Selling real estate is like a game. The game is strategy. Drawing up the right plays and knowing when and how to implement them. The game is execution. Making it happen, embracing obstacles, getting creative, closing deals. The game is war.

The Battle Plan

You’ve signed a listing agreement. The gauntlet has been thrown. Your number one priority is to get the strategy worked out, the battle plan, the soldiers in place, then begin execution as soon as possible before the enemy can strike. In this case, the enemy is time. The longer the property is on the market, the more it will cower, weaken, die and rot. Come on, General. Don’t lose your land, your power, your deal.

In a recent study, the median number of days on the market (DOM) in the United States was somewhere in the range of 65 to 70. Any number beyond that might reek of desperation to buyers who will low-ball the property, which will make the sellers take it off the market and relist it. A savvy agent or buyer can track the number of times a property has been listed on the MLS, but probably won’t.

You’ve also signed an agreement that typically covers a three-to-six-month period. The DOM is always an issue in real estate. If you lose the first month to work issues – opening and closing the little deals to list, stage, show – and you don’t watch the shot clock carefully on your listings, time’s up, another enemy surfaces: fellow agents. They will take your land from you. They will conquer your listing. I would. Remember, all is fair in real estate and war.

The second rule of battle engagement in repping a listing is to never give up your intel. Never let the enemies know your moves, your strategy, or your secrets. When you sell a house for a client, no one should know why the client is selling. That’s leverage that can be turned on you in a negotiation. Divorce, illness, and new job all scream a need to sell a house quickly and your opponent should – and will – use it against you. No matter the subject or location of the meeting, put on your poker face. If it’s a call, keep emotion out of your voice. Be professional. Be straightforward. Be a soldier. Be a general. Be a closer.

A high-ranking real estate agent can focus on your tone and work it, searching for weaknesses. It’s an interrogation. Always. You’re fighting for land with an opposing side.

Usually, if your market is like mine, you’re doing battle with the same 15 agents most of the time. You wouldn’t give them surface-to-air missiles, so why would you tell them your client is fleeing an ugly divorce and has to be out in month? You wouldn’t. You don’t. Never. Real estate is obviously nothing like true war, but the analogy works. Run with it. In our world, this is battle.

Like war, a new listing requires strategy. How are you going to sell this house before the enemy forces come? Before the clock takes hold? Any secret weapons? Who can you call to maneuver in place the quickest possible deal? How can you create buzz? Who are your alliances? Who are your clients, willing and ready to buy?

Because of our high-end market and our high-powered or celebrity clients, we create mystique and desire through limited and targeted publicity. We often list the house off-market, not putting it on the MLS but on the local data feed for the west side of Los Angeles. Exclusivity is gold here.

People want what others can’t have and our clients insist on it. No one wants to fight over land unless necessary. Our clients want to take what they can before anyone else, no hassle and all privacy. Otherwise, we’ll go wide when need be. Specified guest list or not, our marketing strategy usually includes staging, still photography, drone video, advertisements, and open houses. We make a plan and we execute, marching forward, step by step at rapid speed. We build from there if needed, our lips sealed on the intent of our seller.

When you get a listing, you must develop your strategy. Watch the clock and strike quick. Don’t get caught blindsided and you won’t get surrounded. Be prepared at all times, always on the offensive, making moves. Ready the troops. Go to work. Go to battle. Go to war.

Managing the Troops

But wait: In this case a large number of your troops are sellers, so this part of the battle plan requires some strategic commanding – call it managing and negotiating. It never ends throughout the arc of the close, but there are particular stressors when strangers start entering a house.

People get touchy about their homes. We all do. People see their houses as extensions of themselves. It’s up to you to negotiate with your client. Remind them that this is their big launch, and first impressions matter when selling their house. Be up front and be clear about your expectations and what you need to do to make them money.

If the client is living on the premises, you’ll need to begin negotiating about cleaning, staging, and photography, and get their agreement to leave the home during showings. Respect the owner, but in plain, get them the hell out of there! Send them to dinner, an NFL game, whatever. The owners, the entire family, and their pets must be out when you bring in possible buyers.¹

It doesn’t end there. Small repairs must be made. A running toilet can kill a showing in a second, whether you’re showing a mansion or a double wide. If paint needs refreshing, get it done. The front walk could use some landscaping? Get it done. If the client isn’t going to make these investments, and the house isn’t at the price level to warrant staging out of marketing dollars, you’ve got to start negotiating.

I recently had to have the “update” talk with a repeat client. I sold them a modern house, state-of-the-art tech and design by the hottest builder/architect duo in town – 10 years ago. “Stale modern” is a hard sell and this one had aged especially poorly. During the time the clients owned the house they hadn’t made any updates. You have to discuss the impact on list price and expectations. This house may take a bit longer to sell, even in a strong seller’s market.

With another property in the Hollywood Hills, I’m the third agent on a listing and the seller is just really fatigued. He asked me what the house needed – after all the fixes, he could not imagine what was keeping the house from moving. Of course it was overpriced – by about $6 million. The property’s design was beautiful, but you could see right into it from the street and from the neighbor’s houses. Privacy was an issue.

After much back-and-forth, during which I was both delicate and respectfully firm in reminding him that it takes money to make money, I finally got him to drop to a more realistic $29 million and he’s investing $200,000 to privatize the house. Give to get. He worked with a landscape architect and planted trees between himself and all the surrounding houses. He installed tints in the windows and cool drop-down shutters. Now he has the right price and no one can stare inside. The house will sell.

You can’t actually make people listen but you can insist and cover your ass. If clients really hear you, they may act. If not, document the warning and warn them again. Then remind them. After four potential buyers hate the front and won’t go in, bring the client actual data on how the issues are impacting the work of selling the house. “Of the 27 people who have walked in, 19 have said the same thing.” The more they hear, the more you might move them to action.

Also, notes are essential in managing clients. They like to ignore how others felt about a house or a feature so I remind them. Then, I will monitor these points as showings continue. Managing clients are a huge part of real estate.