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Anthony: Because of the speed of the market that we’re in there is a much higher likelihood of realtors fighting and realtor friction. It’s unnecessary, and it shouldn’t happen as much as it happens. I would love to call upon everyone in here to work hard. Everybody watching, everybody in here to work hard to cooperate with one another in a better fashion over the next 90 days because we’re headed for what we’re in, the lowest available inventory – I keep looking at Gerry – available inventory in history. That creates a tremendous need for speed. Your buyer calls to see a house, you got to show it to them pretty quick or you got to get someone in your office to, right? Which is the type of market we’re in.
That speed creates more friction with listing agents, because some listing agent’s like, “Look, I can’t let 700 people in my listing.” I want to point out a couple of observations that I’ve made about the market that I think we all can do a better job on, everybody that’s selling. Some examples that I want to give are this: Buyers’ agents. you cannot under– and this is not exactly training, it’s me talking more about the market, but buyers’ agents, you cannot give buyers lockbox codes. You can’t do it. You can’t do it. Okay?
When you do that, you are literally taking our profession down. You’re taking it down. There could be theft, there could be problems. There might not even be a theft and you could get blamed for a theft. You can’t do it. That’s my point of correction for buyers’ agents, but now I have one for listing agents. Don’t get cocky. Don’t get cocky.
We are not in this market forever. Listing, selling immediately and you’ll, “Oh my God, everything I touch turns to sold.” That’s the market we’re in. Don’t be too restrictive with your showings. Let’s all work with sellers to encourage sellers, to be as flexible as possible about getting people in. We don’t want to take our industry down. If it’s more work for you, communicate with your seller. “Hey, we’ve got more people that want to come in. I know the open house was three hours, but we’ve got to do an extra hour after. A lot of people want to get in the home.”
Here’s the deal, folks. Even if you have to go over the line a little bit and say to your seller, “Listen, I can be there from 12:00 to 2:00, but I have to leave at two o’clock.” Remember, you’re the doctor, they’re the patient. There’s nothing wrong with saying to your seller, “They’re going to come over. There’s going to be a handful of brokers. They’re going to come over, but I’ve spoken to them. We got to let them in. Let’s get these buyers access.” Let’s work harder to get more buyers in homes, because when we don’t we’re only off pissing buyers, and we need buyers. Okay?
Sellers are cockier than ever. We’re supposed to be the professionals. Those of you that have been at this more than 10 years, you remember what it was like when you do an open house and no one shows. “You know how many open houses I did in ’08 and ’09 and no one showed, all over the place?” You’ll be wishing for a buyer, so let’s not lose sight of that.
Let’s also remember that we were all new at one time. I see a lot of seasoned listing agents overdoing it with newer agents. I was new, you were new, you were new, you, you, you. You get my point. Let’s have patience, let’s be nice, but let’s also remember when you’re a buyer’s agent– and when I say remember, you might not know because you might not have been on that side. When you got 35 offers on a home, plenty of people can post on Facebook all they want. “Oh my God, I called every one of my offers that got denied.” I go, “Okay. Go list 40 homes in a year, get 30 offers on each, and tell me if you have time to call everybody.” You don’t.
Buyers’ agents have to accept if they get a professional friendly email that says, “If you are on this email, it is because your buyer made an offer on 123 Main Street in Worcester. I am reaching out to let you know that your buyer did not get the property. We went with another buyer. Your offer was reviewed and I wish you the best of luck with your buyer.” Buyers’ agents, you can’t see that and go, “But they won’t call me.” Come on. 35 offers. You know what that means? 35 offers means about 90 emails. Because half the freaking agents, they don’t just send a nice tidy offer package.
They send one email with a preapproval, one email with a contingency sheet, one email with an offer, one email with a “Oh, I forgot.” “Oh, I forgot this too.” “Oh, my buyer is great.” They get four or five emails, one listing agent, 35 offers. Have an understanding.
When the coronavirus started– I never thought I’d give COVID so much talk today. When COVID started, I stood by in a podium in our training center, and I was live on Crush It In Real Estate and I said, “Let’s work together. Let’s work together. Let’s help one another.” There is nothing wrong with Jim calling Lee and saying, “Hey, I can’t get my buyer in but they’re going nuts, Lee. Do you mind if they come by and see the property? Can you show it to them if you’re going to be there?” And Lee going, “Jim, send them over. They want to make an offer, I’ll send them right back to you.” That’s how business should be done, because three weeks later it could be Lee calling Jim.
Do you guys follow me? We all need to do more of that in this business. We need to work together better to bring the professionalism up even higher, and that starts with understanding and taking a moment to think about the position that the other side’s in. If we all do that we’ll serve our clients better and we’ll do a better job.