OLD-SCHOOL OBJECTION ANSWERS

WELCOME

Hey, y’all! If I’ve learned anything in the past couple of weeks, it’s that life goes on. And I don’t mean that in a morbid, buck-up-l’il-camper, it-gets-better way. I mean that no matter how uncertain everything is, we reach a point where life is no longer on pause and the quiet that I’d been grousing about is now a distant memory. (More on that in a minute.)

I’m excited to get back to basics in today’s newsletter where we’ll cover some of the most common objections I hear and how I answer them. I think it’s always nice to have a refresher, so prepare to be refreshed!

THE REALITY OF REAL ESTATE

What’s Up? (Mortgage Demands, Apparently)

The good news is that in the past couple of weeks, mortgage demands have surged. According to the reporting at CNBC, applications for a mortgage to purchase a home were up 11% for the week and are 13% higher than the same time last year, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s seasonally adjusted index.

Here’s my take on this—you can only press pause on life for so long. So even though there’s still economic uncertainty, even though prices are falling or rising or there’s no inventory, life waits for no one. You cannot stay stuck indefinitely because we’re always going to see transactions because of diamonds, death, debt, divorce, disaster, and diapers. And the thing with diapers is, it hits us at the beginning and the end of life, so whether it’s welcoming a new baby, or welcoming your elderly parents, all of these six Ds are going to happen regardless. Real estate is not political, meaning it doesn’t matter who you voted for—those six Ds can and will impact you at some point in your life.

April was deceptively slow in Atlanta because we were dealing with spring break, Easter, and the Masters. While the rest of the country lost two weekends to these events, we lost three down here. But it brought us to May where we have five Thursdays full of new listings and new possibilities. The school year is winding to a close and people are buying and selling in full force. In the past week, I had a $300K buyer, a $235K listing, a $2.5M buyer under contract, and a $1M buyer under contract. Plus, I have two listing appointments this week and two more listings going live… all because life goes on.

I guess what I’m trying to say here is that your perception is your reality. Whether you’re a buyer, a seller, investor, or agent, if you believe the market is going to prosper, then it probably is going to prosper for you.

STORY TIME WITH GLENNDA

Asked and Answered

If we all believe we’re going to be busy—and we do—let’s talk about how to answer common objections from our buyers and sellers.

Here’s what I hear from sellers:

“We want to price our home higher to leave room for negotiation.”

Here’s the thing, Mr. and Mrs. Seller. You don’t have that luxury anymore. I literally had a client who said this to me and I told him, “You do not have the luxury to price yourself out of the market. The price you’re suggesting is 20% above what the market will bear.”

He replied, “But no one’s even looking.” Now pardon my French, but no shit, Sherlock.

This client was a value-driven person. He had an overpriced house and I knew that he wouldn’t buy it for that price, so why would anyone else? I said to him, “Why don’t we act like you’re a buyer for the neighborhood and let’s go look at some houses that are your comps. If you want to price your house for a million dollars, let’s look at these other houses like you’re a buyer. At the end of the day if you say, ‘Hey, Glennda, I would absolutely buy my house over every other house that’s a million bucks,’ then that’s how we’ll price it.'“

(Spoiler alert: he would not.)

You can always tell your clients if their ask is overpriced, but it may not sink in until you show them.

“Zillow says my home is worth more than you say.”

I have a case study I like to show people. In it, I’ve screenshotted what Zillow says the house is worth on the listing appointment. Then I screenshotted what Zillow says the house is worth when I listed it, and again when it went under contract, and finally when it closed. So I have every milestone of what Zillow posts and I can show them that Zillow follows my lead, not vice-versa. It is critical that our clients understand that I’m not taking my cues from Zillow; they are taking their cues from me.

So in my case study, I show them where Zillow said the house was worth $366K when we listed 123 Banana Street. I listed it at $425K and the next day, Zillow had changed their estimate to $425K, and so on and so on.

When I did my podcast with Sharran two weeks ago, he said that when you sit down with a seller, you have to do three things: you show them what you’re going to do, you give them the flow/the sequence of events, and you show them why and how it works. He calls it the Show, Flow, and Demo. Nothing accelerates credibility faster than proof, and the Show, Flow, Demo is the proof for your credibility.

“Let’s wait until summer to list.”

I’ll say, “So you’re not interested in selling to anyone who’s looking between now and then? I mean, you want to sell your house, right? Let me assure you, the likelihood that it’s going to sell if you don’t have it listed is very low.” That is when I go back into my toolbox and I pull out the data of last year from spring break to the last day of school and I’ll show them that x# of homes sold in their zip code and I’ll ask if they’re prepared to miss that many buyers. Plus, while they’re waiting, someone else is selling.

“I don’t want to make repairs or stage the house.”

Hoo, boy. Anybody who tells me they don't want to make repairs is telling me that they know there's so much wrong that it's a piece of shit house. So when somebody tells me, “I'm not going to make repairs,” I’ll say, “Then let’s get an inspection. Then, rather than giving somebody a seller's property disclosure statement, let's give them the inspection.” I do this because otherwise, we’re going to have so many people default during due diligence.

I had a client who didn’t want to do repairs for reasons that made sense, so we had someone do the inspection. I asked her if we could give that inspection to buyers and she was totally onboard. We gave them the inspection report and we cruised into closing because there were no surprises.

Now, for buyers, here’s what I often encounter:

“What if something better comes on the market?”

I may be wearing glitter, but do I look like a crystal ball? I have no idea what's coming on the market. When you're a buyer, it is critical to remind yourself, “I'm buying the best house, the house that fits my needs, the best that's available today.” Think about all those buyers who couldn’t make a decision before the pandemic hit, and then then pandemonium and competition when the panic-buying set in.

I know someone who’s been working with a nice couple for a few years and they are having the hardest time pulling the trigger. You’d think that losing six different houses would make them more decisive, but that’s not the case. People don't change because they want something better. People change because they can no longer tolerate the pain that they're in. People change more frequently because of pain that they do from pleasure.

Likely what's going to get them to make a decision is one of the Ds—like maybe when she gets married and she starts wanting to nest and decorate her house, or when she gets pregnant and she has to do a nursery. Pain is more of a motivator than pleasure. If you're somewhere and it's fine, you’re not in a hurry. However, if you’re in a neighborhood that you deem unsafe, if you're next to door to neighbor-zilla, then you may be very motivated to get out of that rental house and into your own house. In that case, waiting for what might come isn’t even a consideration.

“We're waiting for the rates to go down.”

Ahem. The girl in the last example could have bought a house at 5% and now we’re at 7%.

“That house is above our budget.”

Okay, this one was a trick question because we should not be showing our clients anything they can’t afford. That would be like me looking at at the 38 year old lumberjack. Every man I met after the lumberjack, I will compare him to the lumberjack, and the lumberjack is not a reality. So, anytime that a client sees a house that is out of their budget, they are setting themselves up for disappointment and their real estate agent is setting them up for failure.

“We're not ready to commit to an agent.”

I tell people that the policy right now is that for me to legally show them a house, they have to sign a brokerage engagement. The downside here is that it is literally like me swiping right on Tinder, sending the guy a message and saying, “I'm happy to meet you at Starbucks for coffee. But before we do that, I'm going to need you to sign a prenup.”

Before I represent them as a client, we have to meet and sit down together. I mean, I may not want to do business with them. Again, it’s a lot like dating. A man may not like me, he may have unrealistic expectations, like we are not a match. I need to go on a coffee date. I probably need to eat dinner with him and see what his table manners are like, and how he treats the wait staff. I want to witness how he interacts with his friends. I want to see him at a game to make sure he’s not lunatic when there’s alcohol and bad ref call. (True story, and trust me on this one.)

So what agents need to say is, “Absolutely no problem, Bobby and Susie. I totally get that. I think that you should see how an agent is. You should make sure they are right for you. You should understand how they work. You should be able to sit down with them and go through case studies and see how they helped other people who are just like you. And by the way, I don't want to commit to you either, until we meet and I make sure that I'm able to bridge the gap between your expectation and the reality of the market.”

No matter where you are in life, it is critical in any relationship that you understand your ability to bridge the gap of the other person's expectations and the reality of who you are.

Okay, did y’all have fun with this? Because I sure did!

@glenndabaker

Rapid responses to your real questions! #Glenndabaker #RealEstate #AtlantaRealEstate #RapidResponses #RealQuestions #GoogleGlennda #GlenndaTok

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

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I’m sharing exactly how I win the listing before the appointment even starts. From powerful pre-listing packages to authentic video messages, I’ll show you how to make sellers say, “You’re the one.”

🎯 Build instant trust
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👉 Watch the free Q&A — on demand now!

GLENNDA’S GURU

Welcome, James Dwiggins!

I am just delighted to be able to introduce y’all to James Dwiggins who is sitting in the guru chair this week! He is the co-CEO of NextHome. He’s a third-generation in real estate and he’s rewriting the real estate rule book in style! He didn’t just stroll into real estate. Oh, my stars and stripes, no. He kicked the door open with bold branding, fresh tech, and a whole lot of vision. His is a name you want to know, but don’t take my word for it—tune in and take his!

Thank you, James

GLENNDAISM

Today’s Words of Wisdom

GLENNDA BAKER & ASSOCIATES

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