I was surprised when this agent said he was not interested in listing my mom’s condo after he learned I was meeting other agents. He said he was pretty busy and the condo’s value – and his commission based on it – was just not worth his time.
I told him I understood.
On the one hand, this made sense leverage-wise. He has limited time, and he told me he had just signed up several much bigger listings. On the other hand, he missed the opportunity to refer me to another agent – which could have benefited him long-term with reciprocal referrals.
An agent’s pipeline of possible listings – which a referral to another agent could have strengthened – is pure leverage and worth its weight in gold.
In my last column, I described three negotiation-related factors to evaluate in real estate agent interviews: 1) their strategic vs. instinctive approach to the process, 2) their strategic intelligence gathering prior to meeting, and 3) how they differentiated with other agents/leverage.
Here are four more.
- Benchmarks of comparable listings and recently sold condos.
Several of the agents e-mailed me – in advance of meeting – comparable listings and sold condos from our building. These benchmarks, as my regular column readers know, underlie my Third Golden Rule of Negotiation: Employ “Fair” Objective Criteria. The other agents sent me similar lists after meeting.
All these agents understood the value of these standards. But several did their homework before
meeting me – and they got higher grades.
- Negotiation-related documents in writing.Only one of the agents anticipated most my questions and brought a folder of written documents for me to keep that addressed them. She brought:
✓ Details of comparable properties and recently sold condos;
✓ A document titled “The [agent name] Real Estate Advantage” with short bullet points identifying her value, expertise, experience and differentiation from other agents (implementing my Second Golden Rule of Negotiation: Maximize Your Leverage);
✓ A 17-point list of steps she would take to sell the property, including marketing efforts;
✓ References with phone numbers and property sold addresses;
✓ A list of contractors offering her clients discounted rates for painting, carpeting, etc.; and
✓ Legal documents to sign if I hired her.
She also told me I would get her “special” discounts regardless of whether I hired her.
By doing all this, she illustrated that she understood the power in negotiations of: a) putting herself in her counterpart’s shoes and anticipating my needs before meeting); b) the reciprocity principle (by giving me the value of her discounts even without hiring her, I would inevitably feel a reciprocal obligation to give her something in return); and c). the written word (people believe more of what they see than what they hear).
This was a significant and impactful negotiation move and further illustrated how she would put these principles to work for me in helping negotiate the sale of the condo.
- Initiative to see and evaluate a comp in the building.
The final move this same agent made that pretty much closed the deal was her finding a comp in the same building and suggesting we check it out at that time. No other agent even told me this listing existed, much less suggested we tour it.
This gave me a great opportunity to see her in action and evaluate how she would stage our condo differently and, in my opinion, more effectively. She knew this.
Of course, I didn’t decide immediately. I took some time, considered my alternatives, and evaluated each agent’s strengths and weaknesses, including their negotiation abilities.
Fortunately, the answer was clear. And it didn’t hurt that the “winning” agent also offered a discounted fee and contributed some of it to charity.
Now to negotiate the sale. Stay tuned – it hits the market next week!
Latz’s Lesson: Top real estate agents know negotiations involve benchmarks and comps, the power of the written word, and the importance of showing off their negotiation abilities – but few put all these together.
* Marty Latz is the founder of Latz Negotiation, a national negotiation training and consulting company that helps individuals and organizations achieve better results with best practices based on the experts’ research. He can be reached at 480.951.3222 or Marty@LatzNegotiation.com.