I have read several blog posts lately that have focused on sellers and unrealistic expectations of price and time on market to achieve a sale. When watching HGTV this morning, the topic even came up on one of their real estate shows. And in each case there is always the same… it is always suggested that the agent needs to do a better job of educating his or her seller about market realities to achieve the sale.
I agree that it is our job as real estate professionals to educate the public about markets, market conditions and home buying/selling. However, real estate is not always about reality. Real estate is also about emotions.
Home sellers are not always selling a property… they are selling their home. Perhaps the home they are selling has been in their family for generations. Perhaps it is where they raised their children. Perhaps the amount of the proceeds of the sale will determine not only whether they can afford to buy somewhere new to live, but whether someone will be able to retire or someone’s healthcare.
None of these things change the market realities, and it won’t change the eventual selling price… but it may take a bit more than simply educating the client for that to sink in. It may take helping our clients to come to grips with what the impact of those realities may be.
A client that isn’t ready to accept a market reality can be frustrating and helping this type of client to deal with unpleasant realities may require more effort than some agents care to deal with. And that’s OK… not every client and agent is a match.
We must remember that while it is our job to educate, students learn at different rates of speed… and often that rate is of the client’s choosing… and a failure to immediately embrace what we teach does not necessarily make clients difficult, it just makes them human.
