Welcome. 

The group is for agents who are either already outstanding in the field of listing expireds or those who strive to be. A few groundrules:

• All posts are private. This is not for your hyperlocal, diary, rants, or other sorts of blogs. 
• One agent per market only, please. We can’t give our secrets away to the competition. 
• In that spirit, if you are here, you agree to keep group material confidential. You also agree to not sell it or use the information for anything other than listing more expireds in your market place. We aren’t here to create gurus, we are here to get more listings.
• If something works well in one market area it may not do as well in another. 
• It goes without saying, but listing expireds is a numbers game that requires consistency. This is not the magic bullet group!

This past weekend, to my surprise, a brief rant of mine entitled Treat My Yard Sign Like Your Own was featured on the dashboard and got quite a few comments. Most agreed with my premise that the agent who removed my sign from my old listing without telling me where it was taken should have called me. A few people responded that if I wasn’t there to remove my sign immediately that I was wrong. 

That could be true, but without an unneeded rehashing of the details, let’s suppose I was indeed wrong. When did it become OK to do the wrong thing just because the other guy was wrong? We don’t really get a “free one” or a “get out of jail free” card when we are responding to something that was wrong, do we? 

I am on the other side of this 99% of the time. I won’t tell you how many hundreds of expired listings I have procured since 2005 but it is quite a few. I’ve listed the expired listings of newbies who quit the industry 1 month into their contract all the way to those of superagents who sell tens of millions, year in, year out. The story is always the same: if you don’t sell the listing you are a bum. If you get it sold you are a great guy. 

In every case, I have taken the old sign and placed it respectfully in an out of the way place. Sometimes, the sellers would point to an uncollected sign as proof that the last agent didn’t care or wasn’t on the job. They never asked me to do anything with the sign. Ever. Not my responsibility, and if they did I’d tell them it wasn’t my property. I recall in one case I returned a lockbox and heard an earful from the other agent. I’ve even had instances where a lockbox remained on my front door knob for 2 weeks and I was forced to put mine in a railing. We can’t remove electronic ones, so all I do is call the other broker and ask for their cooperation. They comply. I would do the same for a sign. 

I am there as much as anyone, folks. I have plenty of chances to be punitive or judgmental. Retribution is not worth it. We are in this business to build bridges, not burn them. There are bigger battles to fight, and giving a prior agent a hard time, with as many opportunities as I have, is not something I choose to do. If the other agent is wrong, you take the high road, don’t get down in the mud with them. 

A happy day to all of you titans of tadpoles, you efficacious fountains of fertility, you powerfully potent performers, you mighty ruffians of reproduction. I hope you have a great day. I’m taking Sunday off myself. 

Of course, getting one past the goalie really doesn’t make a father in my book, and my own dad set the bar pretty high. He’s been gone since July 8, 1993, and there isn’t a day that goes by without my thinking of him. I still have my share of days when I ask myself what Dad would do. My father worked his way through Fordham in the Great Depression, fought in both the Second World War and Korea, raised and college educated 4 sons, one of whom nearly died at age 4, and was a devoted husband to my mom for 43 years. He always tried to do right. He cared that we’d do the same. I don’t think my father ever had a selfish moment. 

I know that fatherhood has changed me, and I have my kids to thank for that. If I weren’t a dad I’d never do half the things I do, unless I suddenly decided that I liked earning a living in a field that is full commission, fraught with rejection and stress, and as challenging as anything else I have ever done. It is just human nature to go for the low hanging fruit. And kids change that. 

I was no walk in the park for my dad. I was born when my brothers were 16, 14, and 9. Dad was 46, and Mom was 41. My 9-year old brother was sick and they were afraid that I would be also. I was not. 

So when my brothers were grown, educated, married and employed, there was my father, in his 60s and retired, running me back and forth to wrestling meets, boy scouts, school functions, and things his contemporaries considered a distant memory. My college education cost what my three brothers cost combined. 

In 1987, when I spent the summer with my brother Paul in Texas, Dad flew down and drove back with me in my $900 Datsun 510 wagon, and I remember him talking to me for much of the trip about how it was in 1945 when he returned from the South Pacific. It was a big departure from his usual self, but we had 24 hours togther, and my mother was afraid we’d kill each other. I was 20; he was 66. We made it home just fine. He wasn’t going to let me drive that far alone. I thank him for that. It was how he was- always looking out for me and not himself.  

As much as I think I challenged him, I always knew my dad loved me. 

So, to all you dads out there with your own stories to tell, have a great Father’s Day yourself. 

The majority of my listings are expired property previously listed by other brokers. On occasion, they have not collected their lockbox or sign when it is time for my own, and while I can’t typically remove their lockbox, I can put their sign on the side of the garage or in an innocuous place. There have been rare times when I have delivered the sign back to their office, but I seldom do that. I haven’t found it to be helpful in my market. 

I would NEVER take another broker’s sign and leave it face down, put it in a hard to reach place, or take it back to my office. Who wants to put a sign in their car with ground crud, sluff through woods in dress clothes to get their sign, or, worst of all, have to go to a competitor’s office to ask for their own property back? Not me. And even if I listed your old listing, I wouldn’t do that to you.

This past winter I listed a home for a client who appeared to be a reasonable sort of lady. When the weather became severe, she took it off the market temporarily (We call that TOM around here, or temporarily off market) and then disappeared. I finally reached her daughter in late March, and the property was reactivated in late April. When it expired in late May, she elected to not extend me, which was fine- anyone who complains that their agent is a bum because he didn’t sell a house in 4 weeks is welcome to move on. Nobody wins 100% of the time.  

When I went to pick up my sign and lockbox, both were gone. When I called my ex-client, she tersely informed me that since since I didn’t pick up my things right away, she had her new agent “take them away.” She also said the other agent couldn’t reach me, which I know is false because my sign has my office number and my web page address. I informed her of this rather obvious fact. 

I got a call from the other agent who was on the smarmy side. If I wanted my sign and lockbox I could pick them up at her office. Bear in mind that this agent took my sign from a rather large wooded property with a 2-car detached garage and probably a dozen harmless places to place my sign if she cared to walk 30 feet. So now I have to make a second trip and deal with who knows who at the front desk to get my own stuff back. That is actually one of the reasons I don’t deliver an old agent’s sign back to them- even if I don’t try to appear that way, it is perceived as rubbing it in.  Not a very classy way of taking the baton.

This is not the most earth shattering thing, but it is a waste of time. I am forced to devote an extra trip to getting my own sign back- not much of a professional courtesy, and wasting another professional’s time has no place these days. 

It isn’t through the house yet, but apparently some Senators or their kids haven’t closed on their new house yet and they saw that thousands of people would lose out on the stimulus tax credit if something wasn’t done. While I love to sardonically suspect self interest, I don’t care what the motivation was, because we are halfway toward an extension which will have plenty of home buyers, including my own clients, exhaling in relief.

Often, delays are not the fault of the buyer, especially in lawyer-laden New York, where some attorneys don’t mix so well with deadlines. I shouldn’t pick on attorneys (although I can’t resist), because other delays could be lax agents, short sale red tape, and mortgage issues. If passed, the extension will be for 90 days, putting the closing deadline bat September 30, 2010.

Frankly, I don’t see a reason why they only gave people 60 days from April 30th in the first place now that I think of it.

Why have a deadline at all? What’s the harm in extending the credit for anyone who was under contract on April 30, 2010?

Are you a bigot who wants to be steered toward towns with a certain demographic? I can’t help you out, but the New York Times seems very eager to pitch in. 

This past February, Elsa Brenner did a nice hatchet job on my neighboring village of Pleasantville, NY featuring this pearl of wisdom, where she referred to the “7,200 residents of this affluent and overwhelmingly white village.” One can only wonder if Elsa has ever referred to any other area as overwhelmingly Hispanic or overwhelmingly African American. The title of the article was the not very subtle “They’d Like to Keep it That Way.”

I guess the editors saw that suggestion too, so last week’s article on Mamaroneck was just titled “Mamaroneck, NY.” Too bad the editors didn’t read the rest of the article, where Elsa delivers the following gem:

Census figures depict a largely white population; but when compared with similar neighboring communities Mamaroneck has more variety: Of about 18,400 residents, 18 percent describe themselves as Hispanic and 4 percent as black, along with smaller percentages of Japanese, Chinese and South Asian.

Can you imagine the scandal if a licensee were to say that? Of course Elsa is working as a journalist, so she has a lower bar than a licensed agent. However, the outcome is the same, and that is a sad thing for us all. One would think that the equal housing laws which prohibit steering and ethnic/racial considerations for licensees are something the Times supports; too bad they don’t walk the talk. 

I made my feelings known in the Pleasantville article about Elsa’s underwhelming effort. I was not alone. Comments were disabled for the Mamaroneck article, despite the fact that both are in the “living in” series. 

I do not feel that I am being excessive or mean spirited in pointing this out. There is a finite amount of copy in any printed article, and for the NY Times to waste space on discussion of ethnicity in a real estate piece diminishes us all. 

This is a photo of a recent lunch I took clients to after we closed on their property in Astoria, New York. I sold the house myself. The clients are Bill and Sam Runyon, and I have known Bill since about 1990 when I lived in Philadelphia after college. Bill was the stepfather of my good friend Pam, and we have always seen each other at different events like holidays and visits from out of town. 

Sadly, the last time I saw Bill was at his late wife’s funeral in Philadelphia a few years ago, and he has since remarried Sam, who was actually born in the house I sold for them! As many transactions go in this day and age, we had some serious challenges to overcome to get this sale closed, so much so that it was almost surreal to finally sit at the closing table with buyer and seller meeting at long last. But close it did, and since Bill and Sam were up from Florida for only a short time, we scheduled lunch for later in the week. 

Astoria has some fantastic choices, but thanks to my Droid I found Trattoria L’Incontro on 31st Street and it was superlative. There is something wonderful about breaking bread with people after you’ve experienced such a significant chapter in their lives together.  There is a buttoning up feeling, a sense of completion and accomplishment in the space at events like this, and it feeds me to bask in that vibe. This is especially the case in this instance because I have known Bill for so long.

I don’t know when I’ll see Bill again, because he is now in Florida and remarried. I’m sure I’ll run into him again if we are visiting with his stepdaughters at the same time, but this will remain in my memory, along with many other happy recollections whenever you can do a good job for a friend. We do more than sell houses. Sometimes, we are master of ceremonies for the life passages of others. 

In two separate cases recently, I have had agents in my company attempt to list a home and lose the decision to another broker who promised a lower commission. In both cases, the homes were very expensive, and the homeowners justified their decisions based on how much they’d save if they paid 1% less in commission. 

Of course, in both cases, the listings were overpriced. 

By and large, the following is the summary of my coaching to these agents so that they get more listings to commit to them. 

Sub par brokers cannot sell on value or performance, so their only options are to cut their fees or promise an unrealistic sales price. This is sabotage. A lower commission is no savings whatsoever if the house does not sell. There is no savings. None.  

We charge our commission for selling the home successfully. If we don’t sell it, then the homeowner pays zero commission. None. So when we do sell it, we are worth every penny, because we brought in the most money the market would bear. 

If someone lists their home with a broker who does not have the revenue for a competitive cooperative commission to other MLS brokers or a strong marketing campaign, then the only way for the house to sell is to lower the price until the market is compelled to move. And that, my friends, can be a very, very low price. 

If on the other hand a home is listed with a broker with a comprehensive marketing plan with superior exposure and ability to attract the interest of multiple parties, the leverage on sales price is upward, not downward. If you have a $500,000 house and you pay 1% less in commission, that is $5000 “saved.” But if you have to reduce the price, it is probably at least $10,000, and probably going all the way to $475,000-or $25,000 lower- to get the job done. 

Therefore, a 1% “higher” commission is no issue whatsoever- if it doesn’t sell you don’t pay it. Moreover, if you are forced to rely only on price reduction after price reduction to sell, you are saving nothing- you are losing money, because I know of very few price reductions of 1% that make any difference. A price reduction that impacts is typically far higher than 1%, which not only nullifies a broker who cannot do anything other than discount, it makes the guy who charges more but gets the job done a bargain. 

Summary: Our fee is not an issue when we can show via our company track record that our listings sell for more, faster. That is savings. 

I have had a number of discussions with home owners lately where they make a reference to the “market value” of their home, as in “well, the market value of my home is $500,000, so I won’t take that $475,000 offer.”

This is faulty logic. The market value of a home is not some figure published somewhere. There is no blue book for houses. There is assessed value set by the municipality and there is appraised value done by lenders, but both are just educated guesses as to how the buying public will be have. 

Market value is what the buying public is willing to pay for your home. Appraised value and assessed value are educated guesses by 3rd parties. 

In two cases, I had clients learn this the hard way. In one example, I had sellers who were listed at an outlandish price by a previous broker and chased the market for over a year with me. When they adjusted their price with me, it always seemed to be too little too late. It took 2 competing bids at the same time, niether of which would offer more than 90% of asking, to have the sellers get it. I would estimate that the house sold for $30,000 less than they could have gotten had they taken my advice earlier. 

The second case was a cash buyer who took my advice and had the house appraised after their offer was accpted as part of their due diligence. When the appraisal came in low, they hesitated, and another buyer came in and offered $50,000 more than what our appraised value was. They got the house. We lost it. We found a better home later, but the lesson was learned. Markets are dynamic. 

“Market value” is an overused phrase, considering how often any particular property is sold (not often). However, if you are going to use the term, it is wise to understand that the buying public, the active, dynamic market, is the final arbiter of value. Everything else is just an opinion. 

I may have contributed to a small controversy yesterday when I suggested Alex Chang’s Placing all your online focus on Google SEO today…is like betting on Yahoo! 5 years ago for a feature. I’m probably not the only one who flagged the post, but it did start a “Google vs Facebook” debate which is probably the biggest non sequitor on the planet* right now. The point of the post was that like Google 5 years ago, Facebook is the next big thing for forward-thinking real estate professionals, and leveraging the tool is a worthwhile endeavor. That’s not just me talking- go to Raincamp. 

Facebook matters, and here’s why. At the end of the day, we as licensees, loan officers and etcetera, do business with either our sphere of influence (SOI, or people you know) or the targets of our marketing (Strangers). If you’ve ever had a friend, relative or associate list or buy with someone else and felt the sting of them not using you, you understand the power of your personal SOI. In my neck of the woods, with a $600,000+ median price, I don’t need to tell you how big a bite in the fanny it is when a friend or relative does business with someone who is not ME. One of the biggest reasons we lose SOI business is that they didn’t think of us. They just forgot, because another person asserted themselves somehow; a co worker, neighbor, friend from church, or (shudder) a Facebook friend.

When I graduated college in 1989, I thought I’d sell financial products like my older brother, who was successful at it. He discouraged me, because, as he aptly pointed out, I didn’t know anyone who had money to invest. He knew a slew of fellow pre-meds from college who were now physicians, and he was very networked in Rugby. I knew bar bouncers and fellow broke recent grads. I looked into financial sales, but they all advised me to do the same thing: make a list of 100 people you know, contact them, and inform them that you want to be their financial advisor.  It was that way with every sales job where the clientèle was SOI: make a list and solicit your friends. 

So I spent 7 years selling Catholic school principals, Franciscan nuns and Dominican Sisters programmed learning for their resource rooms and needy students because I was unwilling to call people I hadn’t bothered to reach out to since high school and sell them insurance. There was no Internet back then. Nobody licked stamps. You lost touch. 

Here is why Facebook is a game changer for business. Connecting with your entire SOI on Facebook is like walking into a virtual, massive college and high school reunion and discreetly passing out your business card without the posture of soliciting. You are on their mind again, even if you are complimenting them on pics of their children, and they know you sell houses. You aren’t chasing them down about it. It works. There are other applications also (Get thee to Raincamp), like business pages for clientèle, which is the application Alex makes, but in both cases, Facebook has what we want: the attention of our sphere of influence. It is not a competitor to search engine optimization, but it is another useful tool for expanding business. It is the best SOI tool I know. 

I’ll be applying the roost application to my Facebook business page for these reasons. It makes sense to me. I have actually been reticent to post on this because it might help my competition, but then it occurred to me that everyone has a different SOI.

*Sorry; the biggest non sequitor on the planet is that BP is run by jerks. So what if it is. Clean up the oil and then we can discuss whether or not they are worse than Exxon, Enron, B of A,or J. Philip Real Estate. 

Peekskill is one of the older River towns in Westchester County. I have blogged about Peekskill before, and I have done quite a bit of business there. It is by far the northernmost city in Westchester county, and in addition to being affordable, the quality of life there seems to improve by the week. This is the market data for May of 2010 for single family homes in Peekskill, and all information is sourced from the Westchester-Putnam MLS.

Prices are down quite a bit here, from a median price in May of 2009 of $440,500 to a mere $255,000. There were only 2 transaction in each month, which might not be considered a representative sample, but there are also 16 homes under contract and their median asking price is $297,000. 63 homes are actively for sale.

The last year that the median price in Peekskill was below $300,000 was 2003. Now is a god time to buy real estate in Peekskill. Get yourself a free Listingbook account and check out homes for sale in Peekskill. 

I like White Plains. It is the county seat of Westchester, has a great downtown, lots of pretty pre war buildings, and for some reason, even though I am over here in Briarcliff, I sell a lot of houses there. I have 2 deals going as I write this.  It has several sections, such as North White Plains, Downtown (which has those pretty apartments and a cool skyline), Battle Hill, Rosedale and Gedney Farms. It also has a big co-op and condo market which I’ll cover another time. All information is from the Westchester Putnam Multiple Listing Service for single family homes in White Plains.

Prices are down in 2010 from 2009 just a bit, with the median sales price slipping from $590,000 to $546,000 on 9 closings in each year respectively. However, while prices may be down, there is one really interesting blip about 2010 that is worth noting: the median asking price in May 2010 was $535,000. The median sales price was actually higher than the asking price. Are there competitive bids now? The answer is yes, and I know this firsthand.

More good news for White Plains is that there are 49 homes under contract, which is a hugely healthy figure, and at a median price of $610,000, home values are on the rise in White Plains.

There are 154 active listings, so even with all this activity buyer have plenty of options. If you want to check out a White Plains home for yourself, get a free Listingbook account and search White Plains homes for sale like an agent. 

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Croton on Hudson is a charming village located in northwest Westchester County in the town of Cortlandt.  This market report is for single family homes in the Croton-Harmon school district, which is not coterminous with the village but is close.  All information is from the Westchester Putnam Multiple Listing Service. 

Prices are up considerably in Croton, but there were only 3 closed sales in May compared to 6 in May 2009. The area tends to be in close harmony with the school year cycle, so I expect a busy June because school is out and the stimulus deadline is June 30.

11 homes are under contract or pending sale, and there are 68 homes listed actively for sale. Buyers have lots of options to choose from in Croton. 

To give some perspective, Croton had 1 closing in May of 2006 and 6 closings in May 2005, at the height of the market. 

While compiling the May 2010 market data for Briarcliff Manor and Pleasantville, two of my favorite places, I found an interesting thing. 

Nothing sold in May. In either place. Granted, neither is a teeming metropolis, but nothing is , well, nothing.

What does it mean? I’ll tell you. 

Nothing. It means nothing. Well, maybe something: June will be a heavy month. So, given the lack of results, I put the two neighboring villages together for the purposes of this update. 

May 2010 Sales: Zero      May 2009 Sales: 6 at a median price of $775,000

Pending/Under contract: 28. Median Price: $689,111

Active: 117. Median Price: $709,000

There is plenty of pending business, and the June 30 deadline may be a factor. 

May was an anomaly. There is plenty of activity in Briarcliff and Pleasantville. 

The town of Yorktown is located in northern Westchester County, and is primarily split into the Yorktown and Lakeland school districts, with small areas located in the Croton and Ossining districts. All information is from the Westchester Putnam Multiple Listing Service. 

Yorktown saw an increase in median price for May 2010 compared to May 2009 but the transaction total was smaller. However, the number of homes under contract is very healthy. 

Transaction totals fell from 13 to 8; Median price is up from $385,000 to $436,250; and a whopping 60 homes are under contract for sale at a median asking price of $427,450. That pending sale data is all good news. 

There are 217 homes actively for sale, and there is still plenty of warm weather left for those homes to move. 

Located in northwest Westchester County, the Hendrick Hudson School district is in the town of Cortlandt and encompasses parts of Croton, Cortlandt Manor, Peekskill, and all of Montrose, Verplanck and Buchanan. All information is from the Westchester Putnam Multiple Listing Service. 

The district mirrors the uptick in activity and price for May 2010 compared to May 2009 that I have observed in other locales. 

Transaction totals have risen from 4 to 6; Median price is up from $344,500 to $425,00; and 8 homes are under contract for sale at a median asking price of $479,000. There is even a home under contract priced well over $900,000. That is all good news. 

15 Homes are under contract. 90 homes are actively for sale, giving the area over a year of available inventory.

What to conclude? A few thoughts:

• 2010 is better than 2009
• That isn’t saying much, but we are past the nadir.
• Barring another crisis, and I think we’ve wrung them all out, we are in the beginning of a very slow recovery. 

This past week I had a day where the schedule actually allowed me take both Mark and Catherine with me to work. Mark was early in the day, and Catherine rode with me after school. It was the first time in a long time I was able to acquiesce to my her almost daily beg to let her come with me. 

Mark is three, and I am still getting used to the fact that he is more adept at engaging in a conversation with each passing day. We had a nice chat as I drove to Yorktown and Scarsdale to take some BPO photos, and while in Yorktown we had a chance to go to Carvel. This was Mark’s first experience with Carvel ice cream. He had a dish of soft vanilla (his choice) and rainbow sprinkles (my suggestion). The picture says it all. I enjoyed watching him discover ice cream and sprinkles. 

Later, Catherine had her turn, which she really relished. Catherine is 6 and asks every day to come with me, and on rare occasions I can bring her along. I had to pick up contracts at an attorney’s office, deliver them, install a lock box, and take interior photos of a new co op listing in White Plains. When we arrived at the lawyer’s office to pick up the contract, the attorney and her paralegal had a nice moment with Catherine. I explained how she lobbied to come, and Donna said a very nice thing: “Catherine should see what some grown up ladies do.” Indeed. 

The lobby of the office where I was deliver the contract had a big mirror, so we took a quick Cat and Dad photo. I love this photo because it captures us. I am her hero. 

I seldom get to mix business and pleasure, and spending a rare period of my day falling in love with my cubs again was a rare treat. It is times like this that I am glad to be my own boss. I hope we can do it again soon, and I’m sure it will be every bit as fun. 

Last time I looked, there are over 650 Active Rain members who are based in Westchester County. They include real estate brokers, agents, lenders, appraisers, inspectors, and many other real estate related endeavors.

Westchester County has close to 50 municipalities, about 1 million residents, almost 7000 licensed agents, and a diverse community, ranging from cities to horse farms. We have the Long Island Sound and the Bronx to the south, Connecticut to the east, the Hudson river to the west and the rest of New York upstate from us. Manhattan is a stone’s throw, and the Hamptons, Catskills, Jersey Shore, Finger Lakes and Poconos are all a day trip away.

I am of the opinion that Westchester County real estate brokers and agents are among the best in the nation. I am a proud Vice President of the Westchester Multiple Listing Service, and broker owner of a firm with 15 agents who primarily do business in the county, and I can vouch for my colleagues with few reservations.

So whether you live and work here, visit occasionally, or just like to read about the place, you are welcome to join.

I belong or have belonged to the Greater Rochester Association of Realtors (GRAR), the Long Island Board of Realtors (LIBOR), Orange County Association of Realtors (OCAR) and MLS systems in Connecticut, the Hudson Valley and all through Metro New York spanning over one dozen counties or boroughs in 2 states. In my experience, the professionalism of Westchester brokers and agents is second to none, and we should be proud of our collegiality, ethics, and cooperative spirit. 

I heard it said best that we are not simply in competition because we work at different brokerages, we are “co-op-atition.” I think that says it all. 

Please feel free to post your locally focused blog posts, market reports, rants, war stories, pats on the back, self congratulations, and anything else that is on your mind. 

If I can personally be of any assistance to anyone in this forum please do not hesitate to reach out. 

Jonathan Washburn has written a very good oath for licensees to aspire to, and, being the mischievous imp that I am, I have a few modest suggestions of my own to “raise the bar.” 

1. I will limit my voice mail greeting to 20 seconds or less, and if I do not, I will tell you what button to press to skip it (the infomercial amendment). 
2. I will update my photo every 10 years, 30 pounds, or cosmetic surgery, whichever comes first (the “she’s not a hottie she’s a granny” amendment).
3. If I publish a property tax figure that is more than 5% lower than the actual amount, I will personally reimburse the buyer the difference at closing (the “buyer agent to do my work for me” rebuttal).
4. I will publish my cell phone number somewhere, either on the MLS or my website, and instruct my front desk to give it out to those seeking me (the “I’m too important to care that it isn’t 2005” amendment). 
5. If I tell a buyer that they’ll “get a better deal if they go through me” on my listing rather than use their buyer agent they just told me they were working with, I will buy that buyer agent’s groceries for a year, regardless of the ploy working or not (the raving #$%^@& amendment). 
6. I will not pretend that a cash offer somehow ameliorates offering more than 10% less than asking price under any circumstances (the “cash does not cure cancer” amendment).
7. I will never be a drama queen when a cooperating agent comes in with an offer I would consider too low (the “you can’t blame them for trying” corollary).  
8. If someone calls to ask a simple question on my listing, I will politely give them a simple answer without first demanding their name, contact information, email, or teen daughter’s Facebook handle (the “we don’t sell used cars” amendment). 
9. If I remind a cooperating agent how many years I am in the business more than once, they get to pie my face immediately with one of the following flavors: Cherry, Blueberry, Key Lime, Lemon Meringue, or Strawberry Rhubarb no matter what I may be wearing (the “we don’t care how it was in 1980” amendment). 
10. I will not offer rebuttals to feedback under any circumstances unless that rebuttal answer would cost less than $100 and I am very certain that it would make a difference (the “please go away” amendment).