Episode 03: How Do You Deliver Honest Feedback About Your Seller’s Home?

In Episode 3 of the Toe 2 Toe Podcast, hosts Jenn Murtland and Monica Weakley duke it out over how to deliver bad news or honest feedback about the condition of your seller’s home. Heavyweight realtor Sandy Jewell weighs in with her advice on how to handle these tricky conversations.

 

Episode Highlights: 

 

• How do you deliver bad news or honest feedback about your seller's home?
• Jenn thinks you should leverage your stager. 
• If the house has an unpleasant odor, that will stop it from selling. 
• Jenn finds it to be a slippery slope. When she begins to offer any feedback, she wants to tell them all the reasons why their house isn't going to sell.
• She thinks you can let the stager be the bad guy.
• Monica understands the importance of stagers and uses stagers.
• She finds it essential to discuss the home’s perceived value with sellers.
• The buyer’s perceived value is the condition plus the price.
• Realtors must discuss condition issues with their clients.
• Jenn will discuss some condition issues, such as the presence of a powerline.
• Monica asks what Jenn does if the stager delivers bad news and then the sellers confront her with that news.
• Jenn says she preps the stager and preps the client to avoid that scenario.
• We have to be honest with sellers.
• You are doing your clients a disservice by not figuring out a way to get comfortable with hard messages.
• Sandy Jewell, a heavyweight agent, weighs in.
• Sandy says you need to be authentic with your client.
• The biggest struggle is letting clients know how cluttered their homes are.
• She encourages sellers to turn their home back into a house.
• What does Sandy do if a home has a distinct odor?
• Sandy walks us through her sensitive procedure for giving the seller major hints about pet smells.
• Most owners are noseblind to odors because they live with them.
• There’s no gentle way to tell someone their home smells unpleasant.
• Monica argues that we have to be willing to talk to sellers about the things buyers care about.
• Ask permission. Ask if you can be honest with them, then deliver the news.
• Jenn would rather focus on selling the house and leave this conversation to a stager.
• Jenn almost always uses a stager unless someone has an incredibly beautiful home.
• A staged home is much better for the seller.

 

3 Key Points:

1. Some realtors want to leave sensitive feedback about the home’s condition to the stagers so they can focus on selling the house.
2. Some realtors want to find a sensitive way to have uncomfortable conversations about the condition of the home because they want to be very honest with sellers.
3. Find a way to deliver sensitive information about the home’s condition to the seller so they can receive a better financial reward than they would otherwise.

 

Resources Mentioned:

• Jenn Murtland LinkedIn | Facebook
• Monica Weakley LinkedIn | Facebook
• Toe 2 Toe Podcast Facebook Page
• Sandy Jewell  website, LinkedIn