Today’s realtors are stressed out more than ever. The pressure to sell homes, sell them quickly, and sell them in a “not so hot market” has never been greater. Talking with agent after agent each day, I have concluded that they are getting sucked in the toxic dance that has been happening with buyers and sellers. I have a short story that illustrates this point well.

I called an agent inquiring about putting an offer in on behalf of my buyers on his listing. On the phone he was charming, helpful, eager, and it sounded like it would be pleasant to do a transaction with him. We put the home under contract with his sellers and my buyers and the agent went from Dr. Jekyll to Mr. Hyde. During the subsequent weeks while we were going through inspection, appraisal, and amendments he was defensive, uncooperative, and combative to say the least. I got to thinking why? Why are more and more agents finding it so hard to get along? Don’t get me wrong, it’s ok for an agent to be a hard negotiating advocate for his or her clients, but this isn’t war. The only explanation I could come up with is, “it comes from the top down.”  We clearly have a trickledown effect from the sellers to agents, buyers to agents, and brokerage firms to agents. The mood of the country is essentially setting the mood of all parties involved.

Back to the story: We ended up closing deal and the buyers got the home they wanted, but it wasn’t remotely smooth. It caused a lot of unnecessary trouble and stress for my buyers and all because the listing agent had a mindset of “who wins, who loses, and who gets their way.” It could have all been avoided.

What’s the moral to the story? It’s three-fold: 1) The economy has put a lot of people in a bad mood, but as agents, buyers, and sellers we need to find a way to rise above that. 2) Buyers and sellers need to understand that in most cases agents want to do a great job for them. Beating them up (figuratively) is not going to help. 3) The story above just underscores how valuable a truly good agent can be. It can make all the difference between a smooth and pleasant transaction and one that is a Nightmare on Elm Street.

Dan Polimino is a Realtor with Fuller Sotheby’s International Realty. He can be reached at DPolimino@fullerproperties.com and www.coloradodreamhouse.com/denverpost

I am not sure what it is; maybe the strain of the economy keeps everyone in a foul mood but it seems that one transaction after another pits the buyer against the seller in an adversarial war. The simple fact is that the seller distrusts and doesn’t like the buyer, and the buyer distrusts and doesn’t like the seller. As the agent, we are stuck in the middle, attempting to be the peace maker or referee between the two sides. Let’s just assume for a moment that we can get a buyer and seller together on price and it’s under contract. One would think that the acrimony would end there, but really, it’s just the beginning.

Next comes the inspection where they argue, haggle over inspection items or even the wordings of the inspection objection. My all-time favorite is a fight between the buyer and seller about matching sink stoppers in the master bath. Discussions, emails, and endless phone calls on why there are not two garage door openers or fights over $200 dollars. Why? So the buyer or seller can say or feel like they won the battle and other guy lost.

This is not about winning and losing and or how much you can stick it to the other guy. I am not naïve. I understand that we are living in an opportunistic time period, but is it possible to do it with civility, respect, and without all the acrimony?

I was talking to some of fellow colleague in preparation for this topic to find out if they were experience the same enormous discord between their buyers and sellers. Everyone to a man and woman said yes, but some told me not write this column because it would go through one ear and out the other. Maybe they are right and no one will pay attention to this column and it will be business as usual. I hope not.

Dan Polimino is a Realtor with Fuller Sotheby’s International Realty. He can be reached at DPolimino@fullerproperties.com and www.coloradodreamhouse.com/denverpost

It’s the end of the July and in a few short weeks the summer real estate season will begin to slow down. Right around the second week of August, things begin to slow down as parent and children try to sneak in one more vacation before school starts. Then once school kicks in and people get back into their normal routines, real estate will pick up again. If you’re a seller, don’t be surprised if you see a dip in your showings between the second week of August and the second week of September.

The question for buyers is: did you take advantage of the historically low prices and low interest rates this summer? Here are a few things I saw this season:

1)      Unbelievably low prices. I am going to go out on a limb and I’ll eat my words if I wrong, but I think it’s safe to say that values have never been this low and we may never see this again. 50% off some homes is not part of a regular 10-year real estate cycle. This happens once in a lifetime.

2)      Sellers in the 200-400 price range turned the tables on buyers. Sellers understood that the bottom of the market had come and gone, they stayed firm on their prices, and in most cases got full asking price.

3)      Lower than normal inventory. The words “I can’t find a home for my buyers” was spoken by more Realtors this past summer than in the last three years.

4)      Mistakes, Mistakes, Mistakes. More than one buyer decided to do nothing rather than make a decision this past summer thinking that the home would still be on the market whenever they were ready. Those buyers were disappointed to find out that their number one choice had sold. That trend of “I don’t have to make a decision today, tomorrow or in a month” is quickly coming to an end for buyers.

The good news is I think we are poised for good fall. It was fall of last year when we first began to notice the turnaround in the economy. Right around September, showings started to pick up and we had one of our best fall’s selling seasons in some time. I expect the same to be true for this year. The fall selling season goes from mid-September through mid-November.

Dan Polimino is a Realtor with Fuller Sotheby’s International Realty. He can be reached atDPolimino@fullerproperties.com and www.coloradodreamhouse.com/denverpost