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It is no secret that real estate agents have had a long-term love-hate relationship with Zillow since its online debut in 2006. Its advent, along with the other web-based portals that began to appear (Trulia, Realtor.com, Homes.com), inaugurated the transition of real estate information from the carefully guarded hands of real estate agents to the masses and fundamentally changed the industry.
Although there has always been significant tension between the online portals and real estate brokerages and their agents, the current war between Zillow and Compass has caused many to take a deeper look at Zillow and, as a result, has raised more than a few questions about some of Zillow’s practices.
A look at the war between Compass and Zillow
To begin, let’s take a quick look at the current issue with Compass. In a nutshell, Zillow takes listings from the various MLSs across the country and posts them on its website. It then captures leads (mostly buyers), which Zillow then turns around and sells to participating agents who pay (at a basic level) a monthly fee for a prescribed number of leads or (for a higher level of better “qualified” leads) a monthly fee and a subsequent referral fee for closed transactions.
The rub here for many real estate agents is that they believe the leads should belong to them because they (as listing agents) do all of the legwork up front to develop a relationship with a seller, pay the costs of marketing and servicing the listing, and so on.
Zillow’s contention has always been that listing agents and their brokers do not do a good enough job of online marketing, thus providing a foothold for companies such as Zillow and Realtor.com, which, by spending significant amounts to market those leads online, should reap the benefits.
Zillow and other online portals rely on MLSs to provide them with data feeds that, in turn, provide the flow of listings they need to continue their business model. Enter Compass, which, by setting up its own independent feed of off-market listings, is cutting off some of the potential flow of listings to Zillow, thus undermining Zillow’s business model.
Compass — and I’ve certainly commented on this in other posts — has been flying in the face of many other brokerages with their blatant opposition to NAR’s Clear Cooperation Policy.
In retaliation, Zillow is refusing to allow any listings that have been previously marketed on off-MLS sites for more than a day to come onto its site. Let me clearly state that I support NAR’s CCP and, as such, do not agree with any attempts to set up private listing portals. With that out of the way, Zillow’s action does raise a number of questions that will now be played out in the courts.
How Zillow’s brokerage status changes the picture
An important distinction to understand is that, unlike web-based portals such as Realtor.com, Homes.com and Trulia, Zillow is actually a broker in all 50 states. This means that Zillow operates by the same rules that govern brokers and their agents, a fact that separates Zillow from information-only portals.
One immediate question that arises from any given broker refusing to post any listing is the question of potential steering.
Although I am not an attorney or capable of dissecting the finer points of the conflict, the overall topic of Zillow brings up some other questions about Zillow’s long-term intent and how real estate agents can continue to navigate with this “elephant” in the room effectively.
At the heart of the issue is whether or not a portal is providing information or advice. If they are providing information, then they are acting as a web-based portal. If they provide advice, however, then they are entering into brokerage territory. There is no doubt that this is a finely nuanced discussion, and, at the end of the day, is fraught with legal implications.
Take, for example, the idea of posting school scores. If you are simply a web-based information portal, then you can link to sites such as Great Schools and display their results for any given property. As such, and with the correct disclaimer, information is being displayed with no advice or interpretation.
As a broker or agent, however, the rules are different. To stay clear of fair housing violations and to avoid any appearance of steering, brokerages and their agents can disclose the existence of sites that provide school scores and even provide their clients with links to those sites, but should not communicate the actual scores themselves.
Brokerages and real estate agents can do the following:
Provide links or resources where buyers can research school performance themselves.
Direct buyers to official sources for more detailed and up-to-date information (GreatSchools.org, Niche.com, state Department of Education websites).
Brokerages and their agents should avoid:
Providing specific scores or data.
Providing assessments or judgements (“this is a horrible school” or “that is a great school district”) can be considered to be steering and a violation of fair housing laws.
Excluding or recommending neighborhoods based on school information.
To avoid any fair housing laws, Zillow and other brokerage sites, such as Redfin, follow strict guidelines to maintain a legal safety net:
They present data from Great Schools “as-is,” not curated in any way.
They provide disclaimers indicating the source of the data and encourage users to verify the information independently.
They let users of their website draw their own conclusions.
They ensure there is no editorializing or interpreting of the scores.
They maintain a role closer to a search engine or web-based informational portal that provides them with more leeway than a licensed real estate agent offering guidance or advice.
Even though Zillow provides adequate legal disclaimers, there is still risk, and any brokerage displaying school scores opens itself up to potential violations in an indirect manner.
When it comes to fair housing laws, impact matters. Whereas the intent may have been to simply provide information, if that data is used by a consumer to avoid certain properties or areas, then the heart of fair housing laws has been violated. If the school scores are posted on an information-only web portal, there is no issue. If they are posted on a brokerage site, however, it is different.
If school scores can be demonstrated to steer certain demographic groups toward or away from any given area — even in a passive manner — this could then be challenged in court, especially if there’s a pattern of disparate impact.
This is not a new issue: Consumer advocacy groups and HUD have complained about this practice, though, to date, no landmark case has held Zillow liable. Responding to concerns that have been raised about this practice, while Zillow has made changes to the way the information is being displayed, it chosen not to remove the data.
As you can hopefully see by now, the inherent nuances are the issue, which brings up the next potential issue.
Zillow’s ‘suggested offer prices’
I am going to guess that many agents simply do not know about this feature on Zillow’s site. Set approximately 50 percent of the way down the page of an active listing, this feature not only provides Zillow’s trademark Zestimate (along with its accuracy percentage over the past 10 years), but also outlines strategies a buyer can employ potentially to write a winning offer. Maybe it’s just me, but this looks like advice, not information.
As an example, a home listed at $1,098,000 shows a Zestimate of $1,075,400. Under the Explore offer strategies headline are four buttons: Strong, Competitive, Moderate and Weak.
By pressing the Strong button, Zillow suggests that an offer of $1.09 million-plus has an over 90 percent chance of winning.
Press the Competitive button, and Zillow suggests that by writing an offer between $1.07 million and $1.09 million, you now have a 70 percent to 90 percent chance of getting your offer accepted.
Hit the Moderate button, and the numbers $1.07 million to $1.07 million are displayed, along with a 50 percent to 70 percent chance of getting your offer accepted.
Finally, by using the Weak button, Zillow suggests that an offer between $1.01 million and $1.07 million has less than a 50 percent chance of winning.
While these numbers for the specific property I used are close to the list price, I have seen instances where the recommended numbers are dramatically lower than the list price.
Here are some important things to consider:
With this feature, even though the numbers provided are automated, Zillow is providing advice, which puts it squarely in the category of a broker or real estate agent.
It is using its Zestimate to provide the basis for recommendations, which, as has been demonstrated amply over the years, is not accurate enough to provide sound pricing advice.
By providing advice as to a recommended offer price lower than the list price, it is acting in direct competition with the listing agent and the seller.
All of this poses some serious concerns and questions:
By offering pricing suggestions — even algorithmically — this can be construed as real estate advice, which is inherently a part of a real estate agent’s fiduciary role.
This can interfere with buyer-agent relationships if a buyer’s agent recommends a specific offer price, based on their market knowledge, conversations with the listing agent and condition of the property, and Zillow recommends a lower price. This could potentially:
Undermine the agent’s ability to represent their client
Create confusion and mistrust between agent and clients
Significantly impact negotiation strategies
This can also introduce potential liability:
By providing “advice,” Zillow could potentially be construed as establishing an agency relationship with a buyer.
If buyers rely on Zillow’s “suggested pricing” and either lose out on a home by offering too little or, inversely, overpay, there could be potential legal risk and liability, especially if it could be proven that the data was flawed. (Since the data is based on the Zestimate, which does not provide information based on property condition, photos, etc., the chances for error are high.)
While Zillow attempts to mitigate concerns or liability by labeling its suggested prices as “an estimate,” including disclaimers such as “not a guarantee” and avoiding direct “you should offer this” language, they are still, in my opinion, skating on very thin ice.
ChatGPT provides the following assessment:
Zillow is skating a fine line by posting suggested offer prices. It’s not illegal, but it treads dangerously close to giving what amounts to licensed advice — especially since Zillow holds brokerage licenses.
They’re relying on:
Automation, not personal guidance.
Disclaimers to reduce liability.
Their platform status, not direct agent representation.
As a result, this practice has drawn criticism from brokerages, real estate agents, legal analysts, consumer advocacy groups and industry watchdogs alike.
The irony here cannot be overstated: While we are in the midst of a battle over Clear Cooperation, with Zillow refusing to show listings on its portal that are not on the MLS, sellers, aware of the fact that Zillow’s Suggested Offer Prices may in fact be competing directly against their chances of a competitive price (to be fair, Zillow sometimes recommends higher than list price offers), may not want their listings (even though they are on the MLS) shown on Zillow.
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One of the most transformative real estate practices over the past 20 years has been the countrywide adoption of professional home staging. Given that homes now take between 7-10 seconds to sell and that in many markets, the online pictures must sizzle if a seller hopes to get any traffic through the home, staging has become critical.
It’s generally recognized that the home staging industry started in 1972. Barb Schwartz, a real estate agent and interior designer, is considered the visionary behind the concept, coining the term “staging” to describe the process of decorating and maximizing a home’s potential for sale.
As owners of a staging company that has been in business for over 20 years, it has been remarkable to see the industry grow to the point where staging is considered mandatory for homes going onto the market in markets such as ours.
We have also seen some crazy things over the years. We have had furniture come back with scribble marks from children, odors from cigarettes, cooking and animal smells, pet damage and more. We’ve had items stolen, discovered that our staging items have been used for personal “liaisons,” had listing agents fail to notify us that the property had closed, had buyers move in, steal some items and put the remainder on the curb where they were snatched up by opportunist passers-by and more.
We have also had sellers, once the home was staged, decide not to sell, saying, “We had no idea our home could look this amazing! Why would we move?” It has been wonderful to see sellers tear up as they return to their staged property, amazed at the transformation.
On the other side of the coin, the most frequently asked question we receive is from buyers who, in love with the look of a staged home, ask if they can purchase all the staging items and move in “as-is.”
There have also been horror stories: Some sellers have absolutely hated the finished result, not understanding that the staging is designed to catch a buyer’s eye, not to resonate with the seller’s personal tastes.
Some sellers have also been insulted at recommendations/suggestions that the 1970s suite of furniture that cost them a mint back when the Ford Motor Company was selling Pintos may not be suitable for current tastes.
If you have never used a staging company, getting started can be a bit daunting. Here are seven categories of questions that can be asked to determine if any given company will be a match for you and your sellers.
7 categories of questions to ask when interviewing stagers
Are you a formally trained stager with any certifications?
How long have you been in business as a professional stager?
Do you have experience staging in our local market?
Do you understand local buyer preferences?
Have you staged homes like ours before?
Do you have a portfolio or website we can look at?
Do you have any reviews?
Are you bonded and insured?
Do you have a current business license?
2. Inventory and style
Not all homes are created equal, and most staging companies focus on properties that fit into the “normal” range.
On the other hand, staging a high-end luxury home is a world apart from a standard tract home. Although some staging companies can handle both ends of the spectrum, luxury staging is really in a class of its own and, in many cases, the furnishings provided are rented specifically for the individual property in question and are moved in and out by professional moving companies.
As a result, luxury staging can be dramatically more expensive than for normal properties and require a substantially different skill set to get the exclusive look that matches the property.
Questions include:
What is the predominant theme/style of your inventory?
Do you own your inventory, or are you renting it?
How old is your inventory?
Is your inventory in good condition?
Do you have luxury-level inventory for upscale homes?
Do you have inventory that matches the seller’s existing furnishings (for partial stagings)?
What type of staging do you do outside?
3. Process and procedures
Every staging company works a bit differently. Some cover specific price points, others focus on certain geographical areas. Some want the home completely vacant and cleaned the day before the crew arrives to stage, while others will apply penalties if the seller decides they want to stay and watch.
Questions include:
What geographical areas do you cover?
What is your process from start to finish?
Do you charge for your preliminary evaluation?
Which rooms do you recommend I stage, and which rooms can be left vacant?
Will you stage a home that will be occupied? If yes, how do you handle children? Pets?
Can the client be present during the staging process?
Do I have to clean the home before it is staged?
Will you stage a home if it reeks of specific odors such as cigarette smoke, cooking smells such as curry, fried fish or intense pet smells?
4. Pricing and contracts
The truth is: Staging does not really work in all price points. For this reason, especially in lower-priced markets, partial or “light” staging may be the best option, and it’s even possible to add in some virtual staging.
It’s important to understand how much your staging package will actually cost and, especially in markets where homes are staying active for longer periods of time, what happens when the contract is up.
Here are some relevant questions:
Do you have different packages?
Do you do partial stagings (if applicable)?
How much do you charge, and what is the pricing based on (options include square footage, number of bedrooms, possible ADU, level of inventory required, time desired for the staging to remain in place, whether staging is rented and so on)?
Are there increased fees for a lot of stairs, or if the use of an elevator is required (if applicable)?
What do you do if parking for loading and offloading is not readily available (if applicable)?
What is the normal length of your contracts?
What happens at the end of our contract if the home is still not sold?
Are extensions available and, if so, how much are they?
Do you have any penalties I need to be aware of?
Do you want payment up front, or will you bill to escrow?
What types of payment do you accept?
5. Timing and logistics
Larger staging companies usually have projects booked back-to-back. It is common for our company to have a complete set of furnishings for a four-bedroom home in one truck and a comparable three-bedroom set in another truck that have just been unloaded from one home and are scheduled to enter another property the very next day.
In a perfect world, the inventory seldom ends up back in the warehouse — it simply goes from one home to another with minor changes along the way. As a result, communication is critical, and changes in timelines can result in a mess.
Here are some essential questions to ask:
How much lead time do you need to schedule staging?
How long will it take to stage my property?
Can you accommodate last-minute staging?
What happens if I find out at the last minute that the home is not ready to stage on the contract date?
What type of notice do you need to remove the staging?
What happens if that notice comes late?
Who maintains/cleans the staging during the contract?
6. Potential issues
Stuff happens, and it goes without saying that over 20 years in the business, we have seen lots of crazy. Read the fine print in the contract very carefully — you will most likely be on the hook if things go missing, are damaged or do not meet the seller’s expectations.
Here are questions that should be addressed:
What happens if the client is not happy with the staging once it’s completed?
How do you handle the remaining holes in the walls once inventory is removed (magic fasteners can fail, causing damage to items, so most stagers prefer nails in the walls to hold up artwork)?
What happens if damage is done to the home during the placement or removal of staging items?
Who is responsible for damaged or stolen pieces of inventory?
7. Additional services
Some staging companies go above and beyond to provide additional levels of service. You may not need any of these, but it doesn’t hurt to ask.
Do you work with buyers who may want interior design services after they have moved into the home?
Do you coordinate with and/or provide cleaning services?
Do you coordinate with and/or provide photography services?
Do you facilitate any storage for sellers who may need to store items that need to be removed prior to staging?
Questions NOT worth asking
Lastly are questions that simply do not apply:
1. What is the average days on the market for homes you have staged?
While this question might appear logical on the surface, it is meaningless. The seller and their agent are the ones who determine how long a home will take to sell — the staging company merely sets the stage to bring in the highest possible number of potential buyers and stimulate their emotions while they are there.
Days on the market is also determined by location, current market conditions and more. Do not make a stager respond to this question — quite frankly, many of them do not make any attempt to keep track.
2. Does your staging come with a guarantee?
Although it may guarantee that the home will look nice, there is absolutely no way it will guarantee a sale, based on the reasons given in Question No. 1 above.
3. Can you install your staging in such a way as to hide defects?
Quite simply, that is illegal and a violation of disclosure laws. Although the best place to locate a throw rug may be over a defect in the floor, no stager should put it there on purpose to hide the defect. Additionally, it’s the agent and seller’s job to disclose what is under that rug (rules differ state to state).
4. Will our home look like a magazine when you are done?
Only if it was nice to begin with. Staging only accentuates what is there; it is not designed to transform a home from ugly to spectacular. No amount of lipstick will turn a pig into a prancing pony.
5. Can a buyer purchase all of the staging items?
We get asked this question all the time. The simple answer is “no.” The reasons behind the answer are a bit more complicated:
Staging inventory is purchased based on how it looks, how heavy it is and how it blends with other pieces. When our designers go shopping, they will actually try lifting a corner of the furniture to ensure it is not too heavy: Imagine moving heavy furniture in and out of homes multiple times. The bottom line is that it’s not always easy to find good pieces, so stagers are very reluctant to let items leave their inventory.
If we sell pieces, they have to be replaced. That not only means an expense for the item being replaced (often at a higher price than the original item cost), it also means time spent looking for replacement pieces, in some cases assembling them, getting them back to the warehouse and placing them into active inventory. Buyers, however, never want to pay full price for “used” inventory and will not only try to bargain, but they will never consider paying extra for the time and effort required to go out and buy replacement items.
Staging can make all the difference, and an effective relationship between a staging company and a real estate agent can be very rewarding. Once you have found a company that works well for you, you are off and running.
If you are like us, however, even though our team owns our own staging company, we cover our expenses by staging for many other agents in our market, and, occasionally, we need a backup company to handle our volume.
My recommendation is to have a couple of carefully vetted companies in your pocket so that you can always ensure the highest level of service for your clients.
Since the NAR commission suit settlement, buyer agents have faced new rules, new documents and a new normal. This month, Inman drills down on Today’s Buyers Agent with the fresh marketing strategies, skills and tools buyer agents are using to prosper in changing times.
With buyer loyalty down and deals harder to ink, buyer agents need to up the ante if they wish to finish 2025 on a successful note.
It has been a tough year so far for buyer agents: Not only have the rules for buyer engagement morphed and shifted over the past year, but we are still dealing with inventory shortages, high interest rates, potential tariffs, significant shifts in the stock market, declining consumer confidence and more.
All of this has resulted in indecisive buyers who, if not properly nurtured, can turn on a dime and engage in an “out-of-the-blue” real estate transaction that excludes the agent who assumed they would be the “go-to” representative.
Although there is no guaranteed method of ensuring buyer loyalty, there are processes that will help increase the odds. Here are our recommendations:
1. Insist on a mandatory buyer consultation
Regardless of how you connect with a potential buyer — whether at an open house, internet lead, referral and so on — you need to help them understand that a mandatory consultation is critical for getting the homebuying process started.
We ask potential buyers to commit to a consultation that will typically last between 60-90 minutes. Because you only want to work with clients who are actually motivated to buy a home, if they refuse to meet, that is a signal that they are not the type of client you will want to represent. Rather than go into detail about what constitutes an effective buyer consultation, you can click here for a complete outline.
2. Demonstrate your value
Real estate agents, unfortunately, are now viewed as a commodity or even a necessary evil instead of skilled advocates such as attorneys or accountants. This slide in confidence has been dutifully earned, as aptly demonstrated in conversations surrounding the industry’s commission lawsuits. With a substantial percentage of agents doing little or no business, agent professionalism has taken a serious hit.
When something or someone is viewed as a commodity, the goal is to obtain their product or service as cheaply as possible.
If buyer’s agents wish to demonstrate their value and rise above the herd, this can be done in three ways:
Have a written value proposition that clearly articulates your value.
Have a number of client testimonials and references you can provide to a prospective client that will validate your value. Ironically, people will believe a third party they have never met more than they will trust a person sitting in front of them.
Tell stories of past issues you have successfully resolved. While people may appreciate a written value proposition, a story will help connect to their emotions and, at the end of the day, people commit with their emotions more than logic.
3. Complete an exclusive buyer-broker agreement
If you do not have a signed buyer-broker agreement, then you have nothing. Because an agreement is now required in our state to show a single property to a prospective buyer, buyers are beginning to understand the need for formalized representation. Although some are refusing to sign and are utilizing open houses as a way to vet properties, there is growing acceptance among buyers to sign a representation agreement.
How that agreement is filled out, however, is everything. As soon as the realization occurred that buyer-broker agreements were going to become mandatory, we began training with scripts designed to overcome potential buyer objections. Like anything else, conversations concerning representation agreements have to be practiced to ensure success.
Although it’s relatively easy to get a buyer to sign an agreement to view a single property, the goal is to establish a meaningful and exclusive relationship with a buyer that will permit you to work on their behalf for as long as it takes to get them into a home and secure appropriate compensation for yourself.
4. Connect the buyers with a reputable lender
Although we will work with any lender the buyer chooses, not all lenders are created equal. Ideally, connect them with your in-house lender so you can monitor their progress more effectively. The lender will help determine their creditworthiness, verify deposits for down payments, confirm their ability to borrow and establish limits.
Once this is done, they will produce a pre-approval that includes the parameters you will need to know to set up property search parameters effectively. We will not show homes to buyer clients who are not pre-approved, nor will we set up tours for properties that are above their pre-approval limits.
5. Set up buyers on your app
Buyers have a habit of looking at homes in places that may not be helpful to you as their agent. Unless you actively work on setting them up for successful communication, you have no right to be surprised when they go off in a different direction and, depending on how your buyer-broker agreement is written, ink a deal with someone else.
To shift things in the agent’s favor, your clients should be directed to use your app. A robust app will not only be branded to the agent but also will link directly to local MLSs and provide full access to all available listings and notify the agent of the buyer’s activity, favorites and more. This knowledge makes it much easier for the agent to interject themselves into the process and proactively set up showings for homes the buyers have liked.
Further, in the case of robust CRMs, agents can:
Set up customized property searches and market alerts for their clients based on their preferences (price, size, location, features and more). These apps frequently provide real-time access to MLS data, often more up-to-date than public portals, such as Zillow, Realtor.com or Homes.com.
Have automated real-time communication and updates when new listings go live or when a listing they are following has a status change (price adjustments, open houses, etc.). Not only does the buyer receive the alerts, but their agent does as well, helping streamline communication and respond immediately to a buyer’s needs.
Showing coordination. Depending on the app, agents can manage showings directly within the platform, so buyers get timely and efficient viewing opportunities.
Collaboration and notes. Buyers and their agents can collaborate on favorites, leave notes and rate properties, which makes it easier to narrow down choices and stay organized.
6. Communicate, communicate, communicate
Do not make the mistake of setting your clients up on auto feeds and then waiting for them to communicate. If you have set them up with your app, then you can monitor their activity and reach out continuously to provide additional information, schedule showings and more.
7. Actively look for opportunities
Many agents in the past have been willing to let their buyers do all the work: They would set them up on autofeeds and then wait for them to raise their hand when they found something they liked. Agents that want to succeed in the current market are going to have to raise the bar.
Activities include the following:
Go with your buyers to open houses they want to visit. Although some agents consider this a waste of time and effort, smart agents will understand that there is no difference between an open house they attend with their client and a private showing; each one is an opportunity to gauge your client’s interest and proactively act. If you are not with them when they see a home they like, you will be left guessing and may miss an opportunity to write an offer. Ironically, if they like a home they visited without you, you will need to go to the property anyway to represent them effectively.
Take your clients to new builders. Do not wait for them to go on their own — if they drive by a builder’s development and sign anything without you present, your chances of getting a commission will be dramatically diminished. Even if your buyers state upfront that they are not interested in new homes, a quick tour of local builders may be all they need to ink a deal.
Actively seek off-market opportunities. Many buyers want to live in a specific neighborhood due to access to local schools, commute, proximity to family, neighborhood amenities and so on. If no homes are available, then strap on your walking shoes, hit the streets, and knock on every door in that neighborhood that meets their criteria. You can also send out Golden Letters explaining your client’s need to live in that neighborhood. I am not advocating any brokerage practices or private networks that would violate the intent of the Clear Cooperation Policy: I am talking about buyer agents going out and actively looking for homes that might meet their client’s needs – properties that might otherwise not have gone on the market.
Times have changed, and if any given buyer’s agent wishes to succeed, they need to adapt to meet the new realities. Whereas markets in the past were significantly easier to navigate, actual work is required in the current market, and those who understand this and are willing to roll up their sleeves and dig in will be the ones who will ultimately build a successful business.
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Driving past a corner, I saw the usual collection of open house signs. With arrows pointing everywhere, I did a casual glance to get an idea of where the homes might be located.
Looking closer, I was surprised to see one sign that had a different purpose. Instead of advertising an open house, in bold letters above the agent’s picture, it proclaimed, “List Your Home With Us and Get a Free Pizza.”
What?
I took a picture of the sign and looked up the agent when I got home to see how successful his cheesy “ad campaign” really was. As I suspected, no pizza parlor was depending on him as an income stream. Further, the fact that his sign advertised a pizza while the other signs on that corner were advertising actual listings was, in and of itself, a huge clue.
Truth is, these are tough times for many agents, and some will say and do almost anything to secure a listing. The adage, “List to last,” has never been more true since, in many markets, listings have been at a premium for a few years now.
Over my close to a quarter century in the business, I have encountered the following eight questionable tactics for landing the listing:
1. My signs are HUGE
I actually saw this on another agent’s listing flyer. This is one case where bigger is not better, unless your sign is on a 10-acre lot and is located so far from the road you need binoculars to read it.
In reality, the size of the sign is not a key issue, and, in fact, some cities and developments do not allow signs at all. Serious buyers, if they are looking in any given neighborhood, do not drive through the area looking for signs.
If they want to see if there are any homes for sale, they will pull out their phones and look on a real estate app. And if a seller sees a sign that is clearly bigger than the rest, that is not going to be a motivating factor in the choosing of an agent to list their home.
Let’s be honest: The size of the sign is not about the house; it’s about the agent trying to draw attention to themselves, which, in many cases, is why they boast glamor shots of the agent from about 30 years ago.
The number of riders is not important either, nor are the 12-foot-high banners, balloons and other gimmicks.
2. I have buyers looking for your house
Let’s get real: So do countless other Realtors out there.
While it may be true that you do have one specific person in you database looking for a home identical to the one you are visiting, over the years, the number of sales that have happened because I already had a buyer in the queue is virtually nil — unless the homeowner has reached out in direct response to a Golden Letter, in which case, they will not be interviewing other agents and the sign is usually a moot point.
As you can imagine, promising a seller you have buyers is fraught with potential problems. To begin, almost without exception, the best way to honor our fiduciary responsibility to a seller is to get them the best price and terms comes from putting their home on the open market. Yes, we may have a potential buyer, but that buyer should be required to compete with everyone else.
The key is not your ability to score both sides of the deal for you or your brokerage; it is looking out for the best interests of your client. Additionally, if you represent both sides, you are now in a dual agency relationship, which comes with increased potential liability and is actually outlawed in some states. This is a tactic that borders on dishonesty and, quite frankly, needs to stop.
One of the questions to ask in your listing presentations is, “Is there anything another agent may have promised you that we have not included in our presentation?” If they mention that another agent stated that they had a pool of buyers, use the following script:
“I’m so glad you mentioned that. One of our goals is to get you the highest possible price and terms AND protect your best interests. First of all, you need to know that this is a common tactic agents use to get you to sign a listing, and it is NOT in your best interest. While they may or may not actually have a buyer (the odds are very low they have a buyer for your exact home), you will usually get the best offers by going live on the market and letting everyone out there compete for your home, not just one buyer who is controlled by the listing agent. Additionally, if your listing agent brings you a buyer, that is dual agency and is actually outlawed in some states across the country. Your best representation happens when your agent represents you and another agent represents the buyer.”
3. I have a national network of agents
The premise behind this promise is the hope that the sellers do not understand how today’s buyers actually find prospective properties. Years ago, when buyers had to rely on agents to get a list of available homes, stating that you were networking with a national list of agents might have had some merit.
Today, however, agents no longer control buyers’ access to the listings since the National Association of Realtors (NAR) gave away the farm. This means that any potential buyer with access to Zillow, Realtor.com, Homes.com or any brokerage app has full access to every available home currently on the MLS.
With this in mind, there is absolutely no benefit to an agent bragging that they will network the listing to a national audience. In fact, as we discovered during the foreclosure crisis, when REO agents outside our MLS were marketing foreclosures in our area, buyers had direct access to properties that were not even showing up on our local MLS, meaning they had more access to homes than we did through our MLS.
4. I can sell your home off-market
This is probably true, especially if your brokerage is setting up an off-market directory where buyers represented by that brokerage have access to all of that brokerage’s listings before they go on the MLS. The question, however, is back to our fiduciary responsibility: “Is selling off-market to a limited network of agents truly in the best interest of the seller?” Data suggests otherwise.
In an earlier post, I referred to an agent from a company trying to set up an off-market network within their brokerage. She stated, “Our brokerage sends out a list of ‘market alerts’ so that we can see properties that have just been listed but have not yet come onto the market,” she said. “This gives us the opportunity to approach those sellers to see if they would entertain a preemptive offer. This is a huge advantage for us because it allows us to potentially make more deals with far less competition.”
Concerned, I continued, “Do the sellers understand that by not going on the open market and getting maximum exposure to all the potential buyers out there, their odds of getting better offers is significantly decreased?” Her response? “Maybe, but I’m more interested in the opportunity.”
This mindset, in my opinion, reveals a culture more concerned with agent opportunity than it is with its fiduciary responsibility to its clients to obtain the highest and best offers possible. I wish this were an isolated case, but my experience tells me otherwise.
There will always be situations where a seller wants to sell off-market: severely distressed homes, privacy or health issues and so on. In most of these cases, they end up selling at a wholesale price, not retail.
It is important to understand that these situations are the exception, not the norm. For those brokerages and agents who are trying to make this a part of the majority’s experience to enhance the company’s bottom line at the consumer’s expense, my personal belief is that it is an unethical approach to the business and a blatant breach of their fiduciary responsibility.
5. I am No. 1!
Stop, already. No one cares. A few years ago, our team sold the highest number of homes in our county for that year. Not one single person we talked to seemed to think that was a significant milestone. As you are reading this, you don’t care either.
A couple of years and a pandemic later, it is not even on anyone’s radar. What sellers do want, however, is an agent who will stop talking about themselves and their platitudes and focus on the seller’s needs and motivations instead.
The problem with many agents is that they want to confront the seller with logic and state how they alone are best prepared, have sold the most homes in the area and are therefore the logical choice to sell their home. That approach, unfortunately, does not work.
6. I can get you the best price
This statement has as much validity as the practice of consulting a Ouija Board to get lottery numbers. At best, an agent making this statement is misleading the seller, and at worst, they are blatantly lying. Labeled “Buying the Listing,” this practice has been around since the invention of the roof.
Experienced agents can head this off before it becomes an issue with the following script:
“We know that some agents might be tempted to give you an artificially high price to get you to sign with them — it’s called ‘buying a listing,’ and we believe it is a deceptive practice. Integrity is one of our core values, and we will not do anything to undermine our relationship by over-inflating a list price to get your hopes up or to get you to sign with us.
“We have run a comprehensive market analysis. We believe a fair market price for your home, should you choose to go on the market today, falls between $_____ and $_____. Because we know most sellers are not ready to hit the market immediately, we will come back the day before you are ready to go on the market and provide an updated market analysis to make sure you launch your home onto the market at the best possible price at that time.
“The truth is, buyers are the ones who actually determine prices, not sellers or their agents. When ready to go to the market, we will strategize together to set a price that provides the best opportunity for you to get the highest price and best terms. Is that OK with you?”
7. I will buy your home
While true on one level, the devil is in the details. Listing agents can state they have a program that will buy homes that do not sell for a couple of very important reasons.
First, the price they will guarantee is below market value. There are many companies out there that will buy a home below market price; the key is how much lower that “guaranteed price” actually is. In reality, if the home had been put on the market initially at that “guaranteed price,” it would most likely receive multiple offers.
If a seller mentions that another agent made this promise, ask them if they received a guaranteed price in writing and if they are actually OK with that price. In most cases, by partnering with companies that buy at wholesale, you can make the same offer.
Second, sellers need to realize that the initial “guaranteed price” is a best-case scenario; once the wholesale company’s representative walks the property, they will often start discounting the price due to “condition issues.”
While this promise initially sounds great, upon close examination, it benefits the listing agent and the discount buyer they are working with, not the seller.
“Somewhere along the line, our society has transitioned from being service-based to commodity-based. With service no longer anticipated in most areas of our lives, we focus on securing commodities in its place.
“If we can reduce anything we want to a basic commodity, then regardless of what it is (an appliance, a phone or even a car), the natural progression focuses on getting it at the lowest possible price.
“In a commodity-based world, sellers now search for real estate agents who will sell their house for the lowest possible commission. I frequently hear during listing presentations, ‘You guys are all the same. You provide the same things as everyone else I’ve talked to — why should I choose you?’
“As a result, if a seller is already viewing you as a commodity, then any list of features you provide in a logical format that touts how great you are will more than likely fall on deaf ears, since every other agent walking through the front door essentially has the same list.”
Since most agents offer very similar programs, bragging about your marketing plan is fruitless. Instead, you should be focusing on building rapport with the potential seller: Most sellers want to work with someone they feel they can trust and who genuinely has their best interests at heart.
Desperate times breed desperate measures, and, as I have discovered over the years, there are agents out there who will fudge the edges of reality to get a listing. When you uncover one of the issues mentioned above, you can respond simply and with integrity by pointing out the flaw in the purported benefit.
Never attack or demean the other agent(s), but simply present the truth and then ask, “As you can see, I have your best interests at heart — is there anything else that would prevent you from listing your home with us today?”
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A number of years ago it seemed like a good idea to pack ourselves and four of our young kids into a camper van conversion and hit the road for three weeks. We planned to drive from California’s San Francisco Bay Area up to Vancouver Island, Canada, do a loop across the Rocky Mountains into Northern Alberta and then meander back down through Idaho.
About three hours into the trip, we began to doubt our sanity. Not only did the kids not adapt well to the confines of the relatively small vehicle, but the tiny portable TV with a built-in VHS player we had thoughtfully provided in the rear belted out repeats of Disney movies until we all had them memorized.
After visiting numerous friends and relatives, we left Calgary, Alberta, with the goal of getting back to California, and our sanity, as quickly as possible. Eventful in many ways, the highlight of the trip came as we hit the Canada-U.S. border crossing at Eastport, Idaho.
While our two oldest children were Caucasian, the youngest two were African-American. As we drove up to the U.S. Customs checkpoint, I rolled down the window and greeted the customs officer. He asked the normal questions: “Where do you live?” “How long were you gone?” “Are you bringing anything back you need to declare?” and so on.
Then he asked if we were all U.S. citizens. I explained that I was American, my wife was Canadian, our Caucasian daughter was Canadian, our Caucasian son was both American and Canadian and our youngest daughter, who is African American, was a U.S. citizen.
It was clear the officer was having a difficult time tracking all of this, when suddenly, without warning, our youngest, a small-for-his-age African American four-year-old who was hiding behind my seat, stuck his small head out my window and waved at the officer. Taken aback, the official looked at me, at my son’s impish face, back at me and then stated, “I don’t even want to know; get out of here!”
And then, a number of years later, came 911. Everything changed. Casual document-free entry at the borders screamed to a halt. Shortly after, headed to Canada in a rush due to my father’s passing, my wife forgot to bring her green card.
While she had her passport and U.S. customs had a copy of her green card on file, on our return home, a U.S. customs official refused her access to the U.S. until, scant moments before our flight was to depart, they finally allowed her to board the plane, but only after paying a fine.
Fast forward to today, and things have changed even more: The numerous Canadian family members and friends scheduled to come down and visit us this year have all canceled their trips.
Change is inevitable
It has been said that change is the only certainty we face in life. The problem with change is that you seldom see it coming, but, once it occurs, there is no going back. Those carefree days at border crossings where you could enter with no ID are long gone. The possibility of any future trips with my young children is also gone.
It is true with relationships as well: I received a call out of the blue a couple of years ago from a niece. My younger brother had been walking through an airport on his way to visit a friend when, with no warning, a massive heart attack instantly ended his life. There is no going back; all we are left with are the memories.
We all tend to believe we have endless time to do the things in life that matter but, unfortunately, things change and, before we realize it, we are out of time. In the section of his book entitled Time Wealth, Sahil Bloom, author of The 5 Types of Wealth, makes some poignant remarks concerning time and the changes that happen in life, emphasizing, “It’s later than you think.”
“There are specific windows — much shorter than you care to imagine or admit — during which certain people and relationships will occupy your life. You may have only one more summer with all of your siblings, two more trips with that old group of friends, a few more years with your wise old aunt, a handful of encounters with that co-worker you love, or one more long walk with your parents. If you fail to appreciate or recognize these windows, they will quickly disappear.”
Most people believe they have a good idea where they spend their time. The graph below, however, based on the data from The American Time Use Study, puts things into shocking perspective.
The simple truth is this: Unless you make a conscious choice to spend your time where it really matters, the inevitable changes in your life will rule out many of your choices — and in many cases, much sooner than you think. Harry Chapin’s song “Cat’s in the Cradle” is a vivid reminder of this.
The irony of this song is that Chapin was killed in a car crash at age 38 when his son was only 9 years old. He not only never got to see his son grow up, but his career was cut short, and his son never had the opportunity to be like his dad as he might have been had he lived longer.
The choices we make now to actively manage the time we have remaining in a constructive way will set the stage for how we live the rest of our lives. — Carl Medford
You are more than your work
I recently heard of a woman in Canada whose retirement is scheduled to start in about 30 days. She is beside herself looking at the looming deadline, with no idea what she will do once this new chapter in her life begins.
She had poured herself into her job and, as the end is nearing, is discovering that she has no identity outside of her career. She had never taken the time to develop any hobbies or meaningful relationships, nor does she have a good relationship with her children, one of whom is homeless and whose whereabouts and condition is mostly unknown.
Making matters worse, her husband, recently semi-retired, has begun spending the majority of his free days on the golf course. Adding insult to injury has been the impending financial crisis in Canada, which has been dealing devastating blows to their retirement funds.
As her husband is gone most days, is unwilling to travel (other than to the links) and has developed a deeply negative frame of mind obsessing over the economy and their financial situation, she is left looking at what should have been a liberating time in her life as an impending nightmare. Instead of joyfully anticipating the days ahead, she is looking at them with dread.
A meaningful life needs to be planned. Unfortunately, many of us choose, instead, to live from moment to moment, letting the tyranny of the urgent get in the way of the truly important.
In a business such as real estate, there are no end of distractions that can come at us at all times of the day and without warning. It will take some serious thought, preparation and commitment to be able to bring your time in line with your future hopes, goals and aspirations. Here are 5 recommendations:
1. Take time to identify your life goals and priorities
Sit down with a pad of paper in a quiet place where you cannot be distracted, turn off your phone, and get away from your email and social media. You might even consider going on a retreat where you can have a chunk of undisturbed time to think.
Start asking yourself some deep questions.
What do you believe is truly important?
What do you want your life to look like in 10 years? Twenty years?
What types of relationships do you want to maintain or even develop as life moves onward?
What do you hope to accomplish after you have retired?
These are not the classic vision board items such as a nice car, trip to France or big house; none of those things will really matter if you end up with no friends, alienated family members and so on.
2. Analyze your current activities
Start with your days: Write down everything you do on a daily basis. Since days will differ, provide a list for every day of the week.
Interestingly, many people get to bedtime and have no idea how they spent their time that day. You should consider a period of time during which you have a pad of paper or journal with you constantly to record your times and activities as you go through the day.
On a separate page, list weekly recurring activities, monthly activities and then yearly events.
3. Categorize your activities
Once you have a good idea of where you are spending your time, split the various activities into categories and then rank them in order of importance. A model that has been used for years by many is the Eisenhower Matrix:
Dwight D. Eisenhower, a decorated military leader and the 34th U.S. President, served from 1953 to 1961. He was the Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force in Europe during WWII and later oversaw the planning and execution of Operation Torch and the invasion of Normandy.
As president of the United States after President Harry Truman, he oversaw the construction of the Interstate Highway System, expanded Social Security, and took steps to integrate the military. He also signed the first significant civil rights bill since Reconstruction.
Considered one of the most significant world leaders of the past century, Eisenhower was known for saying: “I have two kinds of problems: the urgent and the important. The urgent are not important, and the important are never urgent.”
Faced with decisions that marked many turning points in his career, he used this matrix to manage his time so that the truly important things were accomplished while avoiding getting enmeshed in things that did not matter. It serves as a useful tool to help us prioritize everything we do.
4. Be willing to make some tough decisions
We have all heard the analogy of a person spending all of their time and resources climbing the ladder of success, only to reach the top and discover that the ladder was leaning against the wrong wall.
You may become the top producer in your state or build the largest real estate team on the planet and achieve all your financial dreams, but, after you retire, you will be forgotten as the next person climbs the ladder after you. Success is fleeting and, after you have died, that success will not matter one iota.
In Bloom’s case, living on the West Coast while his parents lived on the other side of the country, he describes how, after realizing the limited number of times he could reasonably expect to see his parents again, he chose to relocate to be close to his parents.
My wife and I made the same decision a number of years ago: Realizing we had spent the majority of our time with our older grandkids in the San Francisco Bay Area, we chose a concrete date at which time we would sell our Bay Area home and move two states away from our businesses to be closer to the younger grandkids.
It has not been easy, but the pandemic changed the rules of engagement, making it more possible to run a business remotely. We also fly in to interact with our teams and clients on a regular basis.
Ironically, it is the decisions we do not make that tend to produce the most regrets: The games we did not attend, the trips we did not make, the time we did not spend with loved ones and so on. In every case, once the opportunity is over, it is permanently in the rearview mirror of life; there is no going back.
5. It’s not too late
While you will never be able to do some things again, the future is open to you with opportunity. New friends. New hobbies. New goals, both for life and business. While some changes may need to be drastic — such as a move to the other side of the country to be closer to family — others can be small, incremental changes that will have a compound effect over time.
As an example, a simple decision to leave the office at 5 p.m. every day and spend dinner with your family instead of lingering into the evening hours can have a compounding effect on your family relationships. If you can manage that dinner with all hands present, allow no phones or TV, and instead, engage in productive conversations, so much the better.
You can also set aside time to pursue your passions. I am amazed at how many do not have hobbies or other meaningful activities; many simply default to reruns on TV.
My wife just decided to fulfill a lifelong dream to learn how to sail. She has taken the plunge and is loving every minute of it. She also started to paint with watercolors, and we have discovered amazing talent that had been hidden for years.
We are in a time of massive change in our industry. Real estate as we have known it is gone forever. Factor in a morphing market with higher interest rates, limited inventory and the potential of tariffs, and we are in a veritable perfect storm.
Now that the changes have occurred:
How will you navigate the way forward?
Will you let the current reality rob you of joy and passion, or will you embrace the change and chart a new course ahead?
Are you willing to pay the price required to hone your skills, hunker down and press into the new realities, or will you simply go with the flow of the past and let your business and dreams get swept out to sea?
There will always be tough decisions required when aligning your life and your business to goals that really matter. Those who dive in and commit are the ones who, as life progresses, live fully, knowing that they made the most of the opportunities they had as they came along. In the end, they are the ones who are truly successful.
