The truth, early
How I run a listing appointment, and why most sellers have never had one like it.
Most listing appointments are a sales pitch. The broker arrives with a glossy book, a number designed to win the listing and a promise that the market will take care of the rest. Three months later the home is still for sale, the price has been cut twice and the seller is wondering what happened.
I do it differently, and I lose some listings because of it. I arrive with the three numbers I wrote about last week: land, replacement, prestige. I show the seller where their home sits on each, which buyers are active in their price band right now, and what I believe the home will actually close for. Sometimes that number is higher than they hoped. More often it is lower. Either way they hear it in the first meeting, not the third month.
Then I tell them what I would do if it were my home. Sometimes that is list on MLS at full exposure. Sometimes it is a quiet private offering to six families I already know are looking. Sometimes it is wait. Sellers are often surprised that a broker would tell them not to list yet. I would rather lose the listing than take it on terms that will not work.
The sellers who hire me on that basis are the ones I want to work with. They are not looking for someone to agree with them. They are looking for someone who will tell them the truth about the largest asset they own, and then execute on it with the same directness.
The book I wrote, The Inner Contract, is about this in a different form: the agreement you make with yourself before you walk into any room. Mine is simple. I tell the client what I actually think, early, in private, and I let them decide what to do with it.
