Real Estate Marketing & Beyond
Real estate agents play a vital role in helping people to buy and sell their homes, but sometimes they can find themselves in a 'challenging' situation when certain clients prove to be problematic.
A situation like this sparked a lively debate on Reddit this week, with one real estate pro asking whether or not it would be better to just walk away from a client who proved virtually impossible to negotiate with.
The post, “Stubborn buyer loses home over stupidity, how to handle?”, asks for opinions on what other real estate pros would have done in the same situation – is it better to just walk away or try to make the client see reason?
Here's the full post from Redditor WolfofWallStr, explaining their recent experience with a 'difficult' client:
"Hey all. Had a buyer, I'll call them they "Know it All" Family. They knew everything, especially since they watch Home & Garden TV, Million Dollar Listing, and saw something on Youtube that one time.
So anyways, the buyer (The Know It All Family) submitted an offer, solid offer. Seller countered. The two were $10,000 apart. The seller then offered to meet in the middle, so they are no longer apart. Unfortunately buyer refused and actually informed the seller they are considering lowering their offer. The buyer used silly excuses such as values listed on the tax assessment of the property & replacement values from insurance quotes. In the meantime, the seller got a higher offer... we snoozed, we lost and it was all the buyers fault.
Now this buyer is angry and doesn't want to buy anymore. They're solid buyers, but they think they know everything because they read some blog on the internet about real estate and watch RE TV shows lol. Any thoughts on how to handle situations like this in the future?"
Interestingly, the vast majority of replies, which came from an assortment of landlords, brokers and agents, advocated just ditching the client.
However there was one lone response from a Reddit users called WiseImprovements, who advised trying to keep the client by talking some sense into them:
“They are going through a very emotional process that may seem pretty simple to you. It's a huge deal for their family and they are out of their comfort zone. I understand that you are frustrated but calling them stupid and insulting them online makes you look very badly.
“Just have a calm discussion with them and get them in the zone again. Don't vent about them on a public forum. It's a pretty simple concept.”
What would you do in this kind of situation? Let us know in the comments' section below.
