(CHEROKEE LAKE REALTY WRITES A WEEKLY COLUMN FOR THE GRAINGER COUNTY JOURNAL NEWSPAPER. THIS WAS A RECENT QUESTION ASKED BY A READER.)
First, I am sorry for your loss. Unfortunately, we have listed a few homes where a member of the family has passed, and it is always so difficult. Again, and I truly mean this, I am very sorry for your loss.
To answer your question. It’s simple. If I don’t believe I can sell your home, I will tell you and suggest you choose a different real estate firm. Perhaps you want the home priced higher than I agree with. If I don’t believe I can get you the money you expect, I would rather not take on your listing. Here is how this should work. You are interviewing my firm, and we are interviewing you. If we both come out of that meeting pleased, we will tackle the sale of your house as a team. You want some honesty, which I know is so hard to get in today’s world? It doesn’t work like that with most real estate firms. In real estate you only get paid if a home sells. And you have more of an opportunity to make money if you get a listing. This way, even if another company sells your home, the listing agent still gets paid. So, unfortunately, much of the time you will get told what you want to hear. I can hear real estate agents screaming now, but it is what it is. How perfect your home is, how they will agree with whatever price you want to sell it for, and so forth. Obviously, all this is music to your ears, and most folks will give the listing to the agent that is telling them this. Then, if your home doesn’t sell, they will recommend you drop the price. I understand if the market has changed, or if something has happened that makes you need the money urgently, but markets don’t typically change in a month, so why didn’t they recommend the lower price then? Because that would not have been music to your ears and you might not have given them the listing.
There are other issues that will affect whether we list your home. If you will not let us do what we feel is necessary to sell your home, we will not manage your listing. Perhaps you want the home only to be shown on weekdays? That takes some crucial days out of the picture. What if there is an interested buyer in town on Saturday only? If you don’t let us do what we feel needs to be done to sell your home, we would prefer not to take your listing. Real estate is what we do. Repeatedly. We realize most homeowners have bought and sold a few homes in their lifetime. Think about that? How many have you sold and bought in your lifetime, 2, 4,10? We will do that on a good month. We sell more homes in a month than most homeowners have done in a lifetime of home ownership. You are contracting us for our expertise. You don’t tell your dentist how to work on your teeth. You don’t tell your attorney how to prepare your case, or your accountant how to prepare your taxes. You don’t tell your mechanic what needs to be done to fix your car. You and Cherokee Lake Realty are a team. We need your input. You know what makes your home or land special. You know what made it desirable for you to buy it. You know how much you’ve put into it over the years. Share that with us and let us run with it. Remember, if we don’t sell your property, we don’t recoup all the time and money we have put into it. You have a financial stake in the process, and so do we. We will not do anything that is not in your best interest. If we are all on the same page, we will manage your listing. If we don’t feel that we can do the job, we would rather not handle your listing than fail you. Please let me know if you would like me to come out and provide an opinion on your home.
