Sometimes When You Lose, You Win !
Several months ago I went on a listing appointment in the Graduate Hospital / Rittenhouse Square area. I thought for sure that I was going to be doing business with this seller, but she informed me that she decided to go with another Realtor. It was a little disappointing in that my presentation was crisp, the communication was great and the rapport between us was excellent. But when someone meets with 4 or 5 Realtors, your chances are obviously 20 to 25 percent. In this case, she went with the last Realtor she met with so maybe she was just worn down from meeting with so many folks.
In our business, this happens. You cannot let it get it to you for more than an hour or so. You just have to keep moving forward and do your best. In this case, she met with the top agents with the top offices in Philadelphia. Not that is any consolation, but sometimes I feel better that a seller chose to go with a top agent versus a newbie who probably overpromised and underdelivered. Although I do know some of our seasoned competition will also way overstate the listing price on their listing presentations and get longer term listing timeframes only to do price reductions in the coming weeks and months.
So not to get off track, I wished this seller well and told her that her condo would sell relatively quickly as it showed very well and was in a sweet-spot price point. I told her to feel free to contact me anytime in case something were to go wrong. And something did. In about 3 to 4 weeks after it was listed, she contacted me about being extremely unhappy with the Realtor she choose and stating that she should have listed with The Somers Team from the very beginning. Her current Realtor promised her that if she was unhappy that she could withdraw the listing anytime. They honored that request and we came in and listed the property, got it under a contract a few weeks later and it settled about a month after that. She was extremely happy !!!
She told me the reasons why she was unhappy with the prior Realtor which there is no need to go into detail here with that. Bottom line is that client communication and paying attention to every detail really matters.
The moral of this story is that putting your best foot forward is what really matters. Sometimes when you lose, you win as the client will come back to you. Or that does not happen and a property will sell with someone else. But if you did your absolute best in your meeting, you were prepared, your pricing was spot-on, your marketing plan was flawless and so forth, that is what really matters. Folks will remember that.
Be proud with what you do !! Be passionate with how you do it !! You will not get every person that meets with you to do business with you. But chances are you will get most of them. And often times, you may not do business with them the first time around, but such as this case, the second time. And when their property closes with you, they are your client for life, as long as you treat them that way !
Please share your thoughts and experiences in a comment below.
Feel free to subscribe to our blog to stay up to date with our latest posts and information on the Philadelphia Real Estate Market. You can also sign up to receive the Philadelphia Real Estate Blog via email.
This
Beautiful 
The basement is full size and unfinished for plenty of storage options.
This contemporary 
isn't it ? It does happen sometimes, but you cannot plan on that happening much at all with other short sales. In any event, we took a lot of pride in terms of helping out this seller wipe his hands clean of this property and move on. Outside of a hiccup at settlement in regards to a title issue that we had already worked out ahead of time, this was one of the smoothest short sale transactions that we have been involved with. The seller said afterward, "Man, I am so glad I went with you guys". That warms our heart.