02/13/2026
A little story about HGTV and Friday the 13th - and why I really despise the former and love the latter.
HGTV made real estate sales look very easy - buyer's agent smiles, shows three homes to the buyers and collects a BIG commission check. And the listing agents meet with their big teams for lunch with cocktails daily, dress in designer clothes and high heels, live the charmed lives between the tennis courts and massage appointments, drive fancy cars... you get the picture.
The reality of being a listing agent is nothing like HGTV. And yes, today's story is all about the listing agent.
A good listing agent quickly understands their seller's main objectives - to bring the maximum possible gain from the sale of their property in the shortest time and with the least amount of stress possible.
It's not always easy to achieve all three, especially in a changing market.
And it requires not only a vast variety of skills (research, marketing, advertising, project management, negotiation, and a good understanding of psychology, to name a few).
And oh, let's not forget PATIENCE. That one is going to be tried, many times daily.
For starters, your agent will be absolutely essential during the home preparation stage. It will be their job to help you showcase your interior and exterior in the best possible way, while saving you thousands of dollars and a lot of valuable time.
Pricing - a great agent will do a super thorough market analysis and help you understand how overpricing the house would affect the days on market and your bottom line.
Then comes the marketing. Professional photography, MLS listings, social media ads, internet marketing, database marketing - entire books were written on this, and that's not the main focus today.
Finally, after all that hard work, we get an OFFER and then the REAL fun begins. So many things to account for, negotiate around all the while remembering the main objectives of the Sellers!
Sellers will have SO MANY questions and have to make so many decisions throughout the process! A great agent will help with all of them and truly educate the sellers regarding all the pitfalls and possibilities, negotiate the inspection and repairs, contingencies, etc. etc.. All in a very short time frame.
A great agent will jump in and research a difference in plumbing requirements for the house on a well versus municipal water service, which will save their seller a few hundred (or a thousand) bucks in inspection repairs.
A great agent will take their seller's call in a middle of dinner, text them back while laying down with high fever, crazy cough and a total loss of voice not because of lack of boundaries or being a pushover, but because she understands HOW IMPORTANT it is to the seller at that particular moment.
A great agent will become their seller’s friend and confidant, will talk to the seller daily to bring them updates, to encourage them, calm their fears, empathize with their distress, help them with making decisions, and share the truth in every possible situation.
A great agent will cancel their entire day to walk a 10 acre lot with the seller's surveyor in less than glamorous blue jeans and rain boots, which will be covered in mud before it's over with.
A great agent will jump in to help correct a low appraisal (two days before the closing) by doing more research and asking just the right questions to help the buyer's lender with the appraisal rebuttal - not an easy process, but it's possible to win if you know what you're doing!
And yes, a great agent will remind the seller that no matter what the scary movies say, Friday the 13th is a GREAT day to schedule the closing for, will show up for the closing and cheer the sellers on as they sign the closing documents, knowing that she did a GREAT job and acted with INTEGRITY every step of the way.
And HGTV will not show any of it. Because none of it is showy and frankly it would make the episode way too long. But my seller's lives are better because of what I did for them.
And this is exactly HOW we got this beautiful home SOLD and CLOSED today.
Congratulations to my sellers and their buyers !
