Episode Overview
In this episode of the John Kitchens Coach Podcast, John Kitchens sits down with Matt Durbin for a no-fluff deep dive into the real conversations buyers, sellers, and agents need to be having in today’s shifting real estate market.
From buyers who think they “know more than their agent” to sellers holding onto unrealistic pricing expectations, John and Matt unpack how to position yourself as the trusted advisor who brings clarity, strategy, and results.
This is a practical masterclass on buyer consultations, seller pricing strategies, and how agents can lead with professionalism instead of pressure—especially when the market gets tough.
Key Topics Covered
Buyers in Today’s Market
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Why buyers think they’re doing the agent’s job (and how to reframe it)
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Structuring buyer consultations that build trust and prevent cancellations
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Using creative financing, seller assist, and negotiation strategies to win deals
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Why lifestyle, timeline, and resale potential matter more than just list price
Pricing & Positioning with Sellers
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Why list price is just a strategy, not a number
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Setting expectations early to avoid painful price-reduction battles later
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The role of condition, competition, and motivation in every pricing conversation
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How to prevent seller frustration by aligning strategy upfront
Leading Agents Through Market Shifts
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The agent’s #1 mistake: avoiding hard conversations
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How to train agents to communicate value and price realistically
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Why motivated clients are the only clients worth taking right now
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Communication frameworks that protect relationships and prevent fallout
Resources & Mentions
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John Kitchens Executive Coaching – Custom strategy, accountability, and proven systems
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Honey Badger Nation – Community and training resources
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CHSA / CHBA Framework – Creating clarity and articulating agent value
Final Takeaway
Agents who survive and thrive in this market aren’t just order-takers—they’re advisors. That means asking the tough questions, setting expectations early, and telling clients what they need to hear, not just what they want to hear.
If you want to build trust, avoid fallout, and consistently close deals, it’s time to step into the CEO role of your business and lead your clients through the storm.
“Skipping steps only presents the illusion of speed.” – John Kitchens
Connect with Us:
- Instagram: @johnkitchenscoach
- LinkedIn: @johnkitchenscoach
- Facebook: @johnkitchenscoach
If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe and leave a review. Stay tuned for more insights and strategies from the top minds. See you next time! 🔥
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Seven figure success starts whenyou start thinking like a CEO.
Welcome to the John Kitchens Coach podcastexperience as your host, John Kitchens.
Get ready to think bigger andtransform your business into
a path to lasting freedom.
What is happening?
Everybody, man.
Thank you guys.
(00:21):
Tuning into another episodeof Export Mentors Live.
2 98 got Mr. Matt Durbin in the house.
How are you brother?
Doing great.
Doing great.
2 98. 2 98.
Uh, that's a lot.
Yeah.
Yeah, it is a lot.
It is a lot.
How many years is that?
Is that one week for,
uh, well, six years.
Yeah.
We, we were super consistent for thelongest time and then kind of, um,
(00:42):
just things happening, but tryingto stay as consistent as we can and.
Yeah, I think we started over to EXPin 20 17, 20 18, 19 timeframe I think
when Whistle and, and Beer came over.
Mm-hmm.
So we really got serious about itand really kicked off the Expert
Mentor series, which is just pullingthe best out of Honey Badger Nation
(01:06):
and, and just pulling kind ofwhat's working, what we need to be
thinking about in today's market.
Um.
To be able to just pour backinto the honey imagination.
So it's good to, good to haveyou back on and, and definitely
diving into where agents need tobe from a production standpoint.
Um, you know, for you, you know,running, um, successful, you know, mega
(01:30):
team and keeping everybody focused andthe conversations that we're having.
So I think it's super important.
You know, what we're gonnadive into around really around
pricing and really around.
You know, the conversation with, withbuyers and get your take on this too.
So, when we had, um, Eric, um, atkt, uh, with Huey talking about.
(01:54):
What is the number one complaintthat buyers and sellers have?
Right?
We know typically it hasalways been communication.
He said, well, it was communication,but what it is now is the agents.
I mean, the buyers and sellersbelieve they know more than their
agent, and I, I would, I wouldagree that's 80% of the agents out
there, that that is probably true.
Right?
There's still.
(02:14):
Some that do not, but for the majority,I, I would, I would agree with that.
I saw an interesting statistic, um,this morning where it was a poll
to buyers and sellers and talkingabout would you prefer, do you feel
comfortable working just with ai?
Do you prefer, prefer just workingwith an agent or do you prefer working
(02:37):
with an agent equipped with ai?
Um.
The percentage is still about 47,40 8% prefer an agent, but that
number, almost 25, 20 6% of just AIis starting to creep up for sure.
And I think that's the thing isthat, you know, buyers and sellers.
Are gonna be more educated.
(02:58):
They have been, but they're gonnacontinue to be more educated
and more empowered with ai.
Yeah.
So it's gonna be really interesting,you know, the conversations, boots on
ground, really articulating your value.
Um, and so just kind of, kind of curioushow, you know, you're thinking about
that and positioning as we're gettinginto, you know, pricing and conversations
with buyers and sellers today.
(03:19):
Yeah, for sure.
I mean, I think the AI is a, is a threat.
To the industry, right?
Mm-hmm.
You think about like when the marketwas hot, Zillow was trying to go
direct to consumer, open door.
They were trying to just basically buythose properties, resell and cut the
agent out, make your offer online, and Ithink there's probably that, that segment
(03:45):
of the market will continue to grow.
Yeah.
Especially, I think as you get intosome of these, some of these areas,
community, state, cities that have,you know, subdivision after subdivision
that have been built within the last10 years that are simply, uh, you
know exactly what you're getting.
(04:06):
It's a price per square foot.
I make the offer, you know, ina lot of markets it's still,
they're still as is offers.
There's not a big inspection process.
There aren't a lot of.
Problems that you're dealing withupon negotiation, with inspection
repairs and things like that.
And I think the markets that are likethat, where they were probably, you know,
you I think of like Phoenix was a ton ofopen door or cash offer and people, you
(04:31):
know, them buying your house outright.
I think you'll probably have a segment ofthe market that's gonna just go direct.
If they could.
Yeah,
I think people these days, it'sharder to get 'em on the phone.
They don't wanna talk toyou, they just wanna text.
They just want like.
There's a lot.
I think there's a segment of themarket, especially younger population,
(04:51):
that if they never had to actuallyhave a conversation with you and buy
a house, they, they probably wouldif they could just push buttons
and eliminate any communication.
And so I think that'sobviously gonna be a threat.
I think like, you know, there, there,uh, markets that are insulated to that.
I think we're probably one of them.
We have old housing stock,we've got old house problems.
(05:11):
It's a small big city.
We have.
There are relationships where we getdeals done that nobody else would get done
because of the relationships that we'vebuilt, the track record, things like that.
You know, we know how to negotiateinspection repairs and, and so I think
when we're talking through things withbuyers, they think it's just, I saw the,
(05:33):
I found the house on the market, so I'mbasically doing the job of the agent.
Yeah.
Because I found it on Zillow.
Mm-hmm.
It was open the door up for me.
That's all agents do, and I can, I couldeliminate that, but, and that's our
fault, because they don't, they don't,we don't articulate our value to them.
(05:54):
And so for us on the buy side, goingthrough a menu, like we still use, we've,
we've tailored it more to our market.
C like the CBCH, like the.
The home selling advisor, we stilluse that menu and we go through the
seven steps and it's, it's everythingfrom how long are you gonna be in the
house, like looking at it, upgradeanalysis, um, initial negotiation.
(06:19):
Preemptive negotiation.
When you start talking about what'sgonna come up, if it's a, if it's a, uh,
government loan, we're prepping for that.
We're, you know, we havevendors that can get us quotes.
If it's a inspection repair, wesave this guy, this amount of money.
We go through stories.
So basically at the end of the day wherethey have no question that they're gonna.
(06:39):
That we're earning the
mm-hmm.
Percent that we're gonna make, ortwo and a half percent or whatever,
whatever we negotiate with the buyer.
And so being able to articulate thevalue where you think it's just the
buyer thinks it's just, I found thehouse, I did the job of the agent.
Yeah, let's go, let's go down that path.
Let's go down the buyer conversationand kind of where, where part of it
(07:00):
Yeah.
Buyer's, you know, mindset isright now in today's market.
Being able to, to walk them throughand really kind of the process of,
of what, what y y'all are seeing andexperiencing, but how the conversation
needs to go to be able to get themon board so we can move forward.
And you're so spot on, right?
(07:20):
Are there gonna be certain marketsthat you can get away with?
Um.
You know, pushing buttons,certain cookie cutter markets, of
course, but not in your market.
Not no way.
Right.
There's, there's just, it's, it justdoesn't happen because there's so many
little nuances and like even thinking,you know, a certain street over,
(07:43):
like could be completely different,falls into a different school zone,
falls into a different county.
You gotta deal with this.
There's just so much little,little nuance requirements.
Yeah.
Like you got.
That one out of four sewer linesare, are needing to be replaced.
Like, yeah.
I mean, and again, that's kind ofwhere, you know, I feel like there's
probably a little bit more job securityfor us in, in that market over time.
(08:08):
Right.
But.
I, most people they think, well, Igot a pre, it's like buying a car.
I got a preapproval.
They, they pre-approved me for 60 grand.
I can go buy a car for 60 grand.
I just go find a car for 60, and Igive them the, you know, the lender's
information and it's the rate.
But what buyers don't understand is,especially in a market like today
(08:31):
mm-hmm.
Where, and we're, we're not as.
You know, our inventory levels arestill slightly below where they were
pre COVID level, so we're not like atFlorida where, where they're way up.
Mm-hmm.
Right.
But buyers are starting to even outwhere we have the ability to try to
negotiate, um, that purchased where wehadn't before and, and we still have
(08:56):
multiple offers and things like that.
And we can kind of talk throughthat with sellers as well.
But from the initial conversation.
We wanna know, okay, who's the lender?
Get the get a cost sheet.
Let's like, what homes are we looking at?
Pick one.
I need to see a cost estimate.
I need to know numbers.
I need to know what you're looking at.
I need to know.
(09:16):
Monthly payment.
Okay.
Right.
Are, are, are more buyers comingto you that have already talked
to a lender than, than not 50 50?
50 50. I was, I was really curious becausethinking about, like, you, you see,
you know, the moves like, like Rocketand obviously Zillow and everything.
They're trying to get, you know,obviously capture the consumer first.
Get 'em into the mortgage first.
(09:36):
Yeah.
Then.
Being able to kick 'em out to theagents for the high referral fees.
So I was just kind of curious what, whatwe're seeing from buyers that come that
have already, you know, done some duediligence on, on the qualification side.
Yeah.
It depends how, it depends whereyou get 'em in the process, but
yeah, probably about 50% of the timethey come with a lender already.
Okay.
Which is always, and half thetime it's a problem because
(09:57):
that lender's nonresponsive.
They won't give 'em a cost estimate 'causethey're afraid they're gonna shop 'em.
They don't want to, like, they,they find ways to skirt it.
The conversation that we're havingis I need to know, I'm, I'm right
now, I'm your real estate advisor.
I need to know cash to close.
I need to know what yourmonthly payment needs to be.
Because if you go look at a housein Upper St. Clair or you look at a
(10:18):
house in Peters township, your taxesare gonna be two different things.
So the same house priceisn't the same house price.
I need to know what programyou're, you're working with.
Do you know, is it FHA,is it conventional?
Is it conventional 5% down where you'reonly able to get 3% seller assist?
Is, are you FHA or areyou putting 10% down?
(10:39):
Because I'm gonna use, now we're usingseller assist to structure deals.
So like if I've got a buyer, likeone of the strategies we've been
harping on recently is we have alittle bit older housing stock, right?
And so we've got homes that areprobably a little bit overpriced that.
Need some work.
They need a kitchen or they need floors,or they need, they need, they need
(11:02):
painted, whatever the case may be like.
So we have buyers that are on thefence and they're really hesitant.
It doesn't meet all their, but like, ifthere's a way we could now negotiate this
and we could get you 6% back or 3% back,and we can use that towards an upgrade.
Or we can, like now we, now weknow how to, we can start playing
(11:23):
with numbers to structure.
A deal to actually get it done and getthem what they want at the end of the day.
Yeah.
A lot of times, like most peoplejust, they think that painting a
old house costs more than it does.
They think that floorscost more than they do.
Like they think that these, these areall major expenses and they don't buy
a house because of the paint color.
And it's silly because like theseare things that can all be rectified.
(11:46):
Right.
A little bit creative with the waythat we're working with buyers is,
is the key in a market like this.
And in order to do that, we needto know all the financing terms.
We need to know how to structure it.
We need to know how to make sure we'resaving them the most amount of money.
Do we, do we not put, you know, dowe not use all the sellers if to
use that towards the rate buy down?
(12:06):
Like we need to beinvolved in that process.
Wanna be involved in that process.
Because if we're not, they'regonna, we're gonna not have all
of the tools in our tool belt inorder to negotiate the best deals.
For them.
Right.
The best hurts.
Yeah.
Parts there.
So being able to get real clear on that,um, on, on the math side of things and
(12:27):
kind of where they, where they wanna be.
And then, and then from there itleads into lifestyle conversations.
It leads into goal conversations.
Yeah.
How long are you gonna be there?
Do you have, um, do youhave money to make updates?
Do you have a dad who's a contractor?
Are you, what do you need?
Move in ready.
Like what are, what are, what are allthose things that we're looking at?
(12:49):
Because that's ultimately gonna help usdetermine how we structure a deal, what
we look for, what we're going after.
Um, if you don't have any, thatability, you know, obviously, like
if you're, you are like, Hey, I mightget a job transferred in two years.
We can't go buy the nicest house in thebest neighborhood because it's probably
not gonna be worth much more in a coupleof years given the market we're in.
Right.
(13:09):
Which is probably gonna bea little bit more stagnant.
So if we're gonna go that route, wegotta be careful with what we buy.
We might have to try to find somethingthat we could put a little sweat equity
in so that when you go to sell it in twoyears, you're, you're, you're still gonna
make a little bit of money or at leastcover all the costs of both sales, right?
Like so we're, we're lookingat that whole scenario.
(13:30):
We need to know all of.
All of that in order to best advise them.
Mm-hmm.
And
I think most agents just skipthrough that shit and it's just
like, oh, this house is great.
Yeah.
And then they try to sell it to you.
Right.
And then they call 'em intwo years and they're upside
down and they can't sell it.
And, and now they've been, they'vebeen put in a bad situation.
So I'm thinking resaleupon every purchase.
(13:50):
Not that the market changes that rightnow, but it definitely changes it in
a, in a market like this where we'rein a transitional period, we're not 10%
appreciation, 15% appreciation every yearlike we were the last three, four years.
Like, so we gotta be real carefulon the buy side and make sure that
we're looking out for them again.
These are the conversations we're havingwith the buyer that they know that,
(14:12):
okay, this guy knows more than me.
He's looking out for me.
I'm building trust, I'm building loyalty.
Right?
Like, and if you, but if you're nothaving all these conversations and
you just, you're just a door opener.
Then you're probably not worththe two point half percent right.
Or 3% or whatever.
You,
whatever, whatever it is, right?
You, you, you're not really taking that,that advisor role to have, you know,
(14:38):
the questions and the thoughts thatthey're probably not even thinking about.
They know it, I'm sure,but they're just not.
Aware enough to be like, oh dang.
Yeah, we didn't take that intoconsideration that, you know, they
just, they're excited in the shoppingphase of it before, you know, thinking
through getting a little bit furtherdown the field and then having
that buyer's remorse if they can.
(14:59):
If you can, we can help them reallythink through everything, and that's
such a great point, you know, just.
Crossing a couple streets and your,you know, your property taxes double
to triple than, than what it would be.
And then, you know, obviouslyyou have to factor in, you
know, insurance cost as well.
So just really help map that, map that out
for sure.
(15:19):
And we, and that comes up a lot right now.
We, we have, insurance companies aremaking us replace roofs at closing.
They, that blows up deals.
Um, tax, the, the taxnumbers being reassessed.
All the time upon transfer, it'striggering a school district
to, to appeal the tax rates.
Your taxes are probably gonna go up.
(15:41):
So we need to look atcurrent assessed value.
Like there's a lot, there's a lotthat goes on to the go into the
market that we're in and, and thepeople that don't know and then they
get a surprise, um, tax increase.
300% the following march and losetheir mind that they didn't know that
was coming and they can't afford it.
It's a, it's a, it's a big deal, right?
(16:03):
Yeah,
yeah.
It is.
It it, and right now, um, so importantto take all of that into, into
consideration and, and sometimes itmight slow, slow deals down, but it,
it's important to have, especiallythese conversations on the front end.
Are you like workingwith the, the agents too?
Kind of intertwine this throughconversation and looking at
(16:24):
properties, or is this No.
Hey, we need a consultation.
We need to sit down, get our game plan.
We need a strategy beforewe even start looking.
Um.
You're not always able toget a consultation first,
which that's the market now.
Everybody wants speed.
They just wanna go see something.
If we can sit them down and go throughthat, that's the ideal scenario.
If we can't, then we're gonna meetthem and we're gonna try to schedule
(16:44):
time to at least sit there and havea conversation for 15 minutes in
that first house that we have, or.
Maybe you, you have a couple.
If, if it's first showings, maybe wehave one or two and you'd find a vacant
that you can have that conversation with.
But you gotta have that conversationupfront, um, as much as you can.
The, and it gets skipped.
(17:05):
And when it gets skippedis when you have problems.
Mm-hmm.
Right.
You know, I saw the other day 15%of contracts are being canceled.
Mm-hmm.
Right
now.
Yeah.
We talked about that, right?
We have, I think we have a lot of them.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And it's, you guys had
a lot at the beginningof last year, I remember.
Had a ton of cancel contracts andthen all of a sudden we were good.
(17:27):
Are we starting to see more andmore of those, um, cancel contracts?
We we're, we're still probably 10%,um, some more than others, you know,
but I think a lot of it is, it's.
It's cold feet buyer uncertaintythinking they made the wrong move.
Probably not talking througheverything with them upfront.
(17:48):
There's a lot of times we're justtrying to get a contract so, so badly.
Yeah.
That we're, we're pushing and forcing itprobably a little bit and maybe, or maybe
you gotta move too quickly and then theyget, you know, they get buyer's remorse.
They're sleeping on it.
They don't feel good about it.
They find a reason to back out, but Ithink you got a lot of that going on.
(18:11):
Mm-hmm.
I think some of that can be eliminatedwith having these conversations upfront,
talking through this whole process.
Like safe time.
Yeah.
Is like, alright, let's assume wewant to move forward with this.
Here's what I see that's probably gonnacome up upon an inspection, or these are
the major things that you're going tohave to deal with, so let's try to at
(18:31):
least account for them within this offer.
Right.
And then if we have an, you know, ifwe're able to have inspections, which
most of them still are in our marketright now, then we can go back and
we can try to club 'em over the headagain with an inspection negotiation.
And then if it's a governmentfinancing or something like that,
then we might have appraisalthings that we can hit 'em again.
(18:53):
Like, so we, we have a strategyaround the direction that we're going.
And we're able to talk through, especiallylike if you've been in enough homes,
like what are you dealing like with us?
The unknown is sewer lines.
Mm-hmm.
Most of our lines need to be camerainspected Now by the municipalities.
A lot of times it's on the selleranyway, so they're gonna have to fix it.
(19:14):
Um, if it's not, then we'regonna need to make sure the
buyers are having those reviewed.
Other than that though, doesit have foundation issues?
Is the roof hold?
Furnace ac like is electrical,like, it's just like most of the
stuff we can tell and see andtell them what's gonna come up.
Are there gonna be some unknowns?
Yeah.
That's why you do inspections.
But usually we can, we can prep andbuild in some of that in the offer
(19:40):
already, and then we go back and wetry to get more upon inspection and
there's a whole strategy around it.
So if the, if the buyer knows thatmoving forward or, or, or upfront.
Then they know the plan and they'remore than they, than they understand
it, and they're less likely, I think,to pull out when that inspection comes
back and it's got, you know, 80 thingson it, and three of them are big.
(20:02):
Right?
A hundred percent.
You walk through that process with them.
Yeah, I think it, it, it's, it, itsaves so much frustration and it save.
You know, so much time by sitting downand having this, this conversation,
you know, sooner rather than lateris, is so important on the buy side.
Um, 'cause they are excited, but thereare things that they just haven't thought
(20:23):
about, um, that we wanna really, you know,get the opportunity before we go down
the path and just set ourselves up forfrustration and, and failure ultimately.
Yep.
Um, and it could have been, could havebeen, you know, could have been headed off
and just a conversation on the front end.
A hundred percent.
And it's, and it's samething with, uh, price, right?
(20:44):
Yeah.
So we had, we had this conversationthe other day, like we had a buyer
that it was listed at 2 99 9.
They went multiple offers.
We won the bid at three 20.
The buyers were consideringbacking out 'cause they felt
like they were overpaying, right?
But.
(21:06):
The conversation is if that house waslisted at 3 25 or three 30 mm-hmm You
still would've went and seen it 'causeyou're call like you're pre-approved
up to three 50 and now you wouldbe getting it at three 20 and you
would be thinking you're getting adeal 'cause you're getting 10,000.
Right?
So it's all the list price doesn't matter.
What we are, we're looking atcomps, we're determining value.
(21:30):
The bank's gonna backthat up with an appraisal.
We gotta get off list Price.
List price doesn't mean anything.
Most real estate agents don'tknow how to list the property.
They don't know the pricing.
It's a wild ass guess.
So we look at the data.
Let's have, let's have a conversationaround what other homes are selling for.
What's the situation you'regonna be in moving forward?
Are we gonna do any like, so now itgoes back to that initial conversation,
(21:53):
like, does it check all the boxes?
Do we have a plan?
Are we going through that?
Then yes.
And usually when you take 'emthrough that conversation, like
if it was listed at three 30, wewould've still went and seen it.
And if you would'vegot it at three 20 now.
Probably would've thought you're gettinga deal, but because you're paying over
the list, the list price is a made upprice who aren't very good at pricing.
(22:14):
And I think that that's a perfect segueinto, you know, talking with sellers.
But like, listen, we don't knowwhat the seller's objective and
what the seller's goals are.
Right?
There's aspirational pricing, there'smarket driven pricing, and then there's
a little under to create kind of anevent, create some demand, right?
(22:34):
Based upon their goals istypically how they're gonna price.
Price the property andthe pricing strategy.
And this home very well could havebeen the strategy of pricing a little
below, create some demand to drivethe price up, which is what happened.
So they initially started below market.
So here's where we'reseeing where the comps.
(22:54):
So I think that extra little stepto educate the buyers in that
situation of like, listen, if Iwas listening to this property.
This is where I would've listed it.
Yeah.
Without knowing their goals,their objective, their backstory,
but the data is saying itshould be priced right in here.
Right.
So I think it's, it'ssuper, super important.
But I think you've gotta also understand,um, pricing in the market and paying
(23:20):
attention to being a student of it, andwhich most agents working with buyers.
Don't understand that and how togo about the pricing strategy.
So what is the current pricing strategyof, of how you're working through
and looking to evaluate, to positionand price a home in today's market?
But hey, quick pause before we keep going.
(23:41):
This market is shifting fast,and if you've been feeling the
pressure, you're not alone.
But here's the thing, it's not goingto slow down so you can catch up.
I've opened a limited number of executiveone-on-one coaching spots this month for
agents who are ready to stop spinningtheir wheels and lead with clarity.
If that's you, head to John Kitchenscoach and let's make it happen.
(24:02):
Now, back to the episode.
I think there's, there'sa process to it, right?
So the good news on the, from a sellerstandpoint is they see the national news.
They think things are.
Things are worse than they probably are.
Mm-hmm.
Especially in our market.
In some markets they are right.
(24:24):
We don't, we're, we're still one ofthe ones that we, we don't really
follow the national trend, so we havea conversation around getting off,
like national news means nothing.
Regional news means nothing.
West Penn multi list news means nothing.
The only thing that reallymatters in our market is price
point area school district.
(24:46):
And, and activity.
And so for us, we're gonna kindof walk through that process here.
We're gonna look at comparables, right?
Comparables is the, the rear viewmirror look, um, that is there for us
primarily in a market like this, to,to make sure that it'll appraise right.
(25:08):
And we know if we'rejust totally outta whack.
Okay.
Then we may have some issues that we'regonna, we're gonna talk through that with
the seller, but the main thing that we'relooking at right now is what's active?
Active competition?
Where are they priced at?
How do we stack up?
What are contin, what's contingentunder contract in our market?
(25:30):
Or pending whatever your MLS is, right?
If there's three pendings.
That are in this particular pricerange, how quickly did, did they move?
Where were they priced at?
Where are we at?
Like if we have a couple that are multipleoffer, okay, good, we still have buyers
that are competing in this market.
We can probably be a littlebit more aggressive with this.
(25:51):
Or depending upon your scenario, how,how quickly do we need to have it moved?
Do we have a home sale contingency?
Like what, what are all of thosethings that we're looking at?
Because list price, thereisn't just a list price, just
like we talked about earlier.
There's a strategy around it, dependingupon your particular scenario.
Right.
If, if you want the comfort of a homesale contingency, we're gonna move up by,
(26:14):
but we're gonna have to sell this one.
And you don't want this, you wannamake sure that you're fully protected.
We're gonna lose some negotiationpower on the purchase, and we're gonna
have to price it more aggressivelyif you wanna get it done right.
Like that's the trade off.
Same thing.
If I need to sell this in a week, we'regonna need to price it more aggressive.
Mm-hmm.
If you're, if you have, we havea little bit more time, we may
(26:36):
be able to test the market.
And so I think most people comein and they, they think they come
in with their CMA and it's got anumber on it, and I think you shoot
yourself in the foot immediately.
We don't bring CMAs, wedon't have a number in mind.
We have a range, generally speaking.
Mm-hmm.
Most listings, people sendme the listing, I run comps.
(26:56):
I give them my thoughts on whereI think it'll probably sell.
What, what list price I might take it at,and if the sellers really wanna stretch
it, you know, like that scenario maybe.
I think that, I think this one'sworth 2 85, probably 2 75, 2 85
based on where things are going.
Condition, you know, ideallist price is 2 99 9.
(27:17):
If that seller's got 3 25 in their headfor some reason, because there's some
random one, we're gonna talk them throughall that, all the data, all the comps, and
we're gonna prep them for price reduction.
Like listen, if we got, we'reon the market two weeks, we
got two weekends out of this.
We're getting showings, we're gonna baseit on the feedback, we're gonna adjust,
but there's a good chance we may have toget under 300 to get in into a different
(27:39):
price bracket to get this thing moved.
So we can try it a little bithigher, as long as you have time.
We need to be aggressive withour, with our next move, and
we need to plan for that ahead.
Yeah,
I
agree, man.
I mean, we know, we know sellers wantthe most amount of money in their pocket.
The, the, the determiningfactor is always timing, right?
(28:00):
What is their, what is their timeframeand the season of the market, right?
You know, the timing and kindof what, what's happening.
But I, I'm with youand, and it's, you know.
All the things that we can doto put it at the top, really,
depending upon their situation.
And I think that's justbeing really inquisitive and
asking some tough questions.
(28:20):
That to me is always like, what, whatif this thing doesn't sell right?
Really find that real motivation,because I think right now if,
if you get that feedback, youknow, Hey, what, what happened?
What's plan B?
What happens if it doesn't sell?
And they go, man, I'm good.
We don't have to sell.
I think right now as a business decision,do you wanna take that listing or not?
Because is there a realmotivation there and.
(28:42):
Digging a little bit deeper on whatit is that they're really trying to
accomplish, what are they wanting to do?
Um, before you kind of lock in, like yousaid, you know, bring, bring in comps with
a fixed number in mind, locking yourselfin without getting the full story of
how to position that home and price it.
Yeah, I mean, motivation iseverything with a buyer and a
(29:03):
seller, like getting to that.
What's the, what's that?
Motivational point.
What's the reason they're moving?
What's the reason they're buying?
Because you're gonna have to goback to that and play on that
with people who are on the fence.
From a, from a buyer standpoint, it'sthe same thing with a seller, right?
They might not get the pricethey want right in mind, and they
probably won't I, and good, bad,or ugly that it is what it is.
(29:28):
You don't control.
Like, like listings are tough.
Like we've been, we've been.
Programmed where listings are gold andthey sell in two days and we don't have
to do shit over the last three years.
You know, most agents who just come intothe market in 2020 or beyond, right?
Like that's kind of whatwe've been dealing with.
(29:49):
But they don't remember the days where2017, 18, where like we're bragging
about getting a home sold in 49 days.
Like where they're sitting on the marketsix months or a year or like, there's,
like, you're having tough conversations,hard conversations around, around
those things and, and properly vettinga motivated seller is key to that.
(30:13):
And it's also preemptively negotiatingprice reductions in the way that we
have these conversations and, andset the proper expectations for them.
Mm-hmm.
That this probably isn'tgonna move at this price.
We're, we're with you.
We'll do everything we can.
We'll take the shot, but.
(30:33):
If it doesn't move, we,what's the backup plan?
What's the next move?
What's the two week move?
What's the four week move?
Because at the end of the day,it's all pricing condition.
That's the only, that's theonly reason things move.
And agents come and they'relike, what am I doing wrong?
What can we do?
Can we run more ads?
They wanna send lettersto the neighborhood.
They wanna, you know, you know, I hada, we had this luxury listing once.
(30:57):
And like the and, and the owner likewanted us to send letters to all the
doctors in the Pittsburgh area becauseshe felt like they could afford it,
and it's like, this is insanity.
What ended up happening was webeat our head against the wall.
Another agent came in, took it, thisis like the third one on the market.
It was expired.
I had it like two different times.
(31:18):
The next agent ended up murderingthem over the head, clubbing 'em
with price reductions until theywere a million less than where we
had it listed and it finally sold.
I bet they didn't send any letters todoctors that ho, like none of that shit.
It's just price, it's pricing condition.
And that's, you know, and if therearen't enough buyers in the market.
To demand the price that you're at, youhave to get it to a point where it's, it.
(31:42):
It looks like a good enough valueto a potential buyer where they
wanna come and see it and buy it.
Or we sit there and we wait forEV however long it's gonna take
until a buyer that is dumb enough.
Comes into the market and gives youthe price that you want when all
the other ones are saying that it's
not.
Yeah, yeah.
It's, uh, it, it, it's, it's wild, right?
(32:04):
People's, you know, how theyget so fixated on beliefs
and, and things in their head.
Um, so obviously pricing conversationwith sellers and everything, and then
the strategy session with buyers,how for you leading other agents.
Right.
How keeping their head where it needs tobe in navigating the market conditions.
(32:25):
Like what are, what arethe agent conversations?
It's, it's kind of the sameconversations we're having right now.
It's just repetitive,continual conversations around
listing price reductions.
What do they look like?
Like that's what, youknow, morning power ups.
A lot of that script practice.
What are we talk, how arewe talking to sellers?
How are we setting expectations?
What's the pricing strategy thatwe're talking through with them?
(32:47):
How does the listing pres like?
DJ has a listing presentationcall every Monday.
We're going through that, thatprocess, how to have these
conversations with buyers andsellers, and most of the time it's.
Saying like, like we're justsaying it's a agent on the team.
Like, Hey, this listing's not selling.
I don't know why it's not selling.
Can we do marketing?
Can we do the, you know, andusually it's always price.
(33:08):
Mm-hmm.
But they
don't wanna have the conversation with theseller because it's a hard conversation
and they haven't set proper expectations.
And as long as you'redoing those things, yeah.
It's never an easy conversation,but you have to have it.
Yeah.
And you have to have it on the frontend, so it makes you have to have it on
the front end.
Yeah.
And like my favorite line is like,
listen, I wanna make sure wehave, you and I are on the same
(33:30):
page, we're on the same team.
We're coming up withthis strategy together.
'cause the last thing that I wantis 30 days or 60 days from now,
we're still sitting at this price.
You are getting pissed off at me.
You're thinking, whatam I doing to market?
To whom?
And then so you're getting irritated andyou're like, and you're just sitting there
(33:52):
watching it every day and, and chancesare, I'm probably getting irritated too.
And then you end up hating me andyou think I'm not doing anything
to sell this home in 60 days.
So I wanna make sure we'reon the same page now.
Because I don't want usto get to that point.
If this doesn't sell, I wanna make surewe, we understand what the next move is.
And we're, and we're, we'reboth jiving with that.
(34:13):
And we'll talk about thatat that point in time.
But like.
We have to have that conversation upfront.
And then I generally tell 'em like,listen, our job, and obviously
we're going through a big listingpresentation, but our job is to
market it, make sure it's marketedcorrectly, photographed correctly.
We have ads running, we're gettingtraffic from outside of the MLS.
(34:33):
Everybody sees it.
It's on Zillow like.
Everybody knows it's there.
It's being marketed correctly, the photosare good, you're good with everything.
And then we're gonna drive showings.
And then from them, showfrom those showings.
We're either gonna get offersor we're gonna get feedback.
If we don't have offers andwe have feedback, then we're
gonna look at the feedback.
And if we can change anything,then we try to change it.
(34:53):
If we can't.
We're probably gonna have to adjust price,and then we're gonna repeat the process.
We're gonna remarket it, we'regonna do a price reduction, we're
gonna do open house, we're gonnaget feedback, and then we're gonna,
and it's just a repeating cycle.
Yeah.
'cause ultimately if we get, if we'regetting showings and we're getting
feedback that there's something wrong withit, then we, we either have to adjust,
we either have to correct based on thefeedback, or we have to correct the price.
(35:16):
Yeah.
Hundred percent.
And then it's repeat and like, it'snot brain surgery, but it, but it,
people get emotional around it.
Mm-hmm.
So this is the process that we're gonnatake and we're gonna have conversations
around it, and then we're going to moveor adjust, or we're gonna move or adjust.
And then I, I thinkjust having like a plan.
Having a plan in place, what thatlooks like, what's the timeframe?
(35:39):
And then if we're, if we're listed and weboth agree, the photos are doing are, are,
are great, which they usually are, right.
We're marketing it and we're gettingeyeballs, and people are seeing it on
Zillow, we know it's on every website,and we're still not getting showings or
we're having limited showings, then wereally need to look at pricing because
there's a reason that just peoplearen't coming out and seeing our home.
(36:02):
And typically, we're gonna lookat active, active inventory.
What's on the market?
What are people going to see?
Rather than ours.
Yeah.
What's one contingent over thelast 30 days that's within a
50 grand price bracket of our,like, what are, what's moving?
Why aren't we getting showings?
How do we stack up?
Usually we're priced too high if we're,you know, if we're, it's a nice house
(36:26):
and we're not getting a lot of showings,we're not getting a lot of activity.
It's generally price, and sowe're gonna have that conversation
at that point in time.
And so just prepping them forwhat's upcoming and a lot of times.
We damn well know this thing'sgonna sit at this price.
Yeah.
Like, you know that going in,if they, they're like, no, I'm,
it's this price or nothing.
(36:47):
I need to sell.
They're motivated, they wantto try the higher price.
Mm-hmm.
You're spending way moretime on expectations.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I agree.
And then, like I said, you know,in, in, in the market, then it
becomes a business decision.
You know, do you, do youmove forward with it or not?
Right.
And I think that's where theagents need to, to understand.
(37:07):
You know, if you move forward with that,what's the ripple effect of, of moving
forward with an unrealistic opportunity?
An unrealistic climb might not even bean opportunity, but just an unrealistic
individual that doesn't have their,their goals don't jive to what it
is they're trying to accomplish.
It's, it's along the lines too, andthis is why it's super important.
(37:28):
In, in training and, and lettingthe agents know is like, listen,
you need to tell them what they needto hear, not what they wanna hear.
Um, we had, uh, Chris Vecchio dida session at KT in Sarasota for us
at the beginning of this year, andChris is, you know, business athlete
and just kind of how to navigateit really become lifestyle right.
With, with your fitnessand, and profession.
(37:49):
And Joel asked him a question, said,Hey, you know, I, I kind of, kind
of have these goals, but here'swhat's going on in my life, right?
Start my own, you know, new company.
I've got a, you know, I got a, youknow, almost about to be a 1-year-old,
you know, wife works virtually.
She travels and dah, dah, dah.
He is telling the goals and he said,listen, he said, I don't, I'm not saying
that it, you can't do those things, butbased upon what you're telling me, like.
(38:14):
That doesn't happen.
That doesn't jive, right.
Your goal of this, and this is notpossible with your requirements and
where this falls as a priority, soyou might be better off with this.
And I was like, damn, man.
Like that's exactly how we have to bewith buyers, sellers, and agents and
like, listen, you know, based upon whatyou're willing to do, the amount of
(38:37):
commitment that you're, you're, you'relooking to make based upon your goals.
That's not.
Not saying it's not realistic,but the outcome of that happening
is not very good, right?
So you're better off here.
And in some situations rightnow with these folks, it's like,
listen, stay put right now.
Your best option is stay put.
(38:59):
Let's evaluate in the spring and wecan, we can kind of see what's, what's
changed, what's changed for you guys.
Um.
And, and move on, right?
Because you don't wanna get hung uptrying to deal with that headache.
That's gonna cause you so muchfrustration that you can't focus
on the real opportunities that arepassing you by because you're too
busy over here messing with Yep.
(39:20):
Unrealistic.
And I think that's theconversation up front.
If they're unrealistic seller, theywanna list it at a price that's
too high and they're motivated,I'll, we'll still take it.
If they gotta sell, they need to move.
They got a time crunch, theygot a home being built, but
they have time, we'll take it.
If they're unrealistic withprice, they've been on market
(39:40):
twice, they don't wanna drop theprice, they think it's worth this.
They're, they're unmotivated,then we're not gonna take it.
It all comes down to motivation.
Again, if it's a motivated seller,we'll take it at whatever price they are
because we're gonna set the expectationsand we're gonna, and we're gonna battle.
Sometimes we're gonna battle themfor price reductions and they
probably are gonna get a price theydon't, they're not pleased with.
(40:03):
But that's the price.
Like we know what we're doing is right.
Like that's what we tell everybody allthe time, like especially our agents.
Like we sell more homesthan everybody here.
We know what we're doing is correct.
We know we we're lookingout for the sellers.
We have their best interests ofminus gonna be marketed correctly.
It's gonna be followed up on,showings are gonna be followed up on.
We're gonna get feedback.
(40:23):
We can help with the, like, we'regonna do everything correctly.
It's on Zillow.
Every buyer in our market that'slooking in that price range knows
the freaking houses there like.
There's nothing anybody'sgonna do differently or better.
Like we're, we'rechecking all of the boxes.
Yeah.
And the only box that hasn'tbeen checked yet is price.
And that's really the only thingthat's gonna move this thing.
(40:44):
Yeah.
And as long as you go in, go intothat and you have a motivated
seller, it is what it is.
It's gonna, ultimately, it'll sell whenthe, when the home gets priced correctly
based on, 'cause that's all it is.
What is a buyer seeing that's outthere if I'm going on, you know.
You know, Autotrader and there's, there'sfive Ford F1 fifties on there, and four
(41:08):
of them are priced at 40 grand and,and one of 'em is priced at 45 grand.
Nobody's gonna look at the 45 grand one.
Right?
They're gonna start with all the 40grand ones until they get to that.
Right.
Like that's just what, that's allpeople are dealing with homes as well.
Yeah.
No, it's, um, man, it, it's.
So good.
And, and it's, it's a great reminderno matter what the market is doing, but
(41:33):
in tough markets, you gotta have thetough conversations on the front end.
Yeah.
That's really where, whatit all boils down to buyers,
sellers, real estate agents.
We just need to have a real transparent.
Here's the fact conversation on thefront end, and then we make a decision.
Do we wanna proceed from there?
And I think that solves so muchfrustration by having that.
(41:58):
And we always say, right,like, you skip that, it's gonna
come to get you at some point.
Skipping steps only presentsthe illusion of speed.
Yep.
And you've gotta have those, those realtough conversations on the front end.
Yeah.
Especially in this market, right?
Like this is what we.
This is what we cut our teeth on, right?
Expires and fizbos ina market that was slow.
Mm-hmm.
(42:19):
Yep.
These are the conversations you're having,like this is where you get to come in and
be a pro and give, give them the good,bad, and the ugly and be an advisor and.
Not have, not be totally outcomeoriented, where you'll just tell them
whatever they want to hear so thatyou get the listing and then they
end up hating your guts in 30 days.
Right?
Like you, you need to come in and be thepro and tell 'em what they need to hear
(42:41):
and have a plan and have a strategy andknow that the pricing is good or bad.
And if it's not good,are they still motivated?
Are we gonna be able to preemptivelyset up, um, pricing drops or
whatever adjustments like.
This is where you can be thepro in a market like this, where
there's where there's inventoryand you can stack inventory and
(43:01):
as long as you stay in touch.
And that's the other thing too, like yougotta be in communication with listings.
Especially if they're sittingevery Monday, there's gotta be a
check in, whether it's good, bad,ugly, they gotta know you're there.
They gotta be following up.
They make sure you're getting feedback.
'cause every showing, then once you'reon the market a little while, they are
the second that that showing is over.
They're looking for feedback.
(43:22):
They're all over immediately.
They wanna see it immediately.
All they care about is this istheir house, this is their baby.
This is their $600,000 check.
Right?
Yeah.
So you need to be, you need to beworking that, you need to be in
communication with those things.
And as long as you are, and you're workingit, and you stay in touch with them,
and they know that you're working hardand they know that you're doing things,
they'll still, they'll stay with you.
(43:43):
If you don't follow up and you don'tcommunicate and you don't stay in
touch, then they think you're justanother shithead agent and they're, they
fire you and then they go to somebodywho's willing to come in and do the
hard things and then they get it sold.
They get it price correctly in itself.
Yeah.
Yes, sir. Brother, I appreciate you.
So spot on.
And it's, it's about having those, those,those conversations that need to be had
(44:05):
on, on the front end and be a, be a pro.
I mean, that's really,that's really it, man.
Just be a pro.
Cool brother.
Appreciate you guys.
Thank you.
Yeah, man.
We'll see you next time.
See you.
Thanks for tuning in.
If you're done guessing and ready to leadlike a real CEO with a custom strategy,
real accountability and proven systems,check out my executive one-on-one
(44:28):
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Fill out the application and bookyour one-on-one call with me.
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What is happening?
Everybody, man.
Thank you guys.
(00:21):
Tuning into another episodeof Export Mentors Live.
2 98 got Mr. Matt Durbin in the house.
How are you brother?
Doing great.
Doing great.
2 98. 2 98.
Uh, that's a lot.
Yeah.
Yeah, it is a lot.
It is a lot.
How many years is that?
Is that one week for,
uh, well, six years.
Yeah.
We, we were super consistent for thelongest time and then kind of, um,
(00:42):
just things happening, but tryingto stay as consistent as we can and.
Yeah, I think we started over to EXPin 20 17, 20 18, 19 timeframe I think
when Whistle and, and Beer came over.
Mm-hmm.
So we really got serious about itand really kicked off the Expert
Mentor series, which is just pullingthe best out of Honey Badger Nation
(01:06):
and, and just pulling kind ofwhat's working, what we need to be
thinking about in today's market.
Um.
To be able to just pour backinto the honey imagination.
So it's good to, good to haveyou back on and, and definitely
diving into where agents need tobe from a production standpoint.
Um, you know, for you, you know,running, um, successful, you know, mega
(01:30):
team and keeping everybody focused andthe conversations that we're having.
So I think it's super important.
You know, what we're gonnadive into around really around
pricing and really around.
You know, the conversation with, withbuyers and get your take on this too.
So, when we had, um, Eric, um, atkt, uh, with Huey talking about.
(01:54):
What is the number one complaintthat buyers and sellers have?
Right?
We know typically it hasalways been communication.
He said, well, it was communication,but what it is now is the agents.
I mean, the buyers and sellersbelieve they know more than their
agent, and I, I would, I wouldagree that's 80% of the agents out
there, that that is probably true.
Right?
There's still.
(02:14):
Some that do not, but for the majority,I, I would, I would agree with that.
I saw an interesting statistic, um,this morning where it was a poll
to buyers and sellers and talkingabout would you prefer, do you feel
comfortable working just with ai?
Do you prefer, prefer just workingwith an agent or do you prefer working
(02:37):
with an agent equipped with ai?
Um.
The percentage is still about 47,40 8% prefer an agent, but that
number, almost 25, 20 6% of just AIis starting to creep up for sure.
And I think that's the thing isthat, you know, buyers and sellers.
Are gonna be more educated.
(02:58):
They have been, but they're gonnacontinue to be more educated
and more empowered with ai.
Yeah.
So it's gonna be really interesting,you know, the conversations, boots on
ground, really articulating your value.
Um, and so just kind of, kind of curioushow, you know, you're thinking about
that and positioning as we're gettinginto, you know, pricing and conversations
with buyers and sellers today.
(03:19):
Yeah, for sure.
I mean, I think the AI is a, is a threat.
To the industry, right?
Mm-hmm.
You think about like when the marketwas hot, Zillow was trying to go
direct to consumer, open door.
They were trying to just basically buythose properties, resell and cut the
agent out, make your offer online, and Ithink there's probably that, that segment
(03:45):
of the market will continue to grow.
Yeah.
Especially, I think as you get intosome of these, some of these areas,
community, state, cities that have,you know, subdivision after subdivision
that have been built within the last10 years that are simply, uh, you
know exactly what you're getting.
(04:06):
It's a price per square foot.
I make the offer, you know, ina lot of markets it's still,
they're still as is offers.
There's not a big inspection process.
There aren't a lot of.
Problems that you're dealing withupon negotiation, with inspection
repairs and things like that.
And I think the markets that are likethat, where they were probably, you know,
you I think of like Phoenix was a ton ofopen door or cash offer and people, you
(04:31):
know, them buying your house outright.
I think you'll probably have a segment ofthe market that's gonna just go direct.
If they could.
Yeah,
I think people these days, it'sharder to get 'em on the phone.
They don't wanna talk toyou, they just wanna text.
They just want like.
There's a lot.
I think there's a segment of themarket, especially younger population,
(04:51):
that if they never had to actuallyhave a conversation with you and buy
a house, they, they probably wouldif they could just push buttons
and eliminate any communication.
And so I think that'sobviously gonna be a threat.
I think like, you know, there, there,uh, markets that are insulated to that.
I think we're probably one of them.
We have old housing stock,we've got old house problems.
(05:11):
It's a small big city.
We have.
There are relationships where we getdeals done that nobody else would get done
because of the relationships that we'vebuilt, the track record, things like that.
You know, we know how to negotiateinspection repairs and, and so I think
when we're talking through things withbuyers, they think it's just, I saw the,
(05:33):
I found the house on the market, so I'mbasically doing the job of the agent.
Yeah.
Because I found it on Zillow.
Mm-hmm.
It was open the door up for me.
That's all agents do, and I can, I couldeliminate that, but, and that's our
fault, because they don't, they don't,we don't articulate our value to them.
(05:54):
And so for us on the buy side, goingthrough a menu, like we still use, we've,
we've tailored it more to our market.
C like the CBCH, like the.
The home selling advisor, we stilluse that menu and we go through the
seven steps and it's, it's everythingfrom how long are you gonna be in the
house, like looking at it, upgradeanalysis, um, initial negotiation.
(06:19):
Preemptive negotiation.
When you start talking about what'sgonna come up, if it's a, if it's a, uh,
government loan, we're prepping for that.
We're, you know, we havevendors that can get us quotes.
If it's a inspection repair, wesave this guy, this amount of money.
We go through stories.
So basically at the end of the day wherethey have no question that they're gonna.
(06:39):
That we're earning the
mm-hmm.
Percent that we're gonna make, ortwo and a half percent or whatever,
whatever we negotiate with the buyer.
And so being able to articulate thevalue where you think it's just the
buyer thinks it's just, I found thehouse, I did the job of the agent.
Yeah, let's go, let's go down that path.
Let's go down the buyer conversationand kind of where, where part of it
(07:00):
Yeah.
Buyer's, you know, mindset isright now in today's market.
Being able to, to walk them throughand really kind of the process of,
of what, what y y'all are seeing andexperiencing, but how the conversation
needs to go to be able to get themon board so we can move forward.
And you're so spot on, right?
(07:20):
Are there gonna be certain marketsthat you can get away with?
Um.
You know, pushing buttons,certain cookie cutter markets, of
course, but not in your market.
Not no way.
Right.
There's, there's just, it's, it justdoesn't happen because there's so many
little nuances and like even thinking,you know, a certain street over,
(07:43):
like could be completely different,falls into a different school zone,
falls into a different county.
You gotta deal with this.
There's just so much little,little nuance requirements.
Yeah.
Like you got.
That one out of four sewer linesare, are needing to be replaced.
Like, yeah.
I mean, and again, that's kind ofwhere, you know, I feel like there's
probably a little bit more job securityfor us in, in that market over time.
(08:08):
Right.
But.
I, most people they think, well, Igot a pre, it's like buying a car.
I got a preapproval.
They, they pre-approved me for 60 grand.
I can go buy a car for 60 grand.
I just go find a car for 60, and Igive them the, you know, the lender's
information and it's the rate.
But what buyers don't understand is,especially in a market like today
(08:31):
mm-hmm.
Where, and we're, we're not as.
You know, our inventory levels arestill slightly below where they were
pre COVID level, so we're not like atFlorida where, where they're way up.
Mm-hmm.
Right.
But buyers are starting to even outwhere we have the ability to try to
negotiate, um, that purchased where wehadn't before and, and we still have
(08:56):
multiple offers and things like that.
And we can kind of talk throughthat with sellers as well.
But from the initial conversation.
We wanna know, okay, who's the lender?
Get the get a cost sheet.
Let's like, what homes are we looking at?
Pick one.
I need to see a cost estimate.
I need to know numbers.
I need to know what you're looking at.
I need to know.
(09:16):
Monthly payment.
Okay.
Right.
Are, are, are more buyers comingto you that have already talked
to a lender than, than not 50 50?
50 50. I was, I was really curious becausethinking about, like, you, you see,
you know, the moves like, like Rocketand obviously Zillow and everything.
They're trying to get, you know,obviously capture the consumer first.
Get 'em into the mortgage first.
(09:36):
Yeah.
Then.
Being able to kick 'em out to theagents for the high referral fees.
So I was just kind of curious what, whatwe're seeing from buyers that come that
have already, you know, done some duediligence on, on the qualification side.
Yeah.
It depends how, it depends whereyou get 'em in the process, but
yeah, probably about 50% of the timethey come with a lender already.
Okay.
Which is always, and half thetime it's a problem because
(09:57):
that lender's nonresponsive.
They won't give 'em a cost estimate 'causethey're afraid they're gonna shop 'em.
They don't want to, like, they,they find ways to skirt it.
The conversation that we're havingis I need to know, I'm, I'm right
now, I'm your real estate advisor.
I need to know cash to close.
I need to know what yourmonthly payment needs to be.
Because if you go look at a housein Upper St. Clair or you look at a
(10:18):
house in Peters township, your taxesare gonna be two different things.
So the same house priceisn't the same house price.
I need to know what programyou're, you're working with.
Do you know, is it FHA,is it conventional?
Is it conventional 5% down where you'reonly able to get 3% seller assist?
Is, are you FHA or areyou putting 10% down?
(10:39):
Because I'm gonna use, now we're usingseller assist to structure deals.
So like if I've got a buyer, likeone of the strategies we've been
harping on recently is we have alittle bit older housing stock, right?
And so we've got homes that areprobably a little bit overpriced that.
Need some work.
They need a kitchen or they need floors,or they need, they need, they need
(11:02):
painted, whatever the case may be like.
So we have buyers that are on thefence and they're really hesitant.
It doesn't meet all their, but like, ifthere's a way we could now negotiate this
and we could get you 6% back or 3% back,and we can use that towards an upgrade.
Or we can, like now we, now weknow how to, we can start playing
(11:23):
with numbers to structure.
A deal to actually get it done and getthem what they want at the end of the day.
Yeah.
A lot of times, like most peoplejust, they think that painting a
old house costs more than it does.
They think that floorscost more than they do.
Like they think that these, these areall major expenses and they don't buy
a house because of the paint color.
And it's silly because like theseare things that can all be rectified.
(11:46):
Right.
A little bit creative with the waythat we're working with buyers is,
is the key in a market like this.
And in order to do that, we needto know all the financing terms.
We need to know how to structure it.
We need to know how to make sure we'resaving them the most amount of money.
Do we, do we not put, you know, dowe not use all the sellers if to
use that towards the rate buy down?
(12:06):
Like we need to beinvolved in that process.
Wanna be involved in that process.
Because if we're not, they'regonna, we're gonna not have all
of the tools in our tool belt inorder to negotiate the best deals.
For them.
Right.
The best hurts.
Yeah.
Parts there.
So being able to get real clear on that,um, on, on the math side of things and
(12:27):
kind of where they, where they wanna be.
And then, and then from there itleads into lifestyle conversations.
It leads into goal conversations.
Yeah.
How long are you gonna be there?
Do you have, um, do youhave money to make updates?
Do you have a dad who's a contractor?
Are you, what do you need?
Move in ready.
Like what are, what are, what are allthose things that we're looking at?
(12:49):
Because that's ultimately gonna help usdetermine how we structure a deal, what
we look for, what we're going after.
Um, if you don't have any, thatability, you know, obviously, like
if you're, you are like, Hey, I mightget a job transferred in two years.
We can't go buy the nicest house in thebest neighborhood because it's probably
not gonna be worth much more in a coupleof years given the market we're in.
Right.
(13:09):
Which is probably gonna bea little bit more stagnant.
So if we're gonna go that route, wegotta be careful with what we buy.
We might have to try to find somethingthat we could put a little sweat equity
in so that when you go to sell it in twoyears, you're, you're, you're still gonna
make a little bit of money or at leastcover all the costs of both sales, right?
Like so we're, we're lookingat that whole scenario.
(13:30):
We need to know all of.
All of that in order to best advise them.
Mm-hmm.
And
I think most agents just skipthrough that shit and it's just
like, oh, this house is great.
Yeah.
And then they try to sell it to you.
Right.
And then they call 'em intwo years and they're upside
down and they can't sell it.
And, and now they've been, they'vebeen put in a bad situation.
So I'm thinking resaleupon every purchase.
(13:50):
Not that the market changes that rightnow, but it definitely changes it in
a, in a market like this where we'rein a transitional period, we're not 10%
appreciation, 15% appreciation every yearlike we were the last three, four years.
Like, so we gotta be real carefulon the buy side and make sure that
we're looking out for them again.
These are the conversations we're havingwith the buyer that they know that,
(14:12):
okay, this guy knows more than me.
He's looking out for me.
I'm building trust, I'm building loyalty.
Right?
Like, and if you, but if you're nothaving all these conversations and
you just, you're just a door opener.
Then you're probably not worththe two point half percent right.
Or 3% or whatever.
You,
whatever, whatever it is, right?
You, you, you're not really taking that,that advisor role to have, you know,
(14:38):
the questions and the thoughts thatthey're probably not even thinking about.
They know it, I'm sure,but they're just not.
Aware enough to be like, oh dang.
Yeah, we didn't take that intoconsideration that, you know, they
just, they're excited in the shoppingphase of it before, you know, thinking
through getting a little bit furtherdown the field and then having
that buyer's remorse if they can.
(14:59):
If you can, we can help them reallythink through everything, and that's
such a great point, you know, just.
Crossing a couple streets and your,you know, your property taxes double
to triple than, than what it would be.
And then, you know, obviouslyyou have to factor in, you
know, insurance cost as well.
So just really help map that, map that out
for sure.
(15:19):
And we, and that comes up a lot right now.
We, we have, insurance companies aremaking us replace roofs at closing.
They, that blows up deals.
Um, tax, the, the taxnumbers being reassessed.
All the time upon transfer, it'striggering a school district
to, to appeal the tax rates.
Your taxes are probably gonna go up.
(15:41):
So we need to look atcurrent assessed value.
Like there's a lot, there's a lotthat goes on to the go into the
market that we're in and, and thepeople that don't know and then they
get a surprise, um, tax increase.
300% the following march and losetheir mind that they didn't know that
was coming and they can't afford it.
It's a, it's a, it's a big deal, right?
(16:03):
Yeah,
yeah.
It is.
It it, and right now, um, so importantto take all of that into, into
consideration and, and sometimes itmight slow, slow deals down, but it,
it's important to have, especiallythese conversations on the front end.
Are you like workingwith the, the agents too?
Kind of intertwine this throughconversation and looking at
(16:24):
properties, or is this No.
Hey, we need a consultation.
We need to sit down, get our game plan.
We need a strategy beforewe even start looking.
Um.
You're not always able toget a consultation first,
which that's the market now.
Everybody wants speed.
They just wanna go see something.
If we can sit them down and go throughthat, that's the ideal scenario.
If we can't, then we're gonna meetthem and we're gonna try to schedule
(16:44):
time to at least sit there and havea conversation for 15 minutes in
that first house that we have, or.
Maybe you, you have a couple.
If, if it's first showings, maybe wehave one or two and you'd find a vacant
that you can have that conversation with.
But you gotta have that conversationupfront, um, as much as you can.
The, and it gets skipped.
(17:05):
And when it gets skippedis when you have problems.
Mm-hmm.
Right.
You know, I saw the other day 15%of contracts are being canceled.
Mm-hmm.
Right
now.
Yeah.
We talked about that, right?
We have, I think we have a lot of them.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And it's, you guys had
a lot at the beginningof last year, I remember.
Had a ton of cancel contracts andthen all of a sudden we were good.
(17:27):
Are we starting to see more andmore of those, um, cancel contracts?
We we're, we're still probably 10%,um, some more than others, you know,
but I think a lot of it is, it's.
It's cold feet buyer uncertaintythinking they made the wrong move.
Probably not talking througheverything with them upfront.
(17:48):
There's a lot of times we're justtrying to get a contract so, so badly.
Yeah.
That we're, we're pushing and forcing itprobably a little bit and maybe, or maybe
you gotta move too quickly and then theyget, you know, they get buyer's remorse.
They're sleeping on it.
They don't feel good about it.
They find a reason to back out, but Ithink you got a lot of that going on.
(18:11):
Mm-hmm.
I think some of that can be eliminatedwith having these conversations upfront,
talking through this whole process.
Like safe time.
Yeah.
Is like, alright, let's assume wewant to move forward with this.
Here's what I see that's probably gonnacome up upon an inspection, or these are
the major things that you're going tohave to deal with, so let's try to at
(18:31):
least account for them within this offer.
Right.
And then if we have an, you know, ifwe're able to have inspections, which
most of them still are in our marketright now, then we can go back and
we can try to club 'em over the headagain with an inspection negotiation.
And then if it's a governmentfinancing or something like that,
then we might have appraisalthings that we can hit 'em again.
(18:53):
Like, so we, we have a strategyaround the direction that we're going.
And we're able to talk through, especiallylike if you've been in enough homes,
like what are you dealing like with us?
The unknown is sewer lines.
Mm-hmm.
Most of our lines need to be camerainspected Now by the municipalities.
A lot of times it's on the selleranyway, so they're gonna have to fix it.
(19:14):
Um, if it's not, then we'regonna need to make sure the
buyers are having those reviewed.
Other than that though, doesit have foundation issues?
Is the roof hold?
Furnace ac like is electrical,like, it's just like most of the
stuff we can tell and see andtell them what's gonna come up.
Are there gonna be some unknowns?
Yeah.
That's why you do inspections.
But usually we can, we can prep andbuild in some of that in the offer
(19:40):
already, and then we go back and wetry to get more upon inspection and
there's a whole strategy around it.
So if the, if the buyer knows thatmoving forward or, or, or upfront.
Then they know the plan and they'remore than they, than they understand
it, and they're less likely, I think,to pull out when that inspection comes
back and it's got, you know, 80 thingson it, and three of them are big.
(20:02):
Right?
A hundred percent.
You walk through that process with them.
Yeah, I think it, it, it's, it, itsaves so much frustration and it save.
You know, so much time by sitting downand having this, this conversation,
you know, sooner rather than lateris, is so important on the buy side.
Um, 'cause they are excited, but thereare things that they just haven't thought
(20:23):
about, um, that we wanna really, you know,get the opportunity before we go down
the path and just set ourselves up forfrustration and, and failure ultimately.
Yep.
Um, and it could have been, could havebeen, you know, could have been headed off
and just a conversation on the front end.
A hundred percent.
And it's, and it's samething with, uh, price, right?
(20:44):
Yeah.
So we had, we had this conversationthe other day, like we had a buyer
that it was listed at 2 99 9.
They went multiple offers.
We won the bid at three 20.
The buyers were consideringbacking out 'cause they felt
like they were overpaying, right?
But.
(21:06):
The conversation is if that house waslisted at 3 25 or three 30 mm-hmm You
still would've went and seen it 'causeyou're call like you're pre-approved
up to three 50 and now you wouldbe getting it at three 20 and you
would be thinking you're getting adeal 'cause you're getting 10,000.
Right?
So it's all the list price doesn't matter.
What we are, we're looking atcomps, we're determining value.
(21:30):
The bank's gonna backthat up with an appraisal.
We gotta get off list Price.
List price doesn't mean anything.
Most real estate agents don'tknow how to list the property.
They don't know the pricing.
It's a wild ass guess.
So we look at the data.
Let's have, let's have a conversationaround what other homes are selling for.
What's the situation you'regonna be in moving forward?
Are we gonna do any like, so now itgoes back to that initial conversation,
(21:53):
like, does it check all the boxes?
Do we have a plan?
Are we going through that?
Then yes.
And usually when you take 'emthrough that conversation, like
if it was listed at three 30, wewould've still went and seen it.
And if you would'vegot it at three 20 now.
Probably would've thought you're gettinga deal, but because you're paying over
the list, the list price is a made upprice who aren't very good at pricing.
(22:14):
And I think that that's a perfect segueinto, you know, talking with sellers.
But like, listen, we don't knowwhat the seller's objective and
what the seller's goals are.
Right?
There's aspirational pricing, there'smarket driven pricing, and then there's
a little under to create kind of anevent, create some demand, right?
(22:34):
Based upon their goals istypically how they're gonna price.
Price the property andthe pricing strategy.
And this home very well could havebeen the strategy of pricing a little
below, create some demand to drivethe price up, which is what happened.
So they initially started below market.
So here's where we'reseeing where the comps.
(22:54):
So I think that extra little stepto educate the buyers in that
situation of like, listen, if Iwas listening to this property.
This is where I would've listed it.
Yeah.
Without knowing their goals,their objective, their backstory,
but the data is saying itshould be priced right in here.
Right.
So I think it's, it'ssuper, super important.
But I think you've gotta also understand,um, pricing in the market and paying
(23:20):
attention to being a student of it, andwhich most agents working with buyers.
Don't understand that and how togo about the pricing strategy.
So what is the current pricing strategyof, of how you're working through
and looking to evaluate, to positionand price a home in today's market?
But hey, quick pause before we keep going.
(23:41):
This market is shifting fast,and if you've been feeling the
pressure, you're not alone.
But here's the thing, it's not goingto slow down so you can catch up.
I've opened a limited number of executiveone-on-one coaching spots this month for
agents who are ready to stop spinningtheir wheels and lead with clarity.
If that's you, head to John Kitchenscoach and let's make it happen.
(24:02):
Now, back to the episode.
I think there's, there'sa process to it, right?
So the good news on the, from a sellerstandpoint is they see the national news.
They think things are.
Things are worse than they probably are.
Mm-hmm.
Especially in our market.
In some markets they are right.
(24:24):
We don't, we're, we're still one ofthe ones that we, we don't really
follow the national trend, so we havea conversation around getting off,
like national news means nothing.
Regional news means nothing.
West Penn multi list news means nothing.
The only thing that reallymatters in our market is price
point area school district.
(24:46):
And, and activity.
And so for us, we're gonna kindof walk through that process here.
We're gonna look at comparables, right?
Comparables is the, the rear viewmirror look, um, that is there for us
primarily in a market like this, to,to make sure that it'll appraise right.
(25:08):
And we know if we'rejust totally outta whack.
Okay.
Then we may have some issues that we'regonna, we're gonna talk through that with
the seller, but the main thing that we'relooking at right now is what's active?
Active competition?
Where are they priced at?
How do we stack up?
What are contin, what's contingentunder contract in our market?
(25:30):
Or pending whatever your MLS is, right?
If there's three pendings.
That are in this particular pricerange, how quickly did, did they move?
Where were they priced at?
Where are we at?
Like if we have a couple that are multipleoffer, okay, good, we still have buyers
that are competing in this market.
We can probably be a littlebit more aggressive with this.
(25:51):
Or depending upon your scenario, how,how quickly do we need to have it moved?
Do we have a home sale contingency?
Like what, what are all of thosethings that we're looking at?
Because list price, thereisn't just a list price, just
like we talked about earlier.
There's a strategy around it, dependingupon your particular scenario.
Right.
If, if you want the comfort of a homesale contingency, we're gonna move up by,
(26:14):
but we're gonna have to sell this one.
And you don't want this, you wannamake sure that you're fully protected.
We're gonna lose some negotiationpower on the purchase, and we're gonna
have to price it more aggressivelyif you wanna get it done right.
Like that's the trade off.
Same thing.
If I need to sell this in a week, we'regonna need to price it more aggressive.
Mm-hmm.
If you're, if you have, we havea little bit more time, we may
(26:36):
be able to test the market.
And so I think most people comein and they, they think they come
in with their CMA and it's got anumber on it, and I think you shoot
yourself in the foot immediately.
We don't bring CMAs, wedon't have a number in mind.
We have a range, generally speaking.
Mm-hmm.
Most listings, people sendme the listing, I run comps.
(26:56):
I give them my thoughts on whereI think it'll probably sell.
What, what list price I might take it at,and if the sellers really wanna stretch
it, you know, like that scenario maybe.
I think that, I think this one'sworth 2 85, probably 2 75, 2 85
based on where things are going.
Condition, you know, ideallist price is 2 99 9.
(27:17):
If that seller's got 3 25 in their headfor some reason, because there's some
random one, we're gonna talk them throughall that, all the data, all the comps, and
we're gonna prep them for price reduction.
Like listen, if we got, we'reon the market two weeks, we
got two weekends out of this.
We're getting showings, we're gonna baseit on the feedback, we're gonna adjust,
but there's a good chance we may have toget under 300 to get in into a different
(27:39):
price bracket to get this thing moved.
So we can try it a little bithigher, as long as you have time.
We need to be aggressive withour, with our next move, and
we need to plan for that ahead.
Yeah,
I
agree, man.
I mean, we know, we know sellers wantthe most amount of money in their pocket.
The, the, the determiningfactor is always timing, right?
(28:00):
What is their, what is their timeframeand the season of the market, right?
You know, the timing and kindof what, what's happening.
But I, I'm with youand, and it's, you know.
All the things that we can doto put it at the top, really,
depending upon their situation.
And I think that's justbeing really inquisitive and
asking some tough questions.
(28:20):
That to me is always like, what, whatif this thing doesn't sell right?
Really find that real motivation,because I think right now if,
if you get that feedback, youknow, Hey, what, what happened?
What's plan B?
What happens if it doesn't sell?
And they go, man, I'm good.
We don't have to sell.
I think right now as a business decision,do you wanna take that listing or not?
Because is there a realmotivation there and.
(28:42):
Digging a little bit deeper on whatit is that they're really trying to
accomplish, what are they wanting to do?
Um, before you kind of lock in, like yousaid, you know, bring, bring in comps with
a fixed number in mind, locking yourselfin without getting the full story of
how to position that home and price it.
Yeah, I mean, motivation iseverything with a buyer and a
(29:03):
seller, like getting to that.
What's the, what's that?
Motivational point.
What's the reason they're moving?
What's the reason they're buying?
Because you're gonna have to goback to that and play on that
with people who are on the fence.
From a, from a buyer standpoint, it'sthe same thing with a seller, right?
They might not get the pricethey want right in mind, and they
probably won't I, and good, bad,or ugly that it is what it is.
(29:28):
You don't control.
Like, like listings are tough.
Like we've been, we've been.
Programmed where listings are gold andthey sell in two days and we don't have
to do shit over the last three years.
You know, most agents who just come intothe market in 2020 or beyond, right?
Like that's kind of whatwe've been dealing with.
(29:49):
But they don't remember the days where2017, 18, where like we're bragging
about getting a home sold in 49 days.
Like where they're sitting on the marketsix months or a year or like, there's,
like, you're having tough conversations,hard conversations around, around
those things and, and properly vettinga motivated seller is key to that.
(30:13):
And it's also preemptively negotiatingprice reductions in the way that we
have these conversations and, andset the proper expectations for them.
Mm-hmm.
That this probably isn'tgonna move at this price.
We're, we're with you.
We'll do everything we can.
We'll take the shot, but.
(30:33):
If it doesn't move, we,what's the backup plan?
What's the next move?
What's the two week move?
What's the four week move?
Because at the end of the day,it's all pricing condition.
That's the only, that's theonly reason things move.
And agents come and they'relike, what am I doing wrong?
What can we do?
Can we run more ads?
They wanna send lettersto the neighborhood.
They wanna, you know, you know, I hada, we had this luxury listing once.
(30:57):
And like the and, and the owner likewanted us to send letters to all the
doctors in the Pittsburgh area becauseshe felt like they could afford it,
and it's like, this is insanity.
What ended up happening was webeat our head against the wall.
Another agent came in, took it, thisis like the third one on the market.
It was expired.
I had it like two different times.
(31:18):
The next agent ended up murderingthem over the head, clubbing 'em
with price reductions until theywere a million less than where we
had it listed and it finally sold.
I bet they didn't send any letters todoctors that ho, like none of that shit.
It's just price, it's pricing condition.
And that's, you know, and if therearen't enough buyers in the market.
To demand the price that you're at, youhave to get it to a point where it's, it.
(31:42):
It looks like a good enough valueto a potential buyer where they
wanna come and see it and buy it.
Or we sit there and we wait forEV however long it's gonna take
until a buyer that is dumb enough.
Comes into the market and gives youthe price that you want when all
the other ones are saying that it's
not.
Yeah, yeah.
It's, uh, it, it, it's, it's wild, right?
(32:04):
People's, you know, how theyget so fixated on beliefs
and, and things in their head.
Um, so obviously pricing conversationwith sellers and everything, and then
the strategy session with buyers,how for you leading other agents.
Right.
How keeping their head where it needs tobe in navigating the market conditions.
(32:25):
Like what are, what arethe agent conversations?
It's, it's kind of the sameconversations we're having right now.
It's just repetitive,continual conversations around
listing price reductions.
What do they look like?
Like that's what, youknow, morning power ups.
A lot of that script practice.
What are we talk, how arewe talking to sellers?
How are we setting expectations?
What's the pricing strategy thatwe're talking through with them?
(32:47):
How does the listing pres like?
DJ has a listing presentationcall every Monday.
We're going through that, thatprocess, how to have these
conversations with buyers andsellers, and most of the time it's.
Saying like, like we're justsaying it's a agent on the team.
Like, Hey, this listing's not selling.
I don't know why it's not selling.
Can we do marketing?
Can we do the, you know, andusually it's always price.
(33:08):
Mm-hmm.
But they
don't wanna have the conversation with theseller because it's a hard conversation
and they haven't set proper expectations.
And as long as you'redoing those things, yeah.
It's never an easy conversation,but you have to have it.
Yeah.
And you have to have it on the frontend, so it makes you have to have it on
the front end.
Yeah.
And like my favorite line is like,
listen, I wanna make sure wehave, you and I are on the same
(33:30):
page, we're on the same team.
We're coming up withthis strategy together.
'cause the last thing that I wantis 30 days or 60 days from now,
we're still sitting at this price.
You are getting pissed off at me.
You're thinking, whatam I doing to market?
To whom?
And then so you're getting irritated andyou're like, and you're just sitting there
(33:52):
watching it every day and, and chancesare, I'm probably getting irritated too.
And then you end up hating me andyou think I'm not doing anything
to sell this home in 60 days.
So I wanna make sure we'reon the same page now.
Because I don't want usto get to that point.
If this doesn't sell, I wanna make surewe, we understand what the next move is.
And we're, and we're, we'reboth jiving with that.
(34:13):
And we'll talk about thatat that point in time.
But like.
We have to have that conversation upfront.
And then I generally tell 'em like,listen, our job, and obviously
we're going through a big listingpresentation, but our job is to
market it, make sure it's marketedcorrectly, photographed correctly.
We have ads running, we're gettingtraffic from outside of the MLS.
(34:33):
Everybody sees it.
It's on Zillow like.
Everybody knows it's there.
It's being marketed correctly, the photosare good, you're good with everything.
And then we're gonna drive showings.
And then from them, showfrom those showings.
We're either gonna get offersor we're gonna get feedback.
If we don't have offers andwe have feedback, then we're
gonna look at the feedback.
And if we can change anything,then we try to change it.
(34:53):
If we can't.
We're probably gonna have to adjust price,and then we're gonna repeat the process.
We're gonna remarket it, we'regonna do a price reduction, we're
gonna do open house, we're gonnaget feedback, and then we're gonna,
and it's just a repeating cycle.
Yeah.
'cause ultimately if we get, if we'regetting showings and we're getting
feedback that there's something wrong withit, then we, we either have to adjust,
we either have to correct based on thefeedback, or we have to correct the price.
(35:16):
Yeah.
Hundred percent.
And then it's repeat and like, it'snot brain surgery, but it, but it,
people get emotional around it.
Mm-hmm.
So this is the process that we're gonnatake and we're gonna have conversations
around it, and then we're going to moveor adjust, or we're gonna move or adjust.
And then I, I thinkjust having like a plan.
Having a plan in place, what thatlooks like, what's the timeframe?
(35:39):
And then if we're, if we're listed and weboth agree, the photos are doing are, are,
are great, which they usually are, right.
We're marketing it and we're gettingeyeballs, and people are seeing it on
Zillow, we know it's on every website,and we're still not getting showings or
we're having limited showings, then wereally need to look at pricing because
there's a reason that just peoplearen't coming out and seeing our home.
(36:02):
And typically, we're gonna lookat active, active inventory.
What's on the market?
What are people going to see?
Rather than ours.
Yeah.
What's one contingent over thelast 30 days that's within a
50 grand price bracket of our,like, what are, what's moving?
Why aren't we getting showings?
How do we stack up?
Usually we're priced too high if we're,you know, if we're, it's a nice house
(36:26):
and we're not getting a lot of showings,we're not getting a lot of activity.
It's generally price, and sowe're gonna have that conversation
at that point in time.
And so just prepping them forwhat's upcoming and a lot of times.
We damn well know this thing'sgonna sit at this price.
Yeah.
Like, you know that going in,if they, they're like, no, I'm,
it's this price or nothing.
(36:47):
I need to sell.
They're motivated, they wantto try the higher price.
Mm-hmm.
You're spending way moretime on expectations.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I agree.
And then, like I said, you know,in, in, in the market, then it
becomes a business decision.
You know, do you, do youmove forward with it or not?
Right.
And I think that's where theagents need to, to understand.
(37:07):
You know, if you move forward with that,what's the ripple effect of, of moving
forward with an unrealistic opportunity?
An unrealistic climb might not even bean opportunity, but just an unrealistic
individual that doesn't have their,their goals don't jive to what it
is they're trying to accomplish.
It's, it's along the lines too, andthis is why it's super important.
(37:28):
In, in training and, and lettingthe agents know is like, listen,
you need to tell them what they needto hear, not what they wanna hear.
Um, we had, uh, Chris Vecchio dida session at KT in Sarasota for us
at the beginning of this year, andChris is, you know, business athlete
and just kind of how to navigateit really become lifestyle right.
With, with your fitnessand, and profession.
(37:49):
And Joel asked him a question, said,Hey, you know, I, I kind of, kind
of have these goals, but here'swhat's going on in my life, right?
Start my own, you know, new company.
I've got a, you know, I got a, youknow, almost about to be a 1-year-old,
you know, wife works virtually.
She travels and dah, dah, dah.
He is telling the goals and he said,listen, he said, I don't, I'm not saying
that it, you can't do those things, butbased upon what you're telling me, like.
(38:14):
That doesn't happen.
That doesn't jive, right.
Your goal of this, and this is notpossible with your requirements and
where this falls as a priority, soyou might be better off with this.
And I was like, damn, man.
Like that's exactly how we have to bewith buyers, sellers, and agents and
like, listen, you know, based upon whatyou're willing to do, the amount of
(38:37):
commitment that you're, you're, you'relooking to make based upon your goals.
That's not.
Not saying it's not realistic,but the outcome of that happening
is not very good, right?
So you're better off here.
And in some situations rightnow with these folks, it's like,
listen, stay put right now.
Your best option is stay put.
(38:59):
Let's evaluate in the spring and wecan, we can kind of see what's, what's
changed, what's changed for you guys.
Um.
And, and move on, right?
Because you don't wanna get hung uptrying to deal with that headache.
That's gonna cause you so muchfrustration that you can't focus
on the real opportunities that arepassing you by because you're too
busy over here messing with Yep.
(39:20):
Unrealistic.
And I think that's theconversation up front.
If they're unrealistic seller, theywanna list it at a price that's
too high and they're motivated,I'll, we'll still take it.
If they gotta sell, they need to move.
They got a time crunch, theygot a home being built, but
they have time, we'll take it.
If they're unrealistic withprice, they've been on market
(39:40):
twice, they don't wanna drop theprice, they think it's worth this.
They're, they're unmotivated,then we're not gonna take it.
It all comes down to motivation.
Again, if it's a motivated seller,we'll take it at whatever price they are
because we're gonna set the expectationsand we're gonna, and we're gonna battle.
Sometimes we're gonna battle themfor price reductions and they
probably are gonna get a price theydon't, they're not pleased with.
(40:03):
But that's the price.
Like we know what we're doing is right.
Like that's what we tell everybody allthe time, like especially our agents.
Like we sell more homesthan everybody here.
We know what we're doing is correct.
We know we we're lookingout for the sellers.
We have their best interests ofminus gonna be marketed correctly.
It's gonna be followed up on,showings are gonna be followed up on.
We're gonna get feedback.
(40:23):
We can help with the, like, we'regonna do everything correctly.
It's on Zillow.
Every buyer in our market that'slooking in that price range knows
the freaking houses there like.
There's nothing anybody'sgonna do differently or better.
Like we're, we'rechecking all of the boxes.
Yeah.
And the only box that hasn'tbeen checked yet is price.
And that's really the only thingthat's gonna move this thing.
(40:44):
Yeah.
And as long as you go in, go intothat and you have a motivated
seller, it is what it is.
It's gonna, ultimately, it'll sell whenthe, when the home gets priced correctly
based on, 'cause that's all it is.
What is a buyer seeing that's outthere if I'm going on, you know.
You know, Autotrader and there's, there'sfive Ford F1 fifties on there, and four
(41:08):
of them are priced at 40 grand and,and one of 'em is priced at 45 grand.
Nobody's gonna look at the 45 grand one.
Right?
They're gonna start with all the 40grand ones until they get to that.
Right.
Like that's just what, that's allpeople are dealing with homes as well.
Yeah.
No, it's, um, man, it, it's.
So good.
And, and it's, it's a great reminderno matter what the market is doing, but
(41:33):
in tough markets, you gotta have thetough conversations on the front end.
Yeah.
That's really where, whatit all boils down to buyers,
sellers, real estate agents.
We just need to have a real transparent.
Here's the fact conversation on thefront end, and then we make a decision.
Do we wanna proceed from there?
And I think that solves so muchfrustration by having that.
(41:58):
And we always say, right,like, you skip that, it's gonna
come to get you at some point.
Skipping steps only presentsthe illusion of speed.
Yep.
And you've gotta have those, those realtough conversations on the front end.
Yeah.
Especially in this market, right?
Like this is what we.
This is what we cut our teeth on, right?
Expires and fizbos ina market that was slow.
Mm-hmm.
(42:19):
Yep.
These are the conversations you're having,like this is where you get to come in and
be a pro and give, give them the good,bad, and the ugly and be an advisor and.
Not have, not be totally outcomeoriented, where you'll just tell them
whatever they want to hear so thatyou get the listing and then they
end up hating your guts in 30 days.
Right?
Like you, you need to come in and be thepro and tell 'em what they need to hear
(42:41):
and have a plan and have a strategy andknow that the pricing is good or bad.
And if it's not good,are they still motivated?
Are we gonna be able to preemptivelyset up, um, pricing drops or
whatever adjustments like.
This is where you can be thepro in a market like this, where
there's where there's inventoryand you can stack inventory and
(43:01):
as long as you stay in touch.
And that's the other thing too, like yougotta be in communication with listings.
Especially if they're sittingevery Monday, there's gotta be a
check in, whether it's good, bad,ugly, they gotta know you're there.
They gotta be following up.
They make sure you're getting feedback.
'cause every showing, then once you'reon the market a little while, they are
the second that that showing is over.
They're looking for feedback.
(43:22):
They're all over immediately.
They wanna see it immediately.
All they care about is this istheir house, this is their baby.
This is their $600,000 check.
Right?
Yeah.
So you need to be, you need to beworking that, you need to be in
communication with those things.
And as long as you are, and you're workingit, and you stay in touch with them,
and they know that you're working hardand they know that you're doing things,
they'll still, they'll stay with you.
(43:43):
If you don't follow up and you don'tcommunicate and you don't stay in
touch, then they think you're justanother shithead agent and they're, they
fire you and then they go to somebodywho's willing to come in and do the
hard things and then they get it sold.
They get it price correctly in itself.
Yeah.
Yes, sir. Brother, I appreciate you.
So spot on.
And it's, it's about having those, those,those conversations that need to be had
(44:05):
on, on the front end and be a, be a pro.
I mean, that's really,that's really it, man.
Just be a pro.
Cool brother.
Appreciate you guys.
Thank you.
Yeah, man.
We'll see you next time.
See you.
Thanks for tuning in.
If you're done guessing and ready to leadlike a real CEO with a custom strategy,
real accountability and proven systems,check out my executive one-on-one
(44:28):
coaching at John Kitchens coach.
Fill out the application and bookyour one-on-one call with me.
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