When Sellers Exit the Driver's Seat
This weekend in The New York Times, Teri Karush Rogers put her finger right on a major point about Manhattan real estate: sellers are used to behaving like royalty. She tells stories of sellers changing their minds on major negotiation points, hiring egomaniacal attorneys, asking five-digit fees for curtains and the like.
In the current real estate market--with plenty of inventory in most price ranges--buyers are demanding at least a modicum of fairness and professionalism. Which is probably fair enough.
Off the top of my head, here are some of the challenges sellers have presented us with, personally, in the last few months:
- Insisting on a sales price directly in line with market appreciation numbers reported in the press--in one case this cost my client hundreds of thousands.
- Insisting on the identical price as a nicely renovated neighboring apartment.
- Overvaluing a renovation.
- Insisting that a property be shown to “serious buyers only,” when our experience, expertise, and work is predicated on finding serious buyers.
- Insisting that my assistant feed, walk, and scoop poop for two aggressive little dogs every time the apartment was being shown.
- In one special case we had to make beds, fill the dishwasher, and--it's a long story--clean up a bloody mess.
- Extremely restrictive showing hours, for instance 11 AM -2 PM Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
- One seller decided he wanted to move his furniture back in to show the apartment (I was ambivalent in this case for various reasons, but was fine with it.) It was a little surprising when he asked me to pay for the move, however.
- Sometimes sellers make it very tough for buyers to visit after contract signing--in one recent case it was because the seller didn’t like how long the buyers took to sign the contract.
- I had one recent seller refuse to leave in an air conditioner, which played a major role in a deal falling apart (although that was a case of a particular buyer, too).
Rogers also describes how having sellers hanging around at showings can mess up the deal by making people uncomfortable.
It's the surest way, say brokers, to cut a buyer's interest off at the jugular."Once you lose a buyer's focus, you can't get it back," said Rochelle Bass, an executive vice president at Bellmarc. "That's why I never let sellers be home. It's the kiss of death."
"Helicopter" sellers have their reasons for hovering. "To some people it's a very personal experience," Ms. Sacks said. "They want to show everything. They're proud of what they've done, and they feel they can do a better job selling it than anyone else because they know it so well."
But being asked to marvel over outdated, tacky or merely mundane improvements is too much for some purchasers.
"If someone says, 'Wow, I just put in a new heater' — does anybody care?" said Ellen S. Simon, a senior associate broker at Bellmarc, briefly evoking the lonely tree falling in the forest. "All they care is that it's not cold. Either be nonchalant about it or use a broker to spin it and make it seem really great without overkill."
Ms. Sacks noted: "It's kind of like an overwhelming salesperson when you walk around the store. Even if you love it, you can't stand being followed around and being told, 'Look how wonderful my closets are.' "
Hanging around also interferes with the crucial mental leap that the buyer must make to imagine living in the property.
Innocent slips of a seller's tongue can be equally deadly, said Marguerite Platt, a senior vice president at Halstead. Her seller inadvertently spooked a pair of buyers away from a nine-room apartment on Fifth Avenue overlooking Central Park. As the buyers ogled the view from the windows after their bid had been accepted, the owner agreed, "Well, it is nice, except when the parades go by." The buyers promptly withdrew their offer.
Great post Douglas! Its amazing what some sellers think they can put their brokers through for the right to sell their apartment.
I have a seller now, asking $2.2M, although I have to say they are very easy going, except when it came to negotiations. I got a $1.8M bid up to $1.9M, with no response from my client, and finally got the buyer to verbally agree to bid $2M if they saw some response from the seller taht they are willing to work with them.
However, nothing! Worst part is I informed my client the ballpark that I think the apt is worth on the open market and $2M was at the top, take it and run, range!
Oh well. I guess some sellers are bitter at the level of commission that gets paid to brokers and as such feel the need to torture or put the agent through some hell before any price is accepted. And then there are those sellers that just have no intentions of selling unless htey get a price that is unrealistic, even in a booming market. What to do!
Cant a broker get any respect!
Great examples! We see similar things on our coast quite regularly.
Royalty, entitlement, arrogance, grandiosity, condescension... a few of the markers we look for when deciding who we will accept as clients. We made the mistake once of taking on a seller client that had all the markings of a disaster waiting to happen. It's a people business and clients that alienate people are not good for business.
Agreed John, but not all in our industry have the luxury of being so scrutinizing when selecting who we want to work with. That said, I learned a valuable lesson last year (after 14 years in the biz) when I worked with a "viral" client that decreased my ability to do other business and ultimately crushed my bottom line. Never again, but I will say that the experience taught me a lot and not just why I don't want to work with anyone so difficult again. I learned that I was much more patient than i ever imagined I could be and that compassion goes a long way in dealing with difficult people.
BTW...nice blog! I blogged about it today.