There are consumers who shop around for an agent.
It’s a practice that I strongly disagree with – I think you should just hire me 😆 – but some people insist. It provides an irresistible opportunity for agents to talk smack about other agents.
This is what a competing agent said to a seller about me:
“Jim is tough to work with because he likes to create bidding wars.”
It made the seller want to work with me even more!
But it demonstrates how the general realtor population is stuck on there only being one way to handle multiple offers. I’ve been employing my slow-motion auction since 2009 when selling the bank-owned properties and receiving double-digit offers on every property.
What’s different with me?
A. I give every buyer a chance to buy the home.
B. I keep giving them a chance to bid until they reach their limit and voluntarily bow out of the competition.
Participating agents tell me regularly that they thought it was a fair and transparent process, and they appreciate the chance to stay in the game to the end.
How do ALL other agents handle bidding wars? They stop the bidding – usually prematurely – and then they turn off their phone and sequester the sellers in a back room and tell them to select one of the offers. Invariably, the sellers will ask for advice, and then the listing agent will point out their favorite.
Listing agents love to play God and select the winner (usually an offer written by their favorite agent).
Comparing this version to my process, which one is in the seller’s best interest?
Why don’t agents adopt my slow-motion auction? Because they don’t know how. They don’t want to risk it. And they LOVE to play God and be the decider.
I let the market decide.
Not only is it in the seller’s best interest, but my transparency is also in the buyer’s best interest because they get to control the outcome, not me.
In the beginning, I explain my process to sellers. Nobody has ever said, “Hey, I’m not interested in giving everyone a chance to bid up the price”, but I’m fine if they would – it is the seller’s choice, not mine.
Hey competing agents – instead of bashing me, why don’t you give it a try!
You didn’t provide the real reason agents don’t implement a slow motion auction.
Most listing agents see an offer and want to jump on it no matter what the number is. This is because their only skin in the game is their relationship with the seller. The amount the property sells for might net them an extra 5-15k (maybe more) but either way they’re going to make 50-150k. Dragging their feet for a couple grand isn’t worth risking the larger commission.
In the case of multiple offers seeing if other “bidders” are willing to pay more takes time and time equals risk in not closing. The benefit of being transparent and asking for best and highest translates to a higher selling price (assuming everything works out)
Experience is what you’re paying for. Knowing when buyers will pay more and when they won’t is huge. A couple hundred grand might not mean much to the agent but it’s huge to the seller.