WELCOME

Happy Wednesday! We are heading into spooky season, which is basically like the Super Bowl for my grandsons. We’re very excited about all the fun that will bring from now until the end of the month.

When you’ve got little kids, it’s not hard to make them happy with a Minions costume and a candy bar. Now, making your clients happy? That’s a taller order. That’s why we’re going to talk about the end user experience. What I mean is giving your buyers and sellers that frictionless experience, so we’ll walk through what I considered a “perfect” recent transaction. Much like how a duck looks so unbothered floating on that pond, believe you me that my feet were paddling like heck just below the surface, but that’s not what the client saw. So let’s dive right in!

THE REALITY OF REAL ESTATE

Let’s talk about clear cooperation. Around 2019, I was at Berkshire Hathaway. I recall one day someone from C-suite who was also on the Board of Realtors came in and said, “Good news! We’ve gotten clear cooperation passed,” and then she proceeded to tell us how it would work. Basically, the seller would no longer be able to make the decision on whether or not their home would be listed on the MLS. If you were going to put a home on your social media, it had to be posted to the MLS within 24 hours, meaning we were no longer able to do pocket listings.

I raised my hand and I said, “I’m a little confused. Since when does the owner of a piece of real estate not have the ability to dictate how their home is marketed, how their home is advertised, and how their home is exposed to buyers? To me, it feels like the seller should have the last word on how their home is being sold.”

That woman looked me up and down and after a very uncomfortable pause, she told me, “Stand down.” Now, I had never heard that term used before and I was confused because I was sitting in a seat already. But I very quickly learned that it meant she was not about to entertain my question and that I should shut my mouth about it.

Clear cooperation was packaged like it would stop discrimination, that all the information would then be on the MLS and that was a good thing. As I saw it, it would be like Google saying, if you advertise anywhere, even a social media post, a newsletter, or a postcard, you must also advertise on Google. And if you don’t, Google is going to fine you $5,000.

Here’s the thing—I support a common sense approach where sellers have the choice on when, where, and how to advertise their home for sale. I feel strongly about this because let’s look at the person going through a divorce (been there). Does that person (meaning me) want all the neighbors to know they’re going through a divorce? To see those photos on the MLS where all his clothes are gone from the closet? I feel that sellers have the right not to have people talking about their personal business.

Look at the example of the guy who owned a piece of property in Florida between two parcels that Jeff Bezos owned. Had the seller had his druthers, he’d have been able to sell the property directly to Bezos but because of clear cooperation, he had to list on the MLS which showed that no one would give him his asking price of $85M. Now the seller is suing Douglas Elliman, saying that the brokerage misled him as to who the buyer was and this cost him $6M. So there are times that pocket listings are actually much better for the seller, especially in these ultra-luxury settings.

Here in Georgia, where our MLS is not a part of NAR, they crammed clear cooperation down our throats. They enforced it, even though they’re not a part of NAR. Yet when it comes to the new commission rules, they’re saying, “Well, we don’t have to abide by the National Association of Realtors,” so what we’re seeing down here is picking and choosing what works best for their business model and not for the consumer. Let’s just say this is an interesting time to be in real estate.

I talked about this more on my Instagram, and I’m curious as to your thoughts on how clear cooperation is impacting you and your business.

glenndabaker

View more on Instagram

STORY TIME WITH GLENNDA

Keeping It 100

Today, I’d like to walk you through what a perfect transaction looks like—from the seller’s side. I got a referral for a married couple who were selling their home. What’s a little crazy is, they were referred to me from an agent I’d never even met in person, she just knows me through social media. And the clients called me, not vice-versa, based on her recommendation.

The sellers lived in an area that’s not far, but it’s not my bread and butter area. It’s not my usual neighborhood or county. So I set the appointment to meet with them and I did all my research. There are several different sections of the neighborhood where the prices differ a good $300K. You think, “That’s not such a big gap,” but it is when the spread is from $300,000 homes to $600,000 homes.

I met with the sellers and they were just the ideal clients. He was an engineer and she was a teacher and they had documentation for every single thing they had ever done for their home. Not only did they document everything, but they did all the work right. They didn’t cut a single corner.

When I sat down with them, I didn’t realize I was in competition with the agent who sells all of the homes in their neighborhood. So I asked what I always ask in a listing appointment. I said, “How much do you think your home is worth?” A lot of times, sellers misinterpret that question, thinking I don’t have a price in mind. The husband says to me, “I think it’s worth $550,000.” I said, “Really?” And he said, “Why, do you think it’s worth less?” I said, “No, I’d like to list at $595,000 and settle around $585,000.” He looked at me like I had lost my mind (in a good way). So I got the listing.

I sent my concrete guy there to do a few tiny repairs and these sellers did everything I suggested they do to get the home ready for sale. We got it listed in ten days and the first weekend, we had a whole herd of people who came through and we had an offer for $585,000 by Sunday. A great offer, too—five day due diligence, non-contingent on appraisal.

They did the inspection and there were a couple of tiny things, nothing big. The buyer’s agent was was outstanding—clear communication, very clinical, super calm. My people did the repairs they requested. They had receipts for everything in the home and had even created a bible for the buyers. The buyers did the walk through and their great agent even brough me my lock box to the closing.

At closing, the seller said to me, “When you said $585,000, I thought you were crazy. But then you told us your plan. You told us start to finish exactly what we’d need and what would happen, and that’s exactly what happened.”

What he didn’t know at the closing was, three days prior, I found out the mortgage they paid off in 2009 was never released. And then that mortgage company went defunct in 2011, so there was no way we could have gotten the documentation. So I called my seller and said, “Can I have a copy of the title insurance from when you bought the house?” Which of course he had and we were able to insure over it, so the closing was never in jeopardy.

When he heard about all this at the closing, he said, “You knew all this? You never said anything about it.” I replied, “No sir, there was no reason for you to worry about a problem before there was a problem. You’re moving really quickly and you had a lot on your plate, so I didn’t want to cause you any more stress. Imagine how different the vibe at closing would have been if you had to fret for days over something I knew we had the documentation to fix.”

He just looked at me and laughed, saying, “That is why you make all the money.”

So here’s the thing—even in the most perfect transactions, things can go awry. But the way we worked together, we were able to establish trust and create a bond because I tried to make the whole process as seamless as possible.

The takeaway here is that when you can control your emotions, your time, and your money, you can control everything in your transaction—and your life. And that is what perfection looks like.

GLENNDA’S GURU

Welcome, Santiago Arana!

I am so happy to introduce y’all to the #6 real estate agent in the country this week! That’s right, today I’m talking to The Agency’s Santiago Arana! This man has closed over $4.6 billion in real estate and he’s been featured in the annual REAL Trends as one of the top 250 agents in the country and recognized by the Wall Street Journal! So I could not be more excited to sit down and talk business with such heavy-hitter!

Thank you, Santiago!

GLENNDAISM

Say It with Me Now

GO HOMES.COM WITH GLENNDA

I’ll Take Two, Please

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Remember, with Homes.com, it’s your listing, your lead.