Will you walk into my parlour? Said the real estate salesperson to the home seller.
‘Will you walk into my parlour? Said the Spider to the Fly’ … are the opening words of a poem by Mary Howitt, published back in 1829. The story tells of a cunning Spider who ensnares a naive Fly. It’s a cautionary tale against those who use flattery and charm to disguise their true intentions.
When it comes to selling your home, firstly, please don’t be naive. Understand this undeniable truth: You as a home seller, are the sales target for commission-only real estate agents.
Many sellers believe agents are focused on selling your property, on finding and persuading buyers to buy your property. It’s logical to expect most of an agent’s time and effort would be focused on this task. But it’s not. The main focus is on getting your property for sale. Most of an agent’s training, time and effort is focused on finding potential sellers and persuading them to put their property on the market. Once listed, the focus shifts to persuading you to accept what is being offered, so they can get their commission.
Pick up any typical industry training manual. Go online and look at the sales videos and seminar topics from the industry gurus. See the ego-based profile advertising. Ask anyone who’s worked in the industry. Be a fly on the wall in the majority of real estate offices anywhere in the world, and you will see this is a fact: the sales job in real estate is not convincing buyers to buy, it’s convincing you to sell.
So in effect, you are the fly. The agents true intentions are to catch you in their web – to win your listing.
There are many ploys the traditional real estate industry uses to entice you into listing with them instead of their competition.
Maybe you’ve seen the ‘Home Sale Guarantee’, along the lines of ‘If we can’t sell your home in three months then we’ll halve our fee’ ,or similar. Informed sellers understand: they are the only person in control of their home selling or not. So how can an agent make such a guarantee? Unless of course they are confident – once you’re in their web – they will be able to persuade you to accept what ever is being offered.
Another ploy you see regularly, is offering to put you into a prize draw: List with us and you could win a holiday, or a car…
But beware, these things – by definition – are nothing but gimmicks.
The Cambridge dictionary defines ‘Gimmick’ as :
Something that is not serious or of real value that is used to attract people’s attention or interest temporarily, especially to make them buy something. (Or in this case – list your home with them).
Putting you in the a draw with a slim chance of winning a holiday, or a ‘Home Sale Guarantee,’ offers you, the client, no ‘real value’. These things do nothing to ensure you maximise your profit by increasing your selling price and reducing your selling costs. They do not protect your interests or help you achieve a superior result when selling your property. They are just bait – distracting you from what is really important.
And when you think about it, the mere fact that some agents need to use such bait – in an attempt to catch you – should ring some warning bells. For a start, it’s is a clear indication that they don’t have a compelling value proposition. It’s proof alone that they are just the same as every other blood sucking spider out there. I mean, if they had developed a documented approach – proven to help you bank more when selling your home, then they wouldn’t need gimmicks to attract you. Further, if they could be trusted to truely serve your best interests, would they even consider using such deception on you in the first place?
