Through every lead we hope that it turns out to be a closed transaction with happy clients. We do everything in our power to ensure that we pay great attention to detail and listen intently to our client's needs. A win-win situation for everyone.
We take that lead and follow up immediately. We meet with the potential client and everything seems to fall into place. It may take months working with a home buyer to find that ‘perfect' home or a while before that home seller actually makes that move to put their home on the market.
It may take some time but if they're ready it will happen.
There will be bumps in every transaction because no two transactions are ever alike. There are new people involved in every transaction like escrow officers, loan officers, agents on both sides and so on. We take on the roll as team players and all work together to make the transaction happen. Real Estate Professionals.
And then the transaction goes south. There may be a buyer who was not as qualified as the loan officer thought and somewhere along the line the criteria for lending changed. Maybe they got a job promotion and it was best for the family not to buy because they were moving half way across the world. There may be a seller who's circumstances changed and they no longer could sell and move on.
If it doesn't happen, we roll with the changes and move on.
Shift happens.
Acceptance and understanding is the biggest asset one can have in this business.....
Lest we fall by the wayside.
*****
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Celeste "Sally" Cheeseman is a Realtor-Associate with Century 21 Liberty Homes in Mililani, Hawaii. With a sharp understanding that a listening ear is the key to a client's needs she serves all Hawaii Home Buyers and Sellers on the island of Oahu (Honolulu County) including all Hawaii Military Relocating to Hawaii, Hawaii Retirees, Hawaii Job Transfers and Hawaii Residents.
Website: www.hawaiihomesmarket.com
Celeste "Sally" Cheeseman is a Realtor-Associate® and Certified Residential Specialist (CRS) with Century 21 Liberty Homes in Mililani, Hawaii. With a sharp understanding that a listening ear is the key to a client's needs she serves the island of Oahu (Honolulu County) and all Hawaii Military Relocations, Hawaii Retirees, Hawaii Job Transfers and Hawaii Residents, Home Buyers and Sellers.
© 2007-2012 Celeste "Sally" Cheeseman's Hawaii Real Estate and Relocation Blog.
All rights reserved.
We don't necessarily win them all. But we'll never find out, unless we give it our all!
Jane Pacheco
If a client needs to move on I bless them and wish them the best!
Nothing like being positive to get it back!
Sally - Like anything else, it is a numbers game per se. The more people we speak with, the more folks we end up helping and representing. Some we can help, some we cannot. Some are motivated, some are not. Some are ready now, some are not. The bottom line is that it is a process for everyone. The big picture is that ALL of those leads need to be followed-up with right away. New agents do not understand the difference between a good lead and a bad lead. All leads are good leads as they have twists and turns : ) ! ~ Chris
Woo Hoo, Love the photo and the message certainly resonates. We really do have to understand that "Shift Happens", don't we. But it would still be nice if we could still be compensated for our efforts, when it does.
Hi Sally, we never know when we pick up that phone or answer that email where it will lead us to. It is hard when things turn in another direction to keep ourselves from becoming targets of angry clients, other agents, etc. But as you say, shift happens!
Christopher: In a whacked out real estate market we have many things to consider....bottom line is not take things personal when they have to take a different road. It's the business and up to us to understand that we are dealing with human beings....buyers, sellers, loan officers, etc. etc.
Hey Wiliam! It would be....that's a fact. It does depend on the circumstances though, doesn't it?
Andrea: It sure does.... I've had a couple of 'circumstances' for clients happen this year and though it's a let down...I understood where they were coming from......... above all....I cannot control anyone in this world except myself. No matter what happens...it's all in the manner of how I handle it. :)
Sally - we have to learn to take the good with the bad and when a client doesn't work out we need to just move on. Not everyone is a perfect match and it is better to cut them loose and let them work with someone else.
Sally I have been down this road, sometimes there is a closing but when the lead goes south all you can do is move on. That is actually one of the things about real estate that interest me it is unpredictable so boredom never sets in :)
Being gracious when plans change for a client is a sign of professionalism. One may lose the client at the time but if a job was well done the referrals will pay off.
Sally - I suspect that we all had or will have clients or property transaction that takes the southern route. While remaining professional - and to try and make something meaningful from the experience - replay the tape from the perspective of learning. "Is there something that I could have done differently that may have made a difference to my clients' understanding, or indeed, the results of the transaction?" We can't beat ourselves up, but we can make every effort to learn from the experience.
Sally, I thought the blog was going to be about emotionally volatile clients, but I see you are focusing on the volatility of the transaction. I'm getting better about prequalifying as the years go by, so there aren't quite as many surprises with buyers, but there's no way you can bat a thousand in this business. I don't believe that real estate is a numbers game any more than I believe that baseball is a numbers game. There is a lot of skill involved in attracting the right clients, converting leads into clients, and prequalifying clients so that we focus our time on the absolute best prospects and refer all the rest out to other agents.
Its a big let down when something that looked promising starts to crumble, like deals coming apart. It goes with the territory.
Often after losing an opportunity for reasons just as you portray, a nice opportunity follows closely.
If one wallows in grief over the one that got away, they may well miss the next one when it is right in front of them!
Sally no matter how good we are there will always be transactions that will not make it to the closing table. There are things that will come up during the course of a transaction that are unforeseen. It is impossible to anticipate everything, and the best that we can do is to try to be ready for them.
Sally
Enjoyed your post, we have to do our best for our customers but when shifts happen we have to more on.
Good luck and success.
Lou Ludwig
Sally, I thought the same thing Gail thought - but I really like the topic here. Circumstances do change in people's lives, and as long as the people are sincere and not just kidding around, I take it in stride. I did have a buyer get cold feet this year after a house he wanted didn't work out, but typically our people are pretty reliable. If it doesn't work out, I just say 'next.' Can't get too hung up on one transaction, especially if it isn't right for the buyer/seller.
Sally, it was real hard to accept things didn't go the way I wanted at the beginning of the career, as I grow in the business, I realized it happens all the time, and to everyone. The most important thing is to live and learn, things are not meant to be sometimes. I learn how to get up and dust off and move on, it is very important to know that if we decided to stay in this business for the long haul.
Very well written post and absolutely a great attitude to help survive this ever changing market. I believe that Carra Riley summed it up very well with her SWSWSWN mantra. Some will...Some won't...So what...Next.
Sally: Nice post. And this is why it is more important than ever to have a LOT of irons in the fire to compensate for when the inevitable "shift" happens!
An unstable or changing client is what I was getting at here. Yes, there may be emotions flying around but when that lead becomes unstable....or something changing the situation it becomes volatile. :)
So what do we do when they go through their ups and downs and life changing decisions? They are no longer a lead... It's up to us to handle our own emotions and accept.
Sally,
We need to look at the big picture and have a positive attitude at all times in this crazy business. If a setback occurs - and we know that it inevitably will - we have to know and believe that the next one will work out...or the next one...or the next one.
Sally--Thanks for the inspiring post. Just had "shift happen" this morning when I learned that a new buyer actually bought without me in a town completely outside the area she had specified with me! Time to move on...
I too have learned this about Real Estate and when it happens, I just say "that's Real Estate!" Then I move on. Not so non-chalantly of course - true be told, sometimes it really hurts. But you always have to be ready to move on and try to capture your next good lead. That's Just Real Estate.
We had a very unusual situation in our office this week. A seller changed his mind the day of closing not to sell his house to a cash buyer that was moving here from AZ. The moving truck was sitting in the seller's drive. Attorneys got involved and there was some pretty nasty things being said on both sides. After about 5 days, the seller realized he couldn't back out of the contract without incurring significant expense. He reluctantly sold his home. Kind of surprising that a seller would think he could just back out of a deal at the 11th hour when all the stipulations of the contract had been fulfilled.
HI Sally - great post and I think I will adopt the statement "Shift Happens". It most certainly does, and sometimes we just need to move on.
Hi Sally, Being a numbers game our business assures us that some of the best leads will not result in a positive outcome and some of the weaker leads will ! Good selling to you !
We just don't get 'em all. We just do our job, do it professionally and when the time is right, IT does/WILL happen. If real estate has taught me anything, it's to try and be patient. :-)
Its true in this day espescially. We find that warm leads we always had a good relationship with end up very frustrated with the market and look to us to blame.
Sally I just got a call from a couple that I met out here seven months ago and they want to meet next week to look at houses. I tried calling them in that time and they never returned my call, just goes to show, you don't always have to hear from them.
We can't win them all, and we certainly can't force them all to close. We just do the best we can with the info we're given. It's what we do.
Acceptance and understanding are definitely important to our job. We have to understand that lives change.
The world around us, and the art of real estate sales, marketing and service is by no means perfect. It's important that when we fall, we get up and try again.
I had an unusual one last week. My sellers passed a lead to me that contacted them through tax records to buy their home. She was an energy vampire wanting info on this, that, the other. She started tearing up my phone line on Saturday night when I was hosting a dinner party at my house. She found the listing here at active rain and was contacting me. I think there was some animosity towards me aggressively marketing the property. (too bad so sad right?)
I excused myself to answer her email and explained in very polite terms that I have a life and this can wait till am. In the meantime before any more time or enery is spent on her she needs to produce a pre-approval letter. My phone was ringing until 9 PM. All of a sudden she had an agent. Basically I told the agent to put it all on paper and do not forget to submit with a pre-approval letter. This was Sunday morning.
Today is Wednesday and have I seen an offer? Nope, I had a hunch she couldn't be approved! It is seriously always the super aggressive ones who do not have the ability to perform.
Sally, Indeed … shift does happen. I recently had a big shift in a transaction and all parties aligned to solve the issue … I so appreciate collaboration.
It's very true that many deals just fall apart at the end most times because of the loaning process. We can't stubbornly hang on to a deal that will not work.
There is a certain percentage of deals that crash and burn...I use 35% although I have no basis except maybe experience. Like you say, shift happens!
You can never predict what will happen. I have had two deals fall out because the buyer developed cancer that required heavy surgery and a long convalescence and they couldn't buy my 2 story listing - they needed to have their bedrooms on the ground floor. It's almost enough to make me want to list only one story homes!