Many years ago I was having dinner with my friends Gil and Sara. They had invited another couple over as well, David and Karen Sultan.
During dinner, David started asking a lot of questions about real estate. Obviously that’s an area I can talk quite a bit about. Then David got very specific about a house on Leesburg Road in Bethesda.
I had just seen that house. I thought it was priced high, but like any house, it had its share of pros and cons. The biggest pro of course, they would live just a few houses down from me. Hopefully they didn’t see that as a con.
A few days later, David called. “Hey, can we talk real estate? We saw that house on Leesburg with another agent. We thought it was overpriced too and that agent wants us to buy it. More importantly, we felt you had a good sense of the market and we really appreciated your insights.”
They were looking to trade up to a larger house and move into a better school district. This can be tricky because getting a bigger house in a better school district is a double whammy on price increase. They needed a reliable strategy to get the next home under contract, move their family of five into it, and then sell their existing home. They wanted to do this without the burden of having to carry two mortgages for an extended period of time.
We faced two selling challenges in getting their home sold, but Karen was confident that it would work out if I agreed to one simple demand. She added, “If you aren’t game, we are going to have problems.”
So back to the selling challenges: our first challenge was that the market was soft at that time and tilted in the favor of buyers. Second, the Sultan’s home backed onto a busy street. Homes that back to busy streets are harder to sell, especially in a softer market as buyers have more choices.
And that’s where the unusual request came in. Karen told me, very clearly, that she wanted to hear from me every single day, even if there was no news – good or bad – to share. She simply wanted me to touch base. No one had ever asked me to do this before, but I readily agreed.
The process began. We quickly found them a terrific house in Chevy Chase. We put in an offer, got it under contract, and put their old home up for sale.
As expected, traffic through the house and interest were somewhat tepid. I dutifully called each day with feedback, reported the shoppers’ concerns, and, on days when we had no looks, that awkward but honest lack of any news to report.
At first it was hard to make those calls, then suddenly it hit me – there’s a reason why most Realtors gravitate to being buyers agents. Calling a seller to say “I have nothing new to tell you” is difficult. It feels like you are letting them down. Giving the feedback can also be a more delicate process. You want to bring quick offers, of course, but you also need to report back when shoppers’ comments might sting a bit: the house is dated… overpriced… too small… whatever.
But this is honest feedback, and you can’t control what shoppers say. As a listing agent, sellers hire me to sell their house. The more time that goes by without an offer, the more you feel like you’re failing them.
But still, I called the Sultans every day. Then the calls started to get easier, even if there were several days in a row with nothing new to say. Soon enough I realized that it wasn’t just the news they needed. It was the relationship. They knew I was on the job and working for them. They knew the market was slow and they were not judging me. By connecting everyday it assured them that I had their best interests at heart.
It took time, and a lot of calls, but we got their house sold! Fast forward several years and I’ve helped them buy two investment properties as well.
There are two great things about this experience. By calling every day, I found a new level of confidence as a listing agent. Thanks to the Sultans, every seller thereafter has received a much higher level of service. It’s one of the skills that has helped shape me into a better listing agent.
Even better, the Sultans became two of my closest friends. It’s one of the neat things about this profession that I love so much – the people I get to meet. It’s just too bad they didn’t buy that house on Leesburg, then we would have been neighbours, too!
