Closing the Sale – “Am I Doing Something Wrong?”

    As Trusted Real Estate Advisors, we believe if something is logical, our buyers and sellers will apply that logic to their personal situation and agree with us. When they don’t, we get frustrated because we know they’re smart people, yet they refuse to accept the facts.  Instead of getting frustrated, why not put yourself in your seller’s shoes? For example, if you were a seller and had purchased your property for $750,000, would you be anxious to sell the property for significantly less and lose hundreds of thousands of dollars?  It’s not likely you would. It’s much more likely you would resist losing hundreds of thousands of dollars if at all possible. You would exhaust all options before you resigned yourself to even an obvious loss.

We call this being in the “State of Denial“. And, it’s a great way to temporarily avoid pain. That’s why we recommend you don’t attack price reductions when you’re on a listing presentation in a market where inventory is tight. Get the listing first. Remember, respect and trust are proven, not automatic. If you don’t respect the fact that a seller is avoiding pain, and you try to get them to accept the entire loss in one brief meeting, that is offensive. But let’s say you’ve been working with a seller for a while and they still refuse to accept the obvious. Then it’s time to be a little more aggressive, but still be diplomatic.

A great way to get your point across without being offensive is to accept the blame for a failed strategy.  In other words, if a seller has put themselves in a more difficult position by refusing to take your advice, act as if you are in the wrong instead of them.  Consider using the following approach:

“Mr. Seller, you and I have worked together for over six months. We’ve spent hours strategizing to sell your home and have carefully tracked the success or lack thereof, as it relates to those strategies. Based on all of the feedback we’ve received from other agents, prospective buyers, and recent sales, it seems pretty obvious that we’re not properly priced. Each month that passes, you seem to lose the benefits you would enjoy if we had sold your property.   Am I doing something wrong? Is there something else that I can do to help put you in a better position, so you can move on with your life?”

This is a delicate way to ask your seller why the heck he isn’t being logical, without being offensive.