May 11th, 2012 at 6:59 pm
As you all know, one thing you often need to do in your job is help your clients deal with and get around conflict. It is very common for some dispute to arise between the buyer and seller, or a client and agent, and keeping the deal together becomes dependant on whether that conflict can be resolved. With that in mind, I wanted to share an experience I had twice this week where solving a problem revolved around a very interesting “issue.” Specifically, we have a listing where the seller claims some personal property was stolen during an open house. Now, as you know, we don’t believe that we are responsible to safeguard a seller’s personal property. The Listing Agreement specifically provides that we are not responsible for any such loss and states that that seller will take reasonable precautions to safeguard her valuables. That being said, when property is stolen, the seller is upset. So, yesterday I received a call from the seller’s lawyer demanding that we somehow compensate them for their loss. In the course of that conversation, the attorney said to me that there was one specific thing that we could do that would help in making the problem go away. When I asked what that was he said that we “could tell the seller that we were sorry that she lost this property and was going through this issue.” He wasn’t asking me to acknowledge that we had done anything wrong or had breached a duty. Rather, he wanted us to tell the seller that we understood why she was upset and felt bad that her things were taken. He said that in two weeks of discussing this issue with our agents, no one had expressed these feelings to the seller and that bothered her. So I, of course, told him how we sympathized with her and felt bad that she had lost some property she felt strongly about. I didn’t say it was our fault. I only said that regardless of how or why it happened, we felt bad that it did and wished she wasn’t having to go through this problem. With that, the dispute easily settled. That was the second time this week that this exact issue resulted in resolution of a dispute. Earlier we settled a major lawsuit after telling the plaintiff that we were sorry she had problems after moving in to her new home, even though we never said it was our fault.
I share this story because I think it can be helpful to you as you negotiate your deals and try to resolve disputes. Please understand I am not telling you to admit fault. In fact, you should NOT do that. But you can express sympathy and understanding. Sometimes that is all the client wants to hear. With that understanding they are often willing to move on and close your deal. So don’t ignore your client’s emotions. While this is business to you, it is “home” to them. So by understanding and acknowledging their feelings, you are more likely to solve a problem, close a deal and have a happy client. And that, of course, is good for all of us.
As always, please contact us with any questions
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