I’ve been to several people’s homes in the last few weeks. Not to list the property now, but to give them that “to do” list they need to get their home ready for listing in late March or early April. Having that list a couple of months ahead of time is very helpful to my clients, as it gives them plenty of time to do things, and the confidence that they are doing the right things.

Having done a few of these in the last week, I wondered if I would approach the topic differently if this family greeted me at the door 🙂

Would I have boldly removed all of the knobs from those kitchen cabinets, the ones they just bought and spent hours putting there, thinking they looked great,

…to show them the cabinets actually looked better without them at all.

Would I have swept the 31 garish knobs into the kitchen drawer if Tony was the one who had just spent his time putting them on to the cabinets?

Often the hardest part of our job is delivering the hard truths. Then standing back to see if the owners will be receptive to the changes…or will they “shoot the messenger”? Perhaps growing up where that crew was just a bunch of comare to me, gives me the talent to boldly give people the hard truths, with no sugar coatings, that they need to get top dollar for their homes. I never thought about it that way until this morning. But I can honestly say I’d deliver the same news to Tony, like a caring paisano, that I do to my clients day in and day out.

Real Estate is not for Sissies…it’s a tough job and we often deliver the hard news. In fact, it’s why I got into the business in the first place. When I heard agents saying, “I let the market tell them”…”Oh, I couldn’t say THAT”, “I know it’s overpriced, but I’ll just let them sit on market for awhile until they “get” that”, I was honestly appalled!

Agents are often appalled at the things I do for my clients and say to my clients…I’m appalled that they don’t.

There IS crying in Real Estate. There’s no room in this market for agents who don’t want to tell their seller clients and buyer clients everything they know. I’m never afraid that someone is going to fire me.

It’s always better in my book for the messenger to get shot…than for the messenger to keep the message hidden in his pocket.