WELCOME

Hello! It’s already spring here down in Atlanta and that’s means I have lost my dang voice again because of allergies. But I am going to keep on keeping on, so let’s get right to it.

As it’s the first of the month, we’re going to continue my monthly series on making more profit. I’ll tell you how walking away from five listings this last week is actually better for my bottom line—and likely yours, too.

STORY TIME WITH GLENNDA

So buckle up, this is gonna be a long one.

My poor team has had a slow start to this quarter because we’ve all had a lot going on behind the scenes. I always talk about how we try to front-end load our year, but when life intervenes, life takes priority.

I’ve been trying to make something happen, so last week I had five listing appointments. Sounds great, right? Well, I have to tell y’all, I walked away from each of them with very little enthusiasm. They say your effort matches your interest and I have to say, I just don’t have it in me for these listings. Every one of those appointments felt like a bad Tinder date, like, “I shaved my legs for this?”

The Appointments

One of the homes was full of chain smokers and the funk was so bad that I had to go home and immediately put my clothes in the hamper and take a second shower, with a hair wash and everything! Another was kind of a hoarding situation with a lot of cats—a lot.

Now those are sometimes the reality of being an agent and I could deal with those eventualities. What I could not deal with was that the owners of every house I stepped into had wildly, WILDLY overvalued their homes. Each of them thought their home was worth between $300K to $1.5M over a realistic price, and that’s if they were in top condition. Which they were not. Meow.

The Delusion

There was one good house of the bunch and the lady told me, “My cousin will sell this for 2% commission.”

I said, “Well, that sounds like a great deal; you should go with her. In fact, there are lots of agents who will do this for less. So why am I even here?” (Y’all, my humor was not at its usual level, thanks to the devil ragweed.)

Then she tells me, “You’re the best and I want you. But I want you to do it for 2%.”

Let me be honest with y’all—at that point I’d had enough of the whole week, between the unrealistic sellers and my voice beginning to check out. I literally looked at her and I said, “Yeah, that’s not my deal. Everybody wants a Ferrari for the price of a Yugo.” I tell you what, she was speechless. She just couldn't even believe that I said those words to her. Yet she didn’t want to pay the buyer broker’s compensation and she only wanted to pay me 2%. No, thank you.

The Soul-Searching

My gentleman friend Bill said, “Glennda, I have never heard you sound down like this.” And I had to ask myself, “Have things been going too well? Have I lost my hunger?” I really had to look inside myself to figure out if this was a me-problem.

Spoiler alert? It’s not me.

The Plan

In terms of profit, my thought process is the best way to preserve profit (and sanity) is not spending money or not taking listings that aren't ever going to sell. In the deployment of your resources, and it's not just your resource as in money, it is your resource as in time.

So don't kid yourself like that listing at 123 Banana Street—that is 30% overpriced, that is in POS condition—is worth your time. Don't kid yourself about being distracted from business that you should be devoted to. When you are wasting your time on these overpriced, under-conditioned properties, you are deploying your financial resources and your time resources and your attention resources into listings that aren't going to sell. That’s what I mean by some listings aren't worth your time or your money.

The Three Criteria

When I look at a listing, I first determine what is the likelihood that I can sell it. I have to consider the likelihood that it's not going to eff up my ratios, price to list price, and my days on market. And I have to be able to generate three clients from this listing.

When I say three clients, this is my goal. One is that I get another listing, one is that I get a buyer, and one is that get a referral from that listing. So if I focus on I want these three things to happen on every listing that I take, it vets the decision-making process. I ask myself, Am I going to be able to hold it open? Am I going to be able to do a broker open? Am I going to be able to have the neighbors over? Are the pictures going to attract a buyer that may not buy 123 Banana Street, but that may buy 456 Great Street?

That’s what I'm looking for. So of the listings that I looked and the presentations and pitches that I went on last week, none of those listings met at least two of the three criteria of:

• Will it sell?

• Will it not mess up my ratios?

• Will it generate three clients?

While you may say, “Oh, Glennda, you missed the opportunity to list those.” But I maintain that when you take the listing at $3.75M and it's worth $2.75M, you're setting yourself up to be the first love, the second wife, and the third real estate agent, and the neighbors are laughing their asses off at you. Because the neighbors know that house isn’t worth it and then you’re not getting another listing in the neighborhood.

The Price Is Wrong, Bob

That's why it's critical when you're doing pricing strategy that you don't price it too high and you don't price it too low. Price it right at market value, because then the neighbors say, “Okay, you're an agent who knows what they're doing.” It's going to sell. It sells quickly. So you can then have a case study and repeat that to the neighbors as a nothing accelerates credibility faster than that first sale. Then buyers turn around and say, “Oh, wait a minute. She's got all the good listings!” Okay? And then what happens is, is you do such a great job for that seller that they then refer their friend. It just snowballs.

None of the listings I saw last week met this two out of three criteria. So it was really easy for me to say, “I'm passing on this.”

What I wish, after 33 years as a real estate agent, that I had the balls to say, “Mr. And Mrs. Seller, thank you so much for the opportunity. I really appreciate it. But at this point in time, you're overpriced and under-conditioned, and rather than lie to you now, I'd rather level with you.” I haven't figured out a good way to say that without being offensive.

Instead, I say, “I don't think we're aligned on the goal. Go ahead and list it with the agents who say they can get you more, and as soon as they ask you for the price reduction, call me.” That really does show proof that you believe in your pricing strategy.

The Bottom Line

Your bottom line is your finances, your time, and your resources, meaning your attention and emotion. People look at their bottom line as money, and it's not money alone. It's your money, your time, your attention/your emotions. Think about every time that you've made a bad business decision, it was because you were not in alignment with one or more of those three things. I can literally go back and look at every major decision of my life, and I can say I was not aligned with my time, my money and my emotions when I made this decision, and this decision was not in alignment with my goals, for my time, my money and my emotions. Oh, my stars, that feels like a mic drop moment.

So the quote of the day is:

The best math you can learn is the future cost of your current decision.

glenndabaker

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GLENNDAISM

Today’s Words of Wisdom

GLENNDA BAKER & ASSOCIATES

I Think We All Need a Little Redemption

By that I mean, Redemption Drive, of course! Look at this little slice of heaven!

This property is located on three-plus bucolic acres, nestled along the banks of the Alcovy River. Plus, there are two covered porches that look out over the majesty of the woods. (And yet it’s a stone’s throw away from the award-winning Archer High School.) It’s flooded with natural light and has a fully finished basement with plenty of space for everyone and everything, including fruit trees and a driveway big enough to park an armada.

So if this isn’t Redemption… what is?