Written 100% by Suze, 0% AI

This Blog Post from Seth Godin gives an excellent framework for the reactions people have to the fear of change.    When our world changes (and it always does, more now than ever), we have four choices and only one of them is helpful.

If you are fretting about changes happening in real estate and in the bigger world, reflect on these options below and be honest with yourself about which ones you are choosing. 

Deny:  We can pretend that the world isn’t changing and defend the status quo. It has served us well and we will angrily push back against any evidence to the contrary.  We see change as a personal affront designed to destroy our livelihood or way of life.  We insist that it isn’t real or doesn’t exist.

Give Up:  We can embrace our perceived powerlessness and simply stop trying.  This is the waiting game that takes you to the stuck place; you are waiting for the status quo to return.  It won’t.

Control:  Some people understate their power, but others, overstate it.  These people will resort to extreme measures to shortcut existing systems and demand things go the way they want them to.   They will double down on things that worked in the past and adopt an aggressive mindset, sure to drive away the people that are critical to your evolution.

Respond: This path is the resilient one, the creative one and the one that will lead the way forward in the emerging environment.  People who choose to respond see and acknowledge the situation and use their resources to gain the skills, the mindset and the opportunities to thrive.  

The only thing certain is change.  With nearly four decades of experience in real estate, I can attest to this truth.  The pace of change is accelerating.   In the emerging real estate environment, you will need new skills, new mindsets and new perspectives.  The Nature of Real Estate is committed to aligning with you to bring you the knowledge you need to emerge on top during this exciting time in our industry.    

Eliminating Defensiveness in Buyers and Sellers

More on this next week but I’ve had so many agents struggling with this that I thought I’d address it now. If your clients, buyers or sellers are being defensive about their price, timing, or other elements of the decisions they make in a real estate transaction, you can eliminate that defensiveness in this way:

Stop setting yourself up to be in conflict. If you are giving your potential sellers an “opinion of value” you are setting up conflict before you even meet them. If you are telling your buyers that it’s a great time to buy, you are also setting yourself up for potential conflict.

Defensiveness comes from them feeling that they need to defend their STAND. In real estate, we are constantly faced with stands or positions. I won’t sell for less than…… I won’t pay more than….. I won’t pay you x%…… I must close on …….. the list is endless and a very natural part of any negotiation. As a professional negotiator, your job is to understand them and their position and create an environment where they trust that you are on their side. Much of the traditional real estate training does the opposite. It sets up a duality where they believe they are negotiating with you. They aren’t. And if they are, you are unlikely to earn the business or the professional trust required to put deals together in a balanced market

Real Estate has significant conflicts of interest built into the process. You only get paid if they buy or sell. You get paid more if they pay more. You prefer a faster sale and a shorter close. While most of us claim that we don’t allow these biases to influence our advice to our clients, they either consciously or subconsciously are aware of these influences and will default to positions and stand and defend those believing it serves their best interests.

Negotiation is about the complex nuances in deal making and helping people move away from defensiveness one key skill. Check in next week for more, join the fireside chat and sign up for the Negotiation courses.