The Blog

When we were growing up, we got to take a lot of after school enrichment classes. From Girl Scouts to tennis to tee-ball to cooking, when I was little, I had classes in just about everything. In fact, it’s actually become a family joke, where my husband sometimes says, “Don’t tell me… you had a class on that when you were younger, didn’t you?”

According to data on closings for San Diego County, the average real estate professional closes 5.5 transactions per year. That converts to one closing every 66 days. If you are only closing one transaction every two months or so, you may not see the kinds of wacky things that busy real estate professionals closing upwards of 100 transactions per year see fly past their desks. You may not have the level of expertise that comes with that significant number of closings. (But, don’t worry. You can take classes to gain insights instead.)

Attract Bees with Honey, Not Vinegar

As someone who is involved in a pretty significant number of closings each year, I’m noticing a new trend. Maybe it is a California thing, I don’t know. (After all, we do live up to our reputation as a pretty litigious state.) What I notice is that in order to solve problems, inexperienced agents often wield a stick instead of dangling a carrot.

If you need to work out something with the other agent, you’ve got to consider your options. Here are three things NOT to do when faced with a challenging real estate problem:

1. Do not threaten mediation or arbitration unless you fully understand what mediation and arbitration involve. For example, do not say that you are going to take someone to mediation over a $50 bill, unless you are certain that the fee for mediation is less than the amount owed on the bill (otherwise you demonstrate your lack of expertise). 
2. Do not threaten to report someone to the state licensing authority unless you are certain that they have done something that is under the auspices of the state licensing authority. For example, scam artists often advertise listings as rentals on Craigslist. Sometimes the listing agent doesn’t know about the scam until a consumer alerts them. That is absolutely not something under the auspices of the state licensing authority. 
3. Do not provide legal advice to your client unless you are an attorney. In fact, even if you want to give some real estate advice, only advise on what you know and not what you think you know. Seek a mentor or check in with your broker to learn the best solutions and then get back to your client with the best advice possible.

If you do not have a lot of experience in real estate, that’s okay. But, by all means, never ever wield the stick when you don’t know how to do so. Instead, dangle a carrot of offer some honey and work with the other parties to the transaction so that you can see the next successful closing in your future.