Capital Homes

"It's The Relationship, Stupid!"

While I was writing the first draft of The Irreverent Guide, a had a wonderful writing coach named Jeff Stein. He's a professional journalist and has two books already published and is working on a third now. He was the perfect coach because he knew zip about real estate and lots about writing.

After he read my first few chapters, he suggested that I take a sticky note, write on it "IT'S THE RELATIONSHIP, STUPID!!!!" in big bold letters, and stick it to the top of my computer screen.

Without knowing about our business, he put his finger right on the point of it all! Whether I'm writing a book about real estate or meeting with a client, it's the relationship! And not just between agent and client!

* If you have two people buying or selling a place, whether or not they are married, it's their relationship, complete with any unresolved control issues.
* It's the relationship I have with the listing agents whose properties we make offers on.
* It's the relationship the buyers and I have with the loan officer who prints the money they'll need to buy the place.
* If the buyers are going to The Bank of Mom & Dad for the down payment, that could be one huge relationship - with some very interesting strings attached to gift or loan.
* At some point, there will be a relationship between the buyers and sellers.
* And it's an important relationship between everyone and the title company.

Du-uh!

Getting any transaction to the settlement table involves carefully choreographed teamwork. And whenever I get myself into a messy transaction, the first thing I have to ask myself is, "What can I do to help fix the relationships that are out of whack?"

And if I can answer that, I get usually get through it!

So Many Birds; Just One Stone

Last night, I did something really fun, and certainly worth blogging about.

Phyllis Patterson is a colleague at Coldwell Banker, and she works out of their Old Town Office in Alexandria, VA. She hired my chamber group to help “stage” a house she’s just listed for a very different kind of Open House.

Here are the basics of what she did:

First, it’s a beautiful home – new construction in Wellington, a neighborhood of the George Washington Memorial Parkway north of Old Town.

Second, Diane Duston, who staged this home, used a minimalist approach I love. Her staging does not distract, but it does help the prospective buyers imagine how they would live in the house.

Third, the food (Diane also did the catering) was fresh, simple and delicious. There was lots of good wine, Perrier (for all those designated drivers and the flute player), interesting cheese and fruit.

Fourth, she (for the second time) hired my chamber group to play background music (we played Haydn, Mozart, and Telemann). We were staging an empty room with amazing acoustics that made me sound like maybe I really had studied flute with Julius Baker and Jean-Pierre Rampal!

Fifth, and this is the really smart part for Phyllis, she sent out 150 invitations to neighbors, friends, colleagues and her past clients. And guess what? They must love her, because the place was packed by about seven o’clock! So, with this event, she was telling the neighbors “This is the kind of thing I do to market my listings,” and to her old clients, “Come have fun and see this fabulous house I just listed!” Do you think her colleagues might have gotten a little listing envy? And, who knows, I’ve had a lot of neighbors pass the word on to the people who actually bought some of my listings. She could easily get lucky!

Every year, I throw a huge party for friends and clients (most are in both categories) at my own home. And for many people in my client base, this is the only time of the year I really get a chance to see and talk to them. Now, I’m rethinking things. Next time I list something as fabulous as Phyllis's new listing - it'll be party time!

This is the second Open of this type that Phyllis has done this year, and I was left thinking that she is a master of multi-tasking when it comes to combining marketing, schmoozing and keeping up with her past clients in a way that they will never forget her! She really did kill a flock of birds with one brilliantly thrown stone!

And to my friends and clients who may be reading this, don’t worry! I’m still going to have my annual Christmas party – assuming the contractors have completed my bathrooms by then!

"Two Buck Chuck" as a Metaphor

In the world of wine-making, as in the world of real estate, consumers have many price/quality choices.

With wine, the sky's the limit, although most of us expect an expensive bottle to deliver a wonderful taste with minimal hangover the next morning.  One might buy a bottle of, say Wine Spectator Magazine's Wine of the Year (Casanova di Niri from somewhere in northern Italy) and spend around $70 a bottle.  Or...

A few years ago, my old roommate from New York invited me to dinner.  She and her husband introduced me to Charles Shaw wine - available on the west coast for $1.99 a bottle (hence the Two Buck Chuck moniker) and here in Washington for $2.99 a bottle (we call it "Three Buck Chuck" - something to do with shipping costs).  It is offered for sale at the Trader Joe stores and has become my favorite loss leader when I shop in their new Washington store.

So last week, as I drove home from a showing appointment, I was pleased to hear Steve Inskeep on All Things Considered report that Two Buck Chuck's 2002 Shiraz won the coveted Double Gold Medal in the 28th Annual Eastern Wine Competition.  In a blind tasting, it beat out 2300 other wines.

As a wine drinker, this was great news!  Yeah for the underdog!  Then I got to thinking.

I work for a firm that raises full-service to an art form.  Our broker almost obsesses over the quality of service she provides her associates, as well as what we provide for the firm's clients.  If there was a Real Estate Spectator Magazine, we'd right up there with that bottle of Tuscan wine.  But what if, I won't name names here, but the Two Buck Chuck of our profession found a way to do what we do but do it for a fraction of the cost.

So far, that hasn't happened, at least not in my market.  But I think that those of us who are full-service agents are going to have to start focusing more than we have in the past on how to deliver a wonderful taste with minimal hangover the morning after settlement!