deal with, they would throw you a price you never dreamed of, she means the low-balling. I did not talk much but I was listening, she told us this is how many square footage of that house and how much it was sold for, you should not go higher than that figure. I then ask her about the lot size? about the view of the lot? about the inside decorating of the house and was it updated to a today's standard or staying at 16 years ago's standard when this community was first opened?
She said it was not updated but it was not important to the client.
I then gave her my speech: (victor knows immediately I am pushing the bell like that one in American Idol)
"Anybody can sell a dollar bill for 70 cents, and everyone would buy it." I said to her very politely with a very gentle tone.
"And anybody can list this house, what I need is a person who likes this house at the first date. You know what it's like?! It's like I am fixing up my friend with a boyfriend, if they meet for the first time and do not like each other, there is just not much I can do. I need a person who can represent me, my taste and my thought-process in order to sell this house. And all you care about is how low a figure I could give you to list the house. To you, this house is just another product you want to get onto the shelve; to me, I have to commit to someone I trust and knowing this person believe in what they are selling is the greatest. That's what makes a successful sale or a get-by-day-after-day sale.
Because the reality is no matters how low you list the house, buyers are going to throw you a lower price, that is just the way it goes. No one would pay a sticker price to buy a car nor a sticker price to buy a house. To persuade us to list it as low as possible is just showing that you want a quick sale, let me sell it at 70 cents so I could get my commission and get the hell out. Sorry it just won't work for us, we need someone who loves the house at first sight, who understands how special this lot is and how to show this house with passion.
At the end of the day, I can not control what kind of a figure a buyer would throw at me. But I control who is going to show this house successfully."
our meetings end with the speech I gave above, victor and I had a discussion over dinner at a Chinese restaurant, we both have the same feeling and like the first agent better so she is going to get the listing next week.
There are only 7 homes on my 3 streets are on the market, the lowest price being listing is 880k and the highest is 1.4 million, coming here to tell me I should list this house 20% lower than the lowest price on this block is just ridiculous, insulted my intelligence.
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