How Top Real Estate Agents Negotiate • Monday Market Minute • Carrie McCormick

In our October episode of Monday Market Minute, Carrie McCormick from @properties and Christie’s International shares tips that have worked for her while negotiating in creating a win-win situation for everyone. Carrie emphasizes the importance of knowing what your client wants but also paying attention to the desires of the other side of the negotiation.

If you’d prefer to watch this interview, click here to view on YouTube!

Carrie can be reached at carrie@atproperties.com or by phone at 312.961.4612.

Please follow Carrie on Instagram by clicking here.

This episode is brought to you by Real Geeks.

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Transcript

D.J. Paris 0:00
Today we’re going to be speaking with one of the top Realtors in the country about exactly how she negotiates for her clients. Stay tuned. This episode of Keeping it real is brought to you by real geeks. How many homes are you going to sell this year? Do you have the right tools? Is your website turning soft leads and interested buyers? Are you spending money on leads that aren’t converting? Well real geeks is your solution. Find out why agents across the country choose real geeks as their technology partner. Real geeks was created by an agent for agents. They pride themselves on delivering a sales and marketing solution so that you can easily generate more business. Their agent websites are fast and built for lead conversion with a smooth search experience for your visitors. Real geeks also includes an easy to use agent CRM. So once a lead signs up on your website, you can track their interest and have great follow up conversations. Real geeks is loaded with a ton of marketing tools to nurture your leads and increase brand awareness visit real geeks.com forward slash keeping it real pod and find out why Realtors come to real geeks to generate more business again, visit real geeks.com forward slash keeping it real pod and now on to our show.

Welcome to keeping it real, the largest podcast made for real estate agents and by real estate agents. My name is DJ Parris. I’m your guide and host through the show today, as always, is our monthly series called The Monday market minute with Carrie McCormick from the Carey McCormick Real Estate Group with AP properties here in Chicago. She Carrie is a top top one she’s more than a tough 1% Pretty she’s a top point 00 1% producer in Chicago with over 20 years of experience helping buyers sellers and investors. And just to show you how much production she does. There’s about 47,000 realtors in the Chicagoland area Carrie is often ranked in literally the top 15 Sometimes the top 10 sometimes higher than that. So she is an amazing superstar. And she is an expert in everything from first time homebuyers, veteran investors, and luxury properties. She also works with a lot of developers and is often chosen to represent their high end developments. Please visit Kerry at our website, Kerry McCormick rt.com. And also please follow her on Instagram, Carrie McCormack real estate, we will have a link to that in the show notes and want it by the way, Kerry’s Instagram, or social media in general is so effective, that she was just recently nominated for Best real, it’s the best realtor social media in Chicago. And you can actually vote for her by going to the link in our show notes for Chicago agent magazine. So if you’d like Carrie and loved listening to her episodes, please consider voting for her in she’s actually social media influencer of the year. So check, check that out and vote for her please. All right, Carrie, welcome once again to the show.

Carrie McCormick 3:16
Thank you. Thank you. And I’m just trying to think how long have I been on your show?

D.J. Paris 3:21
Five or six? Well, ever since the beginning. So I think it’s been at least five years thinks six years.

Carrie McCormick 3:26
I just I think back to the beginning. So thanks for having me. And I love being part of it and sharing my knowledge and listening to all of your guests as well. I think it’s a great community to be part of. So thank you.

D.J. Paris 3:39
Well, whenever I run into You’re welcome. And thank you. And whenever I run into agents here locally in the Chicagoland market, they always reference your episodes, in particular, because you are so well respected and regarded in Chicago, and you know, of course elsewhere, but it is it is always fun. You know, because we don’t I don’t do so many Chicago episodes anymore. And so it’s nice to when I run into people, they’re like, oh, my gosh, I can’t believe you have carry on the show every every month, like you’re very much looked up to in this industry. So what would you like to talk about today?

Carrie McCormick 4:12
Well, we’re in the fall market here in Chicago. And you know, we’re in q3. And I feel like negotiations on deals have been changing a little bit. So, you know, there’s all different types of negotiation strategies. And as everyone knows, each deal is different. We have a lot of different personalities in the deal. You know, the sellers, the buyers, the brokers getting obviously are involved. Families sometimes get involved. So there’s just a lot of personalities and I just wanted to share some tips that I have in that have been successful for me in negotiating in creating a win win for both. I mean, I think that’s a common term that people say is you know, everyone feels like they want When are both sides are upset, you know, you’ve got a great negotiation going. But you know, there’s ways to strategize and get to the finish line. So I thought it’d be helpful to share what I know. And the first one is to figure out what the other side wants, and what drives them to be making these decisions. So in our industry, obviously, it’s buying and selling a home. So think about your first showing with the person, that’s your time to really interact with that buyer, or the seller and the broker to ask questions, obviously, we’re there to sell the home. But throughout that process, you know, we can ask questions that are about, you know, where do you live? Where are you currently living? Now? What do you not like about your house? Is it too small? Is it too big, and obviously, don’t ask it the way I’m asking them now. But you know, you you learn about their family, you learn if they’re renting, this is going to help formulate, if they are to make an offer on your listing is now you’ve got a little bit of background on them. Right. And again, it’s not it. It’s about leveraging your position, but it’s also the point of it is figuring out what they want, and what drives them. Right. So if they’re renting, Oregon, if they’re in a house in the neighborhood, and they’re having a child and schools are important to them, they really want to play room, you know, again, asking the right questions is going to lead to understanding your position when shooting, and you learn what’s personally important to them. Right? I also think it’s a good idea to not only understand what the buyer’s or seller’s want, but also you’re in front of their representative their broker. So you know, learn a little bit about that broker, what’s their negotiating style? Like? What is their track record? Have they sold in the neighborhood? Do they understand the cups? You know, maybe that broker doesn’t really know, the Linkin Park, single family home market, you know, so you can be an advocate to them and say, Hey, listen, I know that you haven’t sold a lot of homes and Linkin Park. So I went ahead and I prepared the CMA for you, Mr. Broker, you know, this might help just kind of show you what the last six months have looked like here.

D.J. Paris 7:16
Wow. So I just want to pause for a second because that is a very, very interesting, I’m curious. So basically, you have a buyer, and you’re bringing them to a listing, and then you can do some due diligence on the listing agent. And you can actually see if they’ve sold homes via the MLS in that market before, if you don’t recognize the name, or if it’s somebody that hasn’t doesn’t have a track record, you then will reach out and say, Hey, I know you may be new to this area, or you know, not as familiar with it, here’s some information that might help you. And is that usually well received? Because I could see agents getting offended. But that but I guess it’s all in how you present it.

Carrie McCormick 7:55
And it’s the delivery of the information, right? You know, and yes, I’m sure some people would get offended by that. But it’s not in a it’s just more of an educational, but I really don’t go that route. And unless I know my clients interested in the home, you know, I’m not gonna go do do all that due diligence. But sure, you know, and again, you the showing process is kind of like an interview process, right? Because especially if I’m with a buyer, and well, let me just reverse it, I’ve had buyers come into my listing, and they’re very difficult, right, they just they rip apart the home, like, Oh, my God, look at the way that this looks, this person hasn’t taken care of the home, and you can just tell with the personality, you know, they don’t like it or you know, they’re not there, they’re going to be difficult or you know, so you just kind of need to observe and understand. You know, what is the buyer, maybe the buyer wants to get the kitchen, you know, so I know now that when they come in with an offer, it’s going to be lower, because they need to factor in their costs. So again, during the showing process, of course, our job is to sell the home and highlight everything, but be observant, ask the right questions. So if that person was to make an offer on your home, you do have a little more information of what’s important to them, what drives them, and how to successfully get to a reasonable price when they make the offer. The other one is which I think is very important. I I’m primarily what we call a seller’s broker, I represent sellers, right. So understanding what my leverage is, right? So if I have a listing that’s on a wide lot, modern finishes in a great school district and there is nothing else on the market like that in Lincoln Park. I’m just making up a story. I know what my leverage is in this market, right? So when I’m there presenting the home, again, I can point out all of these facts and my cost per square foot. You know the age of the home the attributes that my home has that no other home has it it, if my home has everything every other home has, I’m not going to bring it up, I don’t have any leverage because there’s 10 other homes in the market that have the Sub Zero fridge up, right. But if my home is the only home that has x, I am definitely going to make sure I point that out and pointed out that I am the only home that has x. That’s my leverage, right. So again, understanding what that buyer wants. And then knowing what my leverage points are, make sure that I highlight those during my showing. And these are all very done, obviously, professionally and in good spirit. But again, the underlying message is preparing for that negotiation and preparing to get this house sold. The other one I wanted to mention is I love this one is agree on when you get an offer, agree on the easy stuff at the beginning. And what I mean by that, obviously, price is always going to be the contentious point of a negotiation, but agree on the small stuff, whether it’s a closing date with that not that small stuff, but you know, closing date or their pre approval letter or I don’t know, whatever it is, if there’s small stuff that they’re negotiating, just agree on that stuff. It just sets the tone for a nice negotiation. Two examples that I just had recently is we were kind of in the standoff of $100,000 apart on a deal. I’m on the seller side, you know, the natural thing is to meet in the middle, right? And that’s kind of everyone’s Oh, just let’s meet in the middle. When when. And so I prepped my seller for that. I said, Listen, we’re $100,000 apart on a multi million dollar deal. It’s it’s peanuts at this point, I’m the buyer is going to come back and split the difference, right? And he’s like, okay, a typical negotiation, right? The buyer came back with 60,000, instead of splitting the difference. And, and the broker said, We’re doing this to show good faith, that we’re a good buyer, and we want to get it done. And I thought, What a great move, he just made art. You know, it was $10,000. But what that did was my seller was so happy with this buyer. And said, let’s take it I mean it was done deal, sealed and delivered. Now we’re gonna go into negotiations of inspection items. Well, what did that seller just or the buyer just do? Sorry. He set himself up that if anything comes up in negotiations, my seller now thinks he’s $10,000. Ahead of that split in the middle thing he may give into it. But anyways, I just thought it was

D.J. Paris 12:43
Oh, that’s easy. I didn’t think about that. That’s yeah, that’s great as well. Yeah,

Carrie McCormick 12:48
that guy’s brilliant. Listening, he did a brilliant move. Another thing that just happened, which I also thought was brilliant, which came from me, so I have to take credit is I did a showing, and the client fell in love with a chair. Love this chair, you know, and so when they made the offer right out the gate, we said, you know, thank you for the offer. You know, we understand how much you love that chair, we just want to give you the chair, if you get if you buy the house, we want to give you Yeah, and the buyer was so happy. And we set that tone of that negotiation. In a good spirit. The buyer was so we thought that was so thoughtful. The broker came back to me said, Okay, now what do you guys want. And I said, nothing. We don’t want anything. I mean, obviously, we’re going to negotiate. But that was just a good gesture. My client knew how much you guys love that chair there, it’s not going to fit into their new home. If we come to an agreement, no strings attached, we want you to have the chair.

D.J. Paris 13:49
And that really requires you as the listing agent paying attention to the buyer and noticing Ooh, there’s something we could maybe we could do something for them. Because it’s probably not that common that somebody walks by or walks in and goes, oh my god, I gotta have that chair. Because they’re obviously thinking, you know, they’re gonna probably replace all the stuff that’s movable anyway. But I guess when you hear that, that’s an opportunity for you to come back because people get so emotionally tied to things. And yeah, and that is a great way. Especially furniture, I mean, furniture is a thing we just get, we get really excited about when we see a piece that really is like that would look cool in my place. So yeah, that’s a great, so those are two unbelievably good suggestions.

Carrie McCormick 14:34
So writing from a place of goodwill, right. So, and understanding again, in the beginning of a negotiation, you know, what is your purpose? What is your leverage, what the buyer wants, what the seller wants, and you can convey all of that and be strategic. And of course, at the end of the day, you know, you want to get the we’re fiduciaries to our client we want to get you know the best deal possible, but there’s ways to kind of maneuver that where everyone comes Out of the negotiation, feeling good about it. And that’s what we want. We want everyone to feel like they won.

D.J. Paris 15:07
And do you often if you don’t, maybe often, if you don’t know what the other side wants, I guess this is where good relationships come in where you could talk to the to the, you know, the buyers broker and have those conversations of yes, okay, well fit well with negotiating the price. But what are there any little things that we can agree upon now? To get them out of the way? I love that? Yeah,

Carrie McCormick 15:30
no, it’s easy. And my last tip to you this one, I say, exercise with caution with severe caution is, sometimes we need to put the decision makers in a room together, not physically, but maybe sometimes over the phone, I have done it in the past physically, which worked out really well. But you do have to be careful. And when I say the decision makers, I mean, the buyers and the sellers, because sometimes the agents, you know, there’s a lot on tag, right, that happens through the negotiation process. Sometimes there’s a lot of things that get misinterpreted based on an email tone, or text tone, or voicemail tone, or whatever it is. So I’ve had some negotiations that I’ve just put the buyer and seller together with us present, of course, on a phone call together, you know, and like I said, I’ve had them face to face as well. Sometimes when you have the decision makers together, you have a very successful outcome. I’d say every time I’ve done it, I’ve had a very successful outcome where, you know, like, they’re friends now. And it just especially when you’re dealing with certain personalities, it does work. But you that’s where you have to know your client, and you have to understand and know the know if it’s a good idea. So that’s why I say exercise with caution. But if you feel you’re at a point with good personalities you feels can be done, you know, getting the decision makers in the room.

D.J. Paris 16:59
It’s a great idea because we humans are wired for connection. And so we’re wired to get along mostly. So when you get two people who are in kind of an adversarial position, you know, competing against each other negotiating against each other, and you’re able to bring them into a room and it’s not a contentious environment, hopefully, then they actually like you said they actually bond closer together, they end up probably liking each other a little bit more at least, than they did before. And they end up wanting to work together and get the deal close. So I think those are all Wow, this is a great episode. We’re let’s cap it there because those were those were three amazing things in Karis. Gotta go more. Go ahead. No, you do. Okay. Well, that’s enough. Because that will save it will save other things for for next episodes. And boy that those are three amazing tips of great negotiation tips there for for our audience, please consider using that Carrie uses these herself and she is incredibly successful. So it would be behoove everyone to consider implementing some of these into their process. And please a couple of things to please remember to follow Carrie on Instagram. So you can find her at Kerry McCormick real estate, we’ll have a link to that in the show notes or websites Carrie McCormack RT. And if you are an agent in a another part of the country, Carrie works the Chicagoland area. But maybe you have clients that move to Chicago, she would love the opportunity to partner with you. And also she has clients that move out of Chicago. So if you are an agent that would like to maybe connect with Carrie, you can do that. Fine, you know, hit her up on Instagram or you can, you can email her she’s super easy to find just Google Carrie Carrie McCormick. And also, if you are an agent’s know Carrie has a team and if you think you would be a good addition to Karis team, certainly feel free to reach out. And you know if she has any openings or any opportunities, she will let you know. But and also, let’s remember to vote for her for influencer of the year with Chicago, I will have a link to that in the show notes. So even if you are not a Chicago broker, you can still vote. So we will have a link to that in the show notes. So please do that support our guests and our our fellow hosts like Carrie. And guys, let us also know what you would like Carrie to talk about on future episodes, she is going to be giving away you know her processes. So she is incredibly high producing agents. So let’s let us know what you would like to see from her hear from her. And on behalf of the audience. Thank you Carrie. As per usual, she has been with us since the very beginning. We love having her on and she is just a part of the show. So we’re so grateful for you on behalf of the audience. Thank you. And on behalf of Carrie and myself thanks to the audience. And please remember to tell a friend think of just one other agent everybody that could benefit from maybe somebody who needs some negotiation help send them a link to this episode and you know, just any Podcast Directory has our our links or you can send them to our website keeping it real pod.com By the way, we just crossed over 3 million downloads. So thank you to everybody for listening to You want to support our show, please also support our sponsors. They’re the reason we can keep doing these. So anyway, we will see everybody on the next episode. Thank you Carrie. Thank you