“Realtors” are salespeople by definition, but we don’t just sell the physical product of real estate; we sell each other too.

We negotiate, we manipulate, we leverage, and, well, we lie.

When it comes to selling a listing for top dollar, there’s a lot of salesmanship, and while some of it is unique and original, some of it is also generic and pathetic.

I hear the same lines, and the same stories over and over.  So here are a few you should be on the lookout for if you’re browsing open houses or overhearing conversation…

Last week, I did a deal with a somewhat well-known agent – if not in the public’s eye, then definitely in the real estate community.

I’ve done a couple deals with him and his partner before, and it’s always been very amicable.

We hammered out a deal last week that worked out for both his seller and my buyer, and not once did I use a “line” on him, or did he, from my perspective, use a “line” on me.

In the end, he said, “David, it’s been so nice dealing with you.  There’s probably about two dozen agents in this city that, you know – we all like working with again and again, and it’s just been great.”

The feeling was mutual, and I told him, “Have you ever done a deal with so-and-so?  I just sold her condo listing off the market last week, and she was awesome.”

It’s true – sometimes, we find common ground, and really hit it off.  And relationships are an incredible asset in this business; it’s one of the few traits of a Realtor that the public just doesn’t understand, and can’t really value.  As I mentioned above, I sold a condo off the market to one of my buyers, and it’s 100% because of my relationship with the listing agent, from another brokerage, who I worked with to get the property sold.

On the flip side, there are all kinds of Realtors who we hate dealing with, and many of them have just watched far too much real estate television, or seen Boiler Room, Wall Street, Glengarry Glen Ross, and Wolf of Wall Street too many times.

So here’s a list, not in any particular order, of the top ten “lines” that I hate hearing over and over.

They’re meaningless, and have equally as much chance of working against the person saying them as they do working to their advantage.

“They don’t have to sell.”

We hear this all the time, and it’s lost all meaning.

A listing agent, when all else fails in a negotiation, can simply blurt out, “You know…..my clients don’t have to sell.”

This is supposed to signify, to the buyer agent, that the sellers can simply take the property off the market – like a kid taking his hockey net off the road, and going home.

I mean, I might choose to fight back, “Well I don’t have to eat,” but I probably will, because if I don’t, I’ll get tired, sick, and eventually – worse.

A property listed for sale, 99% of the time, is going to remain on the market until it sells.

The idea of “testing the market” is mostly theoretical, and if you were to only include single-family houses in this discussion, the number would be about 99.9%.

So when the listing agent of a freehold house, which didn’t sell on offer night (ie. They “held back” offers in anticipation of getting multiple offers and over the asking price), tells me that her clients “don’t have to sell,” I think the words are hollow and meaningless, and it doesn’t change anything in my approach.

“We’ve had 26 showings so far.”

Quick – before you read on, tell me what you would say in response to this, to turn it around on the listing agent?

Think for a second, because I love seeing the look on somebody’s face, or hearing the pause in their voice, when you reply.

How about, “Well, that’s 26 people that looked at your property and decided NOT to make an offer.”

It’s so true.

The listing agent would suggest that having twenty-six showings is a great indication of interest.

The buying agent would suggest that it only takes one buyer for the property to sell, and yet twenty-six buyers have said, “Thanks, but no thanks.”

“We’ve had a ton of interest in the property.”

This may sound similar to the one above, but it’s different from both the perspective of the listing agent, and that of the buying agent.

From the listing side, we all might have a different definition of “a ton of interest.”

And from the buying side, we have absolutely no way of knowing if this is true or not – and same goes for when the listing agent actually specifies the number of showings.

It’s easy to say, “We’ve had a ton of interest in the property” when you’ve actually had ZERO showings booked through a full week, because there’s no way for the buyer agent to verify it.

So when these words are uttered, they usually fall on deaf ears.

And last point on this: what property in Toronto in 2015 doesn’t have a ton of interest?

“Just to let you know, we have a second showing going through tonight at 6pm.”

This is what you always hear when you’re in sign-back on an offer.

You submit your offer, the seller signs-it back, and then probably more than half the time – especially on a condo, the listing agent is “kind enough to let you know,” that there’s a second showing tonight.

I always find this funny, because I would estimate that 90% of my condo buyers only see the property once before making an offer.

Maybe it’s just me, or maybe I’m blessed with this incredibly savvy, educated, and qualified pool of clients, but rarely do my clients ask to go back for a “second showing.”

I’m not suggesting there’s anything wrong with this, believe me.  I’m just saying that many buyers know it’s the right property when they walk inside, or at least most of mine do.

So if a listing agent tells me, “There’s a second showing,” or especially in the case of a “third showing,” part of me thinks it’s a buyer who is so on the fence that they’ve brought six family members to see it with them, and suddenly I’m not so worries.

Oh, and once again, we have no way of verifying the truth of this, so why doesn’t EVERY listing agent say this while in sign-back?

“This delightful young couple came through the open house today and they’re quite interested.”

This is just like every story that every political candidate tells while campaigning.

It’s always the same – whether it’s a president, senator, congressman, councilor – they always tell us about their trip “to the local mall,” where a mid-40’s blue-collar man, named “John,” came up and said, “You know Mr. Politician, it’s policies like yours that are going to save……this……country!!”

It’s the same thing in real estate.

And as a listing agent, if you’re good at it, you can play it off like you’re not telling the buyer agent that there’s interest, but rather you allow them to pick up on it.

How has the listing gone so far, you ask?  Was the open house busy?

“Oh yeah, it was really busy!  I had this young couple from Ajax come through – no agent or anything, and they signed a Buyer Representation Agreement with me right then and there!  They were so sweet, and the girl was really cute.  Actually so was the guy.  Actually so was their dog.  Anyways, they’re going to sleep on it, but who knows, maybe I’ll double-end this listing!  Anyways, what were you asking?”

“A second offer might be coming in tonight.”

Of course it “might” be.

And I “might” be playing at the 2016 Masters in Augusta, Georgia, but I probably won’t be.

Sure, there’s always a time when the listing agent says there might be another offer coming, and one materializes, but often it’s just a tactic to get you to accept a sign-back, or to put forth an offer at the onset.

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Notice a pattern here?

All of these are statements that can’t be verified, and can’t really backfire on the listing agent.

Often these statements scare a buyer agent into doing something they might not do otherwise, and that’s exactly the point.

It’s the buyer agent’s job to play poker, and use his or her sixth sense to figure out what’s really going on.

This is often where the good agents are separated from the bad ones, and it’s often where some agents get really savvy.

Let me speak in hypotheticals here…

What’s to stop me from calling a brokerage after 5pm when some 17-year-old part-timer is working the phones, and saying my name is John Smith, and that I work there, and asking how many showings have been booked on a property?  Or if there’s a showing booked for tonight?  Or if any previous offers have been registered?

What’s to stop me from calling a colleague, at another brokerage, and asking if they know so-and-so agent, and then getting a bit of help in a transaction?  Maybe so-and-so agent is a rookie, who my colleague at another brokerage doesn’t care about in the slightest.

If you call a listing agent’s bluff, and you lose out, then you risk losing the client or at the very least losing the property for them.  But with experience comes a BS-detector that many of the best agents possess.

So having said all of this, do you expect me to say that I have never, and would never, use any of these generic, meaningless, cliché lines?

I hope not.

Because I use them all.

Don’t be surprised, and don’t label me a hypocrite.  There’s a reason I wrote this blog post…

Every transaction is different, and while I do enjoy working on transactions with like-minded agents, and where there’s a mutual respect and an easy-going methodology, there’s also a lot of times where “tactics” like those above are called for – and it’s far more often than not.

I detailed the above “meaningless lines” not to suggest that I don’t use them, but rather to make you aware of their existence, and some of the tricks of the trade.

Those aren’t rocket science, folks.  They’re just lines that are used over and over to the point where they’re almost automatic, and if you’re a buyer, and your agent tells you “they’ve had 26 showings so far – we have to give them above asking,” then just take a simple step back, and take another look at the situation.

And if you’re out on your own, perhaps looking at open houses, then a whole other set of BS comes into play.  A listing agent has no fiduciary duties to you – a complete stranger, walking into an open house, so they can do and say whatever they want.

“We already had a bully offer for $1.3M” which we turned down.”

Really?

Do you believe that?  Or is the listing agent just trying to raise your expectations for the house?

Insert just about any comment into that bold, italicized, underlined quote, and the listing agent can say it with a straight face.

Remember that in real estate, it’s not just the property that’s for sale…