Controlling Your Emotions to Successfully Buy or Sell Real Estate
Buying or selling real estate is an emotional undertaking, and the pandemic has just added more stress to this life-changing process. In my forty years as a Realtor I have seen how negative emotional responses can derail a deal, or, conversely, can get a property sold. Deals are made or broken on emotion. My bailiwick is the San Francisco Bay Area, but the challenges I see today are not unique to my area: colleagues in New York and everywhere in between report similar roadblocks with their buyers and sellers due to emotional responses that are not always rational.
A big element in the current marketplace is the huge exodus of renters and buyers leaving big city high rises such as New York and San Francisco because of its high density risk and current lack of city amenities. But many sellers are still stubbornly unwilling to face the reality of a lower purchase price than they hoped for and blame Realtors for a lack of results. As a Realtor I had to learn to control my own emotions first and foremost. There were people I worked for long and hard who suddenly switched to another agent. There were clients whose properties urgently needed to be uncluttered or staged—and refused. (more…)