We Agree - Now is a Great Time to Buy Real Estate - So What Are Steve Harney and I Debating About?

Recently, the KCM Crew at my favorite real estate blog, Keeping Current Matters, posted an article called "The First Question You Should Ask Your Listing Agent".

The answer to that eponymous question was "Do you truly believe that now is a good time to buy a home?" The author went on to explain that the listing agent should be able to convince a potential buyer that now is a good time to buy a home, and thereby "find a listing agent who truly believes that someone should buy your home – TODAY". (Underline emphasis added by me.)

I agree with the first part of that statement - the listing agent needs to be able to respond intelligently to questions about the market, and in my opinion (and that of the KCM Crew) this is clearly an incredible time to buy a home.

The second part of the statement I took issue with, and in fairness, perhaps I was being a little too literal, or overly analytical. That said, I think there is a good message in here about what home sellers should expect that a listing agent (even the "best" listing agent) can and cannot do. Here was my reply to the article:

With regards to “If an agent doesn’t believe that, how will they be able to convince a potential buyer to buy your home?”, how does anyone CONVINCE another person to buy a specific home? Have you ever tried it?

The way to convince a buyer to buy “your home” is to make it the nicest product they can afford in their price range – that means pricing to compete, and improving/staging the home so that it shows to its fullest potential.

A listing agent cannot point out a view or a cabinet finish or a counter top quality that will impact a buyers emotional reaction to a home. In fact, 100% of home buyers I’ve surveyed (anecdotal, I realize) have indicated that they cannot stand hearing from the listing agent at all – “just let me look at the home and draw my own conclusions.”

The listing agent’s job is to educate the home sellers to make their home market-ready, to price it competitively, to negotiate with skill and knowledge (while removing as much emotion as possible), and to ensure that the contract gets to the closing table by staying on top of lenders, post-inspection negotiation, attorneys, and so on….

In my opinion, any conversation between the listing agent and the home buyers should be about the weather, anything related to the transaction would be inappropriate. The listing agent represents the seller, most conversations with the buyer fall into the categories of inappropriate, based on their obligation to the seller, or misleading, attempting to educate the buyer with the sellers actual best interests in mind.

I was pleased to see that nationally-recognized real estate speak, and KCM founder, Steve Harney replied to my comments directly:

Great points, Jason! However, there are many situations when a listing agent might have a conversation with a buyer. Here are a couple:

1. At an Open House on a listing, a buyer says he likes the house but is not sure now is the time to buy. Wouldn’t you talk to that buyer?
2. Same scenario on an incoming call on an ad for the house. Wouldn’t you talk to the buyer?
3. On a presentation of an offer to purchase, the selling agent tells you the buyer wants to wait because he knows prices are still falling. Wouldn’t you coach the agent on why it might not make sense for any buyer to wait in today’s market? The agent then would use your words in coaching the buyer.

I can think of dozens of other situations. Your fiduciary responsibility to one party in a transaction does not prevent you from giving good, honest advice to the other side of the transaction.

Steve

Of course, Steve is correct, and I think we are in harmony on much of this - "violent agreement" as my old UK colleagues used to say.

A good listing agent can educate the general public, be they clients, potential customers, or the average consumer, about the facts supporting the premise that now is, indeed, a great time to buy real estate. An aware home seller will realize that their listing agent cannot "sell" a home, in the sense that pointing out features does not make a buyer want to purchase the home, but that an adept listing agent can speak intelligently about the market and the area, and can get more potential home buyers in the door.