With the real estate market now having transitioned over the past year or so, we have entered into a time when it can now be better to be the second broker to get the listing, rather than being the first broker to get the listing. But when the market was hotter, brokers could have a listing that was overpriced, and the market value could then catch up during the listing period, resulting in someone finally paying the asking price…and sometimes even more.

But now, as things have cooled down in so many areas, your competitors may still insist to an owner that they will deliver a sale price that is higher than the one that you’re recommending, and if the owner gives one of those brokers the listing, that broker may now have a very difficult time in delivering that sale price.

With this in mind, whenever you’ve been in contention to get a listing, and the owner tells you that you didn’t get it, and that they’re going to award the listing to another broker, consider saying something like the following to your owner:

“Promise me that if they don’t sell the property within the listing period, that you will then list the property with us.”

The timing of asking the owner to do this right when they tell you that you didn’t get the listing, is a very opportune moment for doing this, because they rejected you for what you wanted, and making a promise to you like this can be an easy consolation prize for them to give to you right then and there.

This can then pay dividends for you down the road, when the owner recognizes that the broker they’ve listed their property with isn’t delivering the activity and the interest that they had promised, and the owner then begins questioning whether or not they made the right decision in hiring that broker.

In addition, the good news is that during the initial listing period, the owner may now get a better idea of what the property is really worth, and this may actually now be in alignment with what you had originally told them that it was worth, and this could then have the owner believing that you are now the more trustworthy broker.

So consider asking your owners to promise you this whenever you don’t get the listing, as we are now in a different market than the one we were in before, and this can be a tougher market to now move your listings. In addition, whenever an owner switches listing brokers, it’s not uncommon for them to combine this with also making a price reduction on the property, and this can then definitely help you in finding the right buyer.