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Do you care enough to tell the truth?
Do you care enough for your sellers to tell them the truth, even when the truth is painful to hear?
Most of you know I was diagnosed last spring with pancreatic cancer. Doctor Gilbreath was in tears when he told my wife the news. I’m certain he did not want to tell her (and me when I came out from under anesthesia) of the diagnosis and the 5% survival rate. He could have taken the path of least resistance and told us to just come back in six months and see if I felt better.
As much as my wife and I hated hearing the bad news the doctor told us, we were glad he told us the truth. We could then make decisions based on the truth, not on what we hoped reality to be. By the same token, I see many realtors taking the path of least resistance and not being totally honest with their sellers.
My son and I got a call from a lady who had been trying to sell her very nice home for three years in one of our golf communities! John and I told her up front we were going to be totally honest with her on our evaluation of her home in the current market.
We listed her home two weeks ago, and it sold last Thursday! It takes several hours in a training session to cover all that we did and said. However, to summarize, we cared enough to tell her the truth with heartfelt empathy. Even though it was painful for us to say, and painful for her to hear, she appreciated our honesty and our professionalism.
Today she is ecstatic! She is excitedly looking for a home to rent in a neighboring community and can now move on with her life. The reality is, had her home been properly priced initially, it would have sold several years ago, and for more money. Her realtor did her a disservice by not helping her see reality three years ago.
Do you really care about your sellers? If you do, then care enough to be totally honest and communicate the facts with empathy. Their home will sell if it is properly positioned in the market.
By the way, thanks to Dr. Gilbreath being totally honest with Genie and me, I chose to have Whipple surgery, six months of chemo, and six weeks of radiation. Not what I wanted to do, but once I heard the facts, I made a decision based on facts on what I ought to do. And by God’s grace I am doing well. Help your sellers to do what they ought to do, based on the facts, and they too will get through some tough times.
Posted on 08/17 at 12:32 PM
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