When I worked for Kmetovic and Ingalls there were many individuals that I credit for my success. Of course there was Fred Kmetovic who suggested that I needed enough reasons to succeed. I will give him credit for creating a situation that led to a lot of fear. He was an individual whose style basically was to ask questions. He was a master. Every interaction was an interview where he masterfully extracted all kinds of details. He knew more about what a buyer wanted in a few minutes than most people would ever find out. It was amazing to watch him work. Everyone loved this guy. His easy way about him, complete professionalism and quick wit made you glad to work with him. I remember on thing he would say when we all went on a caravan or tour of new listings. During the trip we might be having difficulty knowing how to get to the next listing. Fred would say…”you can’t get there from here”, it still makes me laugh.
I want to talk about Dale Ingalls for a few minutes. The nugget that I learned from Dale, besides being one of the most positive people I have ever know was the thought that as an agent with a fiduciary responsibility that it was encumbent on us to be a conduit for the transfer of information. Whether the information is good news or bad news it has to travel fast and without any opinion on our part. House didn’t appraise….pass that information quickly and immediately as soon as you know to your buyer. House needs to be tented for termites, buyer didn’t qualify for the loan…whatever it is it is your responsibility to pass it along without attaching your thoughts or opinions…just get the message to Garcia…so to speak. You will not get an ulcer and you will be providing the kind of professional service that you were hired to do. I found this little tidbit served me well over the years. What many people do is get the bad news and hang on to it. Start fretting about it…trying to pick the right time to drop the bomb. Don’t do it…when you get the information…pass it on…make sure that it is communicated immediately. No one likes surprises and you don’t want your client to find this out from another source.
Another thing I learned was that when you are working with a buyer that time means nothing until they find the house they want. You can have a buyer, show them any number of properties, part company and wait to meet the next time. Continue looking for that right house and hope that the next time you work with them they will find the perfect home. Again time at this point is meaningless. Then it happens, they find the right house. Everything immediately becomes about time. How soon you can get back to the office or somewhere to write up the contract. It says on most real estate contracts that “time is of the essence”. This means something when a buyer has found a home they want. Now it is important to complete the offer, then present it as soon as humanely possible to the seller. Have the seller either accept the offer or create a counter offer and guess what…that counter must be presented as soon as humanely possible to your buyer. You don’t wait until later or even worse until tomorrow morning…no matter how inconvenient you do it now. You must move heaven and earth to make that happen and reach a meeting of the minds. Once signed then agreement needs to be in the hands of both buyer and seller again as soon as possible. There is literally no margin for error and no time to waste.
Finally I learned the next piece from an amazing realtor named May Mello. She was very professional. She made selling real estate look easy. She told me one time that because escrows can be lengthy, sometimes even months long that to keep her sanity she would envision the buyer moving into the house. She admitted that there will be bumps along the way but a bad appraisal, a problem with the loan, a bad termite or roof report were simply natural things that occurred during the sale and the escrow. Keep your eye on the prize and don’t let these things change the desired outcome. Frankly it works. I realized that as long as you had a seller willing to sell and a buyer willing to buy that these little things along the way were just a natural part of the sale. Visualize the buyers moving into the home and most of the time they will.
I want to take a few minutes to talk about the other part of all of my success. It was having a wife that was in this with you. My sweetheart for 53 years was that person who supported me through all of this. She was always there for me. She had all the confidence in my ability to provide for her and the family. She never waivered. It made the fear and the anxiety easier to handle. I loved her so much and I miss her so much and I know that I am better for sharing all those years with her unconditional love for me.
