Real estate is a business of dealing with properties and the people that own or want to to buy one.
And in the course of conversations, emails and texts messages certain responses to questions can scare a real estate agent or broker. The longer a real estate professional is in business there are just some comments made by buyers and sellers that are bright red flags. That make an agent or broker tighten up because of past experiences. 
The last thing a buyer wants to say to an agent or broker is “I’ve been looking for property for seventeen years.”
A buyer made that comment this week and I asked him why has it taken so long to find the right property and make the purchase? He said he had dealt with dozens of real estate agents and had a shopping bag of correspondence about properties he was sent over the years.
He went on to say he was retired, all alone, had all the time in the World to look at property and would like to spend a week or more touring the area.His price range was low, the expectation too high for the budget. And he blamed the agents for coming up short finding him what he expected in the buy low, sell high approach to investing.
Considering more than one property listing is standard, but to filter down the list of possible best fits means some information has to be exchanged.
To weed out the ones they list as wanting to see that have negative features they specifically spelled out they did not want in whatever they purchase.
The buyer has to let me help them develop a must have, don’t want list if they don’t have one. A price range always factors in because money is always an object, there is a limit to the budget to buy property in Maine. So to avoid wasting time for everyone, it is important to ask questions and from the answers help develop the best course of action in what to see, what to avoid in the real estate property listing match making.
When a property has been for sale for years and gone through a revolving door of different real estate agents or brokers who all took a crack at selling them, that is a red flag for a new listing agent.
Why has the property not sold is because of factors that kept it from selling. No agent or broker enjoys hearing how rotten others in their profession is either. Because when a buyer or seller broad brushes all in the real estate profession as bad to the bone no good, what the seller or buyer expected could have been impossible. Plus when everyone listing and selling real estate is summed up as inept, you have to wonder and ask “all of them” ? Really? 
Getting to a real estate closing. It can be thin ice if the right factors needed are plain missing.
Too high a price, possession date difficult, issues that keep a bank mortgage lender from make the loan with the buyer’s credit or the property condition. Unreasonable terms dictated by a seller can make buyers purchase other properties that are not saddled with them. A real estate professional is like a detective that tracks down the facts, just the facts and helps come up with a strategy. Here is more on why properties don’t sell and linger on the real estate market.
Often it is simple education on how the real estate market works and what typically buyers and sellers do in the many situations we deal with daily in every sale.
Difficult personalities can hamper the hammering out a solution. Being flexible in life makes everything go smoother and less feathers get ruffled.
But some real estate deals bloody the buyer, seller, everyone involved more than others. It can just be a series of what could go wrong does. The easy sales are the ones that can make you nervous as a real estate broker or agent too! I just try to be grateful and remember the ones that had to be toe tagged and the plug pulled. The difficult ones that did get to a closing but not without a lot of time, more emotion and a lot of real estate counseling.
When a buyer is under deadlines to get relocated, when a family in an estate sale does not have the funds to keep a place heated in the winter and are behind on property taxes. Those make the emotions run higher and each side of the real estate sale can not be so sensitive to the other end of the purchase and sale process. 
When a buyer says they will know it when they see it and has a long list of properties they want to see on a Sunday.
And they tell you their credit is iffy at best and that they don’t think they can get a house loan but want to see anyway. That is another red flag. If there is not way to finance a sale, if there is not ready willing and able to buy today and no chance of a seller carrying an owner financing option, nothing good happens. You strike out. Here’s the pitfall, the ins and out of rent to own explained too.
When a seller does not want to sign a listing but you bring me a buyer and I’ll make sure you get paid is the arrangement.
That is not what a real estate professional expects to hear. When a minister asks me “how can I sell this house without you getting paid” that makes me remind myself I work for a living. And should be working with a different seller not bent on making sure I don’t get a commission for services provided. (True story)
Putting time into deals where good results can be achieved. That is the goal every sale otherwise if I can not help, don’t get involved is the best course of action.
Expectations, setting them early on so the buyer and seller know what is going to happen. That works best but does not always mean they accept the wishes of the other side of a real estate buy and sell.
I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker
207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |
MOOERS REALTY 69 North ST Houlton ME 04730 USA
