Real Estate, a Team Sport

So, let’s pretend that you need an oil change and you go to your local Station and say to the proprietor “listen, my car is supposed to have an oil change every 3,000 miles and I want to do that. But, here’s what I propose ... How about you change the oil, check all the fluids and then, in a couple of months, when I’ve determined that my car is OK and the oil change was right, then maybe I’ll pay you....”

That’s not going to happen...

Actually, in writing this, I can’t think of any professions where you can go in, speak to the professional who will render your needed service, and have him/her perform the service without being paid.


Doctors won’t do it, lawyers won’t do it, mechanics won’t do it – but not to fear – Realtors will!

On the front end, we spend our time to thoroughly research and give advice. We don’t mandate a price, we try to educate the seller on the market and together, we determine a price for the home. (That’s another story – they actually do shoot the messenger and don’t hire you – instead they go with the agent that gives them the highest price for the home, rather than the one who can do the best job...)

Once the seller determines that they are happy with the price and they hire you, you then get to put on your “marketing hat”. We begin the time consuming task of marketing the home. We don’t just do the 4 P’s

• put up a sign
• put on a lockbox
• put it in the MLS
• pray

Not that I’m not religious – I do pray – but not for the sale of a home.

The marketing, especially today, is multi-faceted.

We design print advertising in the form of flyers, post cards, letters, e-mails with the proper description of the home. We create a virtual tour. We handle the on-line placements including one or more MLS’, private website, company web site, realtor.com, ajchomes.com, Trulia, online seller’s advantage and more.... At Prudential Georgia Realty, we syndicate our listings to 400 on-line venues.

We handle the phone calls. Sometimes we schedule the showings and act like personal secretaries for the homeowners. Hopefully, this attracts a buyer.

This is when we put our Negotiator hat on. If the buyers are working with an agent, we sometimes do their agent’s job – they may not write the contract properly; we might have to go let their inspector in because he doesn’t have a lock box key (smiling all the way – clearly we shouldn’t have to do this); ditto for the appraiser; we then have to negotiate some more.

Then, we are hopefully moving towards closing, set the appointment, follow up on the loan, arrange for the warranty, notify everyone, turn in the paperwork – and you know what – during this whole process, we did not collect one dime. We are assuming that if everything goes well, we will get paid at closing.

Sometimes, you get to the appointed day, and through no fault of your own, you don’t close. The seller has done everything requested by the buyer, you’ve met all the time lines and the buyer’s loan isn’t approved – not because they lied, not because the loan officer is bad, but because some rule has changed or some minor glitch in the type of loan they’re getting or some processor who dropped the ball and didn’t follow the critical path method to processing the loan (and it’s really scary when they don’t know what this means).

And then, after weeks and months – WE DON’T GET PAID – but that’s OK – just keep smiling and do it again. Go back on the market, buy a truckload of tissues for the buyers and sellers, re-update all the marketing – you get the idea. It’s very difficult. It can be draining - physically, emotionally and financially.

So, the message is we’re a team.

We need the buyers to do what they promise to do – provide your documents to the lender timely; arrange for your inspections; be responsive to your agent; don’t make any large purchases until after closing.

We need the sellers to do what they promise to do – keep the house clean; make the house available for showings; refer all buyers to your agent; evaluate your price periodically and lower as necessary; keep an open mind when an offer is presented and believe/know that there is a happy medium.