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Anthony: You cannot help everybody. You cannot find everyone a home that fits their needs. You’re not going to be able to please everyone. That’s the market we’re in, my friends. Anthony Lamacchia here was Crush It In Real Estate. I want to talk about that for a few minutes. I’m finding, over the last couple of weeks, I’m having these conversations with agents. I was at a dinner last night with a bunch of agents and we were talking about that very thing. I started telling stories. I remember when I was the young guy in the business and I would sit at dinners and hear people that have been at it a long time and think, “Oh, that’s interesting.” Well, last night that was me.
One of the things that I was saying is, “Guys back in ’07 realtors had listings that weren’t selling. In the beginning, when they had a listing that wasn’t selling, when I say at the beginning, I mean, say ’07, it was like, “Oh, I didn’t sell that listing. I can’t believe it. Oh, the seller fired me. Oh, it expired.” It was a big thing.” Agents would take it to heart. It even happened in late ’06, late ’05 after hurricane Katrina. It was like a depressing moment for a realtor. By the time we got to ’08, it was like, “Four of my listings expired today. Anyway, I’m signing up three more, and that’s that.” It became normal and realtors accepted it and got used to it.
Then we all started talking about how you’re better off being the second realtor in the door, the third realtor in the door, how you were in a better position. We’re in that situation now, but it’s the opposite problem. Then there was too much inventory. Now there is too little inventory. Now you’ve got a lot of disappointed pissed-off buyers, and you can’t please everyone. I want to talk about this because I want people to remember. Mortgage brokers can approve everybody that puts in an application. Doctors can’t cure every patient. That’s business.
For those of you that have been working with buyers for years and years, and you’ve gotten used to being able to close every one of your buyers, and now you can’t get offers accepted for every buyer, and now you have unrealistic buyers who think, “I can’t make an offer.” They think “I’m not buying this, I’m not paying that much.” Or “The market is going to crash.” That’s the big one in the last year. When’s it going to crash? Well, it is impossible for it to crash when inventory is this low. Impossible. They don’t get that, but some buyers, it’s going to take them time to get it. They need to get a bunch of properties that they don’t get their offers accepted.
The market honestly has to beat them up a little bit for them to get it. No different than sellers years ago, who would price too high, they wouldn’t sell. The first realtor oftentimes wouldn’t sell their property, then they’d list with someone else, it would sell. It’s the same thing, but it’s in reverse this time. I’m bringing this up because I’m finding that too many realtors, all over the country that I talked to, and in Canada, are losing sleep over this. It reminds me of ’06, ’07, early ’08 where it was embarrassing to lose a listing. “Oh, I didn’t sell the listing.” By the time we got the ’09, ’10, ’11, no one gave a damn. We’re in that situation now with buyers in reverse.
You have to understand that some buyers, you’re not going to get through to them. Some buyers, they’re just not going to qualify. Some buyers, they just don’t have enough buying power to buy in this market. It is what it is, my friends. It is what it is. You do the best you can by your clients, and you’re not going to save the world. You’re not going to save everyone. In some cases, you have to have a breakup conversation, just like with sellers. I was telling a story last night of a time that I remember, my ex-business partner, good guy. He and I one day said, “Jesus, we’re spending all our time on these listings over here that are never going to sell. These sellers are driving us up the wall and back down the other side of the wall, it’s time to cut them.”
In one day, he picked the phone up and called seven. I picked the phone up and called seven. We called 14 sellers. We said, “We’re releasing you from the listing agreement. Go ahead and list with someone else.” These were sellers that we were banging heads with, a bunch of them wanted to get out of their contracts and we wouldn’t let them. Then we finally said, “Get rid of these people. They’re unrealistic.” We sent them cancellations, got rid of the listings. And in the months following, we sold more homes than we were selling before we fired all those sellers. It was a lesson for me in business because it worked. We got rid of the people that were taken up 80% of our time.
You got to do that with some buyers right now. I know some home buyers are going to see this, and that’s okay. We appreciate our home buyers. We want to do everything we can to serve you, but sorry, some of you are unrealistic. Buyers that see a property that’s well priced, competitively priced in their neighborhood for 800,000, everything is selling around 800, and they think they’re going to pick a property up right now for 700. No, they’re not. If things are selling for 800, the way this market’s going, in six months, they’re going to be selling for 850, 860. That isn’t going to change anytime soon because there’s not enough homes for sale.
No one to cut bait, start evaluating when you got to just say, “Enough, I can’t help this person.” Don’t be down about it. Don’t be depressed about it. Mark my words, you are going to see people, over the next year, realtors, accept the fact that they have to let buyers go. It will become the norm. Just like letting sellers go became the norm 13, 14, 15 years ago. That’s it, my friends. Have a good day. I have places to be, people to see. I got to get moving. Obviously, I’m here live from the wonderful, the beautiful Fort Lauderdale Beach. I got to get in, get showered, and get to a meeting. Going to the Chamber of Commerce orientation. I’m a newbie down here.
I’m going to go to orientation and I’m looking forward to meeting some new people. Then I have meetings the entire day, and I’m looking forward to it. Have a great day, everyone. Happy home selling.