One of the agents in our coaching program listed a house on Saturday; sold it for cash on Sunday; and received a ‘clear to close’ on Monday. He came to the call with an interesting question, “Am I missing something?” This sale was, in other words, too easy and trouble-free not to arouse suspicion and foreboding. The advice that came from his team was consistently cautious.

“Something’s bound to go wrong.” 

“Don’t count your chickens before they hatch.”

“Redo your due diligence, because you must have missed something.”

“Be on guard because you can’t clear the title that fast.”

“You’ve still got inspections to get through.”

“Expect the best and prepare for the worst.”

It was as if the whole team was in shell shock. Nobody said, “Hey, enjoy this one! Sometimes they come together and close with ease. Occasionally, we get a gift.” This is a team that has learned a valuable real estate survival lesson – when you don’t have problems to solve, obstacles to remove, and challenges to overcome, you probably don’t have any deals.

That’s why we build a percentage of fall-throughs into our business plan projections. Nationally, 17% of all real estate transactions fell apart before closing this year. That’s one out of every six transactions! If you don’t have something fall apart now and then, you are either incredibly lucky or you’re not doing enough deals.

And, by the way, real estate agents are most valuable when they prevent and solve problems.

Approximately three million people in the USA have a real estate license. The vast majority of them do fewer than 2 closings a year. Some of them do not know what they are doing and something is bound to go wrong. If you don’t run into one of them sooner or later, you are either incredibly lucky or you’re not doing any deals.

Buyers are going to back out. Inspections are going to reveal flaws. Appraisals are going to come in low. The list of reasons why transactions fall apart gets more bizarre every day. And yet, if it was easy to put buyer and seller together and get to closing, everyone would do it on their own. They need us. We solve problems, remove obstacles and overcome challenges.

Does an easy one fall into our laps every once in a while? Yes, of course…if you’re doing deals. Do we also have problems? Yes, of course…if you're doing deals. Appreciate the occasional easy one, and be grateful for the problem-filled ones as well. They are the surest sign that we are earning our keep. No problems? No deals!

PS. A new round of coaching begins this week. >>>Contact us for a complimentary consultation>>>

The Floyd Wickman Team Blog by Mike Pallin