Who’s Your Naples Buyer’s Agent?

Hello Naples Friends!

I hope you’re having an amazing summer! Today I want to talk about who you’re working with to buy Naples real estate. I’ve recently seen a HUGE increase of Naples buyers agents who are very new or very old and not very successful showing some pretty amazing stuff. I hear things all the time from other agents who say their clients make comments like “I just love Shannon’s website” and while I’m grateful because it’s a compliment, without sounding bitter I have to ask myself…”Then why didn’t you pick me to be your Naples Buyer’s agent?” Is it something I said…didn’t say… the way I look…lack of not being in the right place at the right time? Because it’s certainly not because I didn’t answer my phone. So I want to take the time to ask you a few questions.

Can A New Naples Buyer’s Agent Direct You To The Best Attorney?

Who do you turn to when a deal gets messy? We hope it never happens but it does sometimes. The guy who handles an overwhelming majority of my business is the best in town. The number of people who were dissatisfied with his service is zero. The only thing worse than not working with him is being on the other side of him in a deal because he A L W A Y S  W I N S! Which means my clients always win.

#TRUESTORY I had a deal that closed 2 days before Hurricane Wilma hit. That was tough from the beginning. I had the Seller, we got a terrific offer so we accepted the contract. 2 or 3 days later my client’s attorney called.

Attorney: Hey Shannon, Buyer wants out so draft the termination.
Me: No.
Attorney: Uhm what?
Me: Why?
Attorney: Buyer wants out.
Me: So?
Attorney: If the buyer wants out, they’ll find a way.
Me: Like how?
Attorney: Because you guys usually screw something up.
Me: What’s their out?
Attorney: Did you give them all of the homeowners association docs?
Me: Yes.
Attorney: No you didn’t.
Me: Yes I did.
Attorney: Nobody does that.
Me: Well I did.
He asked 10 more questions that went the same way.
Attorney: They don’t have an out.
Me: I know.

During the inspections which turned into a complete witch hunt they blasted the house in efforts to make the sellers back out. It was a real drill. These people had 2 more re-inspections performed. It was really not a normal deal at all and each time their two agents would show up, their two inspectors, the two buyers and then there would be me. The bullying was unreal. I would call my seller’s contractor and say, I’m going back in…if I don’t call you in a few hours check that I’m not dead in the house. LOL! The day before closing the agent flicked around before leaving the 3rd inspection and said, “Oh yeah, we may not be able to get insurance with that storm so close so I’ll let you know.” In truth, I lost my mind. I approached her and said some compelling things that gave her more than a good reason to find some insurance for her client. She did and we closed.

2 days later that Hurricane hit but the cleanup and damage the home incurred did not fall on my Seller’s shoulders.  This is why you hire a badass agent!

By the way, there have been 1,722 “Back On Market” occurrences in Naples this year with the overwhelming portion of them being contract back outs. NONE of those are mine.

Does The Naples Buyer’s Agent Who Sells 500k Per Year Have The Market Intelligence I do?

I wish I had a nickel for every time somebody has said, I wish we had known about this place. We only looked over there and we don’t like what we bought. Team, I am a location identifier. What I mean by that is you can spit out a few sentences of what type of property you’re looking for or the lifestyle you envision living and I will have you all the way figured out. I will also have your property figured out.

#TRUESTORY

I received a call from a fan last season who said, “Shannon, you don’t know who I am but I read your blog and I have a good friend who wants to buy some Naples real estate. Will you help him?” Of course! I literally spoke to the buyer for like 3 minutes because he was busy doing other things. I was able to get like 3 details of what he was trying to accomplish. I remember hanging up and thinking dear heavens, I am good but I am not that good. I arranged for him and his wife to see 7 houses, 2 of which did not even fit but his friend had insisted they see them. So, I showed the first two his friend requested and then started my list with #3. We saw #3 later again that night. When he walked out he said, “Shannon, I can’t tell you how many homes my wife and I have bought because we’ve lost count but I can tell you we have never both liked the same house ever…until now. #BOOM A new agent and a crap agent CANNOT do that.

Why Order Takers Are Bad.

Those are agents that let the client run the deal. These agents can sell a ton of real estate or perform wildly unsuccessful so they’re harder to identify. They don’t care what their client buys, they don’t care what they offer, they don’t care period. Why should you care? Because if the property is bad, they’re not going to tell you. If your offer sucks and it will mess up your chances of being able to come back to the Seller if you really want the property, it can KILL your chances. It will also embarrass you so badly you probably won’t come back because you were not prepared to be ignored and now your ego won’t allow it. EVERYBODY LOSES.

Not that I’m bossy and tell people how to spend their money and what they can spend it on but I do tell people what they’re doing before they do it so at least they know what they’re doing. Listen, we are a secondary market where many people come from somewhere else and expect the game to be the same. Maybe it is…maybe it isn’t.

#TRUE STORY

I had the opportunity to work with an agent awhile back. He seemed nice and somewhat coherent but I’m always leery about working with agents I don’t know because I don’t know. LOL. So, I looked up his real estate history. He hadn’t sold a property listed over $1,000,000 in a decade (not teasing) so, when I got his feedback that said, “we’re going to have to talk about the price?” it made me question who “we” was. Truth is, I don’t need to know who “we” is but if there’s going to be a conversation between anybody about the price of my listing, I’m going to help. I crafted a HUGE market analysis and defined I think like 7 points to help them (buyer AND the agent) fully understand the values. I didn’t embellish, craft a bs story, I was hardcore honest and my facts rocked….seriously…they did.

The next day:

Me: Did you get my email?
Him: Yes.
Me: Did you have any questions about it?
Him: No.
Me: Did you agree with what I said?
Him: Yes.

Perfect right? Then he told me he was writing an offer. SCORE! He submitted an offer for 29% off list or more than the entire amount of the last 2 deals he closed. It was perfectly embarrassing to have to approach my client with that but approach my client, I did. Needless to say my Sellers chose not to respond and while I’m not always a huge fan of the “no response” response, it fits here. The buyer expected a response which is a terrible shame because he had not been educated on how an offer that low would shut down the other side. I think the buyers really liked the place. After all, it was their first choice and they had come a LONG way to buy and my sellers would have loved to sell it to them if they had been realistic with their number.

I’ve had buyers want to start too low. That’s ok. But, you’re going to hear how the story ends before I write it up so you are not surprised or underwhelmed when you don’t get the answer you’re expecting. If you still want to move forward, all green lights…at least til we get it to the other side.

While we’re here, do you know how many offers I’ve written that didn’t work this year? Zero. What about last year? SAME! You are welcome to work with an order taker but if you actually want an advocate working for you to help you get what you really want or at least tells you there’s a 2-mile long piece of toilet paper on your shoe, choose an agent who cares about you and your outcome.

Who’s The Best Inspector?

Did you know there are great inspectors in this town and there are crap inspectors? Does a new agent or a crap agent who REALLY NEEDS a paycheck hook you up with a tough inspector who might kill your deal because of the lengthy property condition issues or do they hook you up with a crap inspector who gives the all good sign?

What about that 80-page inspection report? Does a new or crap agent know how to read those reports? Do they know what a big deal is or which items on the report are cause for real concern? Do they know who to call when a specialist is needed? Can they explain what the report is even saying? Do they know how to negotiate repairs? Did you know that successful repair negotiation trends like the real estate market? It’s ok if you didn’t because new and crap agents don’t know either.

Does a crap agent tell you about all of the inspections you should order? No. They sometimes “forget” or “didn’t know.” I once sold a place where both sellers were suffering from cancer. When we got the radon results back the radon levels in that property were out of this world. The sellers didn’t know they had radon because they didn’t know it could be a problem. They never tested when they purchased. I hope their health issues were unrelated. There’s also a building that notoriously tests high. Not everybody test there either. Sad stories.

What’s going on in this picture on the right? What is the cost to fix it? I know.

#TRUESTORY

I won a huge deal this year because the first people screwed up their repair negotiations. Can you imagine putting an offer on a home, getting it accepted spending close to $2,000 on inspections and losing it because you played the wrong card on repair negotiations? TERRIBLE! Is now a good time to play guess how many of my contracts have fallen out this year due to repair negotiations? You already know the answer. Ok, we’ll move on.

#TRUESTORY

I showed a property this season which was listing agent accompany. While showing that agent told 3 HUGE lies. I mean really big ones. She’s never done it with me before but who knows what was going on. I kept mental notes and when we got down to the ground floor I said, “Mmm this is awkward but I need to correct a few statements made in the property. A. B. C. ok so moving on. I didn’t make a big deal about it but I did want my client to have accurate information before making the decision to purchase. She passed. If the other agent doesn’t know the lies they can’t point them out.

These examples are just a fraction of stumbling blocks I’ve seen this year and when you Google “bad real estate stories” you’ll see there are 559 million results. I’m not teasing, go look. I think I’ve illustrated why I might actually be a great choice if you’re planning on using a REALTOR. After all, you’ve been using my site and reading these posts all these years. We kind of owe it to each other to see it all the way through.

While writing this post, I received this text…how sweet is this?

By the way, if you’re thinking about listing, I have a whole other blog post for you. I’ll probably get around to writing it or you could just call and I’ll tell you. That one will begin with the number of showing appointments are requested but the listing agent cancels because they’re too busy to accommodate and the Seller never knows about it.

Ok friends, that’s all for now! Let’s make wise real estate decisions starting with choosing me to be your Naples buyer’s agent!

Best Regards,

Shannon Lefevre, PA
Your Naples Smart Girl!
239-595-6223