IF THESE STARS COULD TALK

WELCOME

Hello, all! I have a bit of a bee in my bonnet today, between cut-rate real estate brokerages and the agony and ecstasy of the Google review.

About 99% of the time, everybody can expect Happy Glennda or Introspective Glennda or Y’all Will Never Believe This Glennda, but today I am bringing you Not Gonna Take It Glennda.

Mind you, I brought the receipts, so strap in and please keep your hands and feet inside the ride at all times because it’s going to be a rollercoaster ride.

THE REALITY OF REAL ESTATE

It’s a Hard Pass for Me

I read an article on NPR that I swear got my blood boiling. The gist of it is that more and more buyers and sellers are turning to flat rate brokerages because they believe our commissions are too high. One of the people they interviewed is an attorney and he is dead-set against the idea that the more a home sells for, the more money the agent makes on the transaction.

I mean, please. We all know good and well that the amount of money we have to front to market and sell a multi-million dollar house is a lot more than what it takes to move an affordable starter home in a school district people are clamoring to get into.

However, the changes in our industry are giving rise to the flat-fee brokerages like ShopProp, which currently operates in nine states. In the article, the CEO of this company talks about how they had a client selling a $10.2M home in California, and they completed the deal for a flat $7,995 fee. And the buyer was so happy with the deal that he gave them a $1,000 bonus.

Sit with that for a hot second, won’t you?

I am rolling my eyes so hard right now, y’all can probably hear it. Let me just talk about what a terrible idea this is. Our liability on a $10.2M home far, far exceeds $7,995. Like, if we were to miss a termite bond, the exposure would be far greater. And then getting sued? That $7,995 wouldn’t even scratch the surface of what we’d have to fork over to defend ourselves.

And as for the high-dollar seller? Oh my stars, they are the ones who most often want to negotiate my fees down, and they’re the ones who’ll keep me on the phone for hours, who want me at every showing, who are expecting above and beyond advertising. Yet they are the ones who are often the most remiss in giving me the documentation that I need if the house is, say, also an Airbnb.

Your flat fee brokerage is like needing a custom wedding cake for your big day, and instead buying a stack of Twinkies instead. Did you save a few bucks? Sure. But every guest there is wondering if you ran out of money or taste. These places promise the sellers the moon, but basically they’re just going to list that home on the MLS and then the rest is DIY. Are y’all really fixing to trust a YouTube video to know how to navigate the biggest financial transaction of your life, and the one thing that is the largest driver of generational wealth for your family?

As for service, you get what you pay for. We traditional agents are there getting our hands dirty, (hell, we’re pulling rats of ceilings) and we’re the experts in marketing, staging, open houses, etc. We’re the cheerleaders and the therapists. And you don’t get that for $499.

Do not even get me started on negotiations. We do a whole lot more than just say, “Here’s the kitchen!” We are the soldiers on the front lines for our clients, fighting the bidding wars, battling with the inspection drama, fending off the lowball offers, and so much more. Honey, this is so above the flat-fee brokers’ pay grade that I cannot even.

Real estate is personal. And no flat-fee, zero-frills, unmotivated time clock-punching agent can match the value of those of us who treat our clients homes like it’s her own baby’s wedding fund on the line. So if these flat-fee brokerages believe they have a better way of doing it, I wish them all the luck in the world—because I promise y’all, they’re going to need it.

@glenndabaker

Termites… fiction or fact… it didn’t fall in but left untouched… Ultimately they are no joke! #GlenndaBaker #RealEstate #AtlantaRealeEstat... See more

STORY TIME WITH GLENNDA

Oh, My Stars

Okay, Glennda. Deep breath.

Let me just say this first, I live and die by the Google review. I do everything in my power to create a five-star experience for my buyers and sellers. (I refer you again to me pulling a dead rat out of the ceiling.) Google reviews are how consumers make decisions, based on real reviews from others who’ve accessed these services.

If someone didn’t know me from Adam’s house cat and were to #GoogleGlennda, my Google business page would come up. It is critical for all of us to have a lot of amazing reviews because it reinforces our credibility. The problem with this system is that consumers have wised up to the idea that they can threaten a negative review for monetary gain. The other side of that coin is that businesses are offering incentives for people to leave inflated reviews to gamify the system and that is equally wrong.

That brings us to this last weekend, where I received my first one-star review. I didn’t even know how to defend myself, having never received a bad Google review. At first I thought the review was from the buyer of my seller’s house but the name didn’t sound familiar, so I looked at the contract. Turns out, this person was the buyer’s sister who impugned my character and my ethics up one side and down the other, saying that I was shady and had pulled a fast one on my sellers’ buyers by leaving a house damaged and full of garbage, and also that I’d paid for a bunch of fake reviews, instead of working my damn tail off for thirty years to earn them.

To say that did not sit right with me would be an understatement.

I immediately reached out to the buyer’s agent because I did not know what was happening and I was not about to have someone I don’t even know weaponize the Google review system against me. Hell, I wish this buyer’s sister had filed an ethics complaint against me, because I can defend myself against that. But a Google review? I’m fairly powerless, save for being able to write a response, and then it becomes a he-said, she-said sort of thing, settled in the court of public opinion.

This bad review struck me pretty hard because it is against Google’s terms of service for someone to review a business when they didn’t have firsthand experience with that business and I said this in my response to her. Well, the buyer’s sister took down her review and instead, the buyer himself repeated the same thing, with all the same accusations.

Here’s the situation—before the buyers took possession of this home, my associate Evelyn went over there and found three empty moving boxes, which she removed. So hearing about a house left full of “crap” had me flummoxed. As it turns out, there’s a cellar crawl space on the side of the house that can only be accessed by the outside and yes, it had items inside of it. My sellers never once went in there because they didn’t have anything they needed to store in there, and also it’s a snake-y, spider-y sort of alcove.

Apparently what was in there was left from the people who’d sold the home to my sellers years ago. Had I known there were things left, I’d have had my sellers call my junk guy who’d give them a discount, as the contract states that the home has to be free of debris. So I am not debating that these items should have been removed. That was on my seller. However, at no point did these buyers inspect the home before taking possession, so we didn’t know we had a problem to fix.

I am not arguing that these items should have been removed. Instead, I am arguing with being called a liar, saying I ghosted them, and having my ethics questioned, especially in a public forum. Instead of me explaining how it all went down, let me just show you these screen caps from my response:

So if you want to protect yourselves from the kind of clients who also take their precious time to leave one-star reviews for Dunkin’ Donuts (not kidding), your best course of action is to make sure that your raving fans are leaving you the glowing reviews that you earned and you deserve.

Win the Listing Before You Walk In — Free Q&A with Glennda Baker

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GLENNDA’S GURU

Welcome, Avery Carl!

I am really excited to share this conversation with Avery Carl! Avery is one of the Wall Street Journal’s Top 100 agents. (While it’s not an official list, I would rank her #1 on the coolest agents I’ve ever met.) Avery and her team specialize in Vacation and Short Term Rental clients and she herself has a portfolio of over 100 doors. So, I hope y’all enjoy hearing this chat as much as I enjoyed having it!

Thanks again, Avery!

GLENNDAISM

Today’s Words of Wisdom

GLENNDA BAKER & ASSOCIATES

Like a Phoenix Rising from the Flames

Can we talk about what I call a comeback queen?

This house didn’t get a facelift so much as it got a resurrection after being struck by lightning. The place was rebuilt from the studs up—I am talking new roof, fresh interiors, and a glow-up that would make HGTV cry for mercy.

We have three full levels of Southern sophistication here with a spa-like primary, a kitchen that will finally convince you to learn to cook, and a basement so nice that your in-laws will finally get off your back. (And if they don’t you can always throw them in the indoor lap pool. Or the outdoor in-ground pool, it’s your call.)

Quiet? Check. Wooded cul-de-sac? Check. Beauty and functionality and multiple pools? Check and check and check. Welcome home!

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