Have been reflecting on the difference between brokering at Adaptive and other, “normal” brokerages.
In normal brokerage, you mainly represent sellers. Your job is to present your client’s property in the best possible light and then hope someone buys it, warts and all. Success is mainly about convincing a potential seller to sell and to choose you to do the selling. The kind of person who can do this is generally attractive, charming, polite, easy-going, etc.
What we do is totally different. Yes, there is some selling, but it’s mainly in the beginning, when we’re convincing a client to work with us.
Once a client has chosen to work with us, we basically stop selling. At that point, we become almost like private detectives. We scour the available properties to try to find the one in fifty or a hundred that’s actually a reasonable deal.
Then, once we get our client in contract on the property, we spend 10 days or so doing everything we possibly can to figure out why our client SHOULDN’T buy the property.
Seriously. We use every trick we know, from estoppels to sewer scopes, to uncover what’s wrong with the property (there’s always something wrong; no one sells a great property at a fair price).
Once we figure out what’s wrong, we help our client figure out a way to mitigate the issue(s) if possible. Then, and only then, do we advise our client to move forward with closing and, therefore earn our commission.
You know what it takes to do this well? Hint: It’s not good manners and a gleaming smile.
It’s a suspicious mind-set, a willingness to ask impertinent questions, and an unwillingness to get-along-go-along. It’s the assumption that people are willing to be dishonest if its in their interest. It’s a rejection of “cross your fingers and hope”. It’s about being clear-eyed and bloody-minded and shrewd.
And, then, ultimately, in the midst of a whole bunch of dishonesty and misinformation, it’s the absolute devotion to being honest with yourself and your client.