What Sellers Really Think About Their Realtor -- And Why They Never Tell You
He found me online at some point I can only assume was late.
His message was short. He was selling his home. He didn't know what he was doing. He knew I coached a lot of Realtors. He figured if I understood what good looked like from the inside, maybe I could tell him whether he had it.
He hired me. Not as his agent. As his translator.
This is a true story. And if you have a seller in your pipeline right now, you need to read it.
What he was really thinking
Here is what was going through this man's head while his transaction was in motion:
"I don't know what I'm doing. I won't say that out loud. Not to my agent. But it's 11pm and I'm on Zillow reading an article I don't fully understand, trying to figure out if the number she quoted me is real or if she just said it to get the listing."
"I said sounds great on the last call because I didn't want to seem like I didn't get it. I do that a lot. Nod. Say sounds great. Hang up and immediately google whatever she just said."
"My buddy bought a house once. I texted him. He said you'll be fine. That was three days ago. I haven't been fine."
"This is the biggest financial thing I have ever done. I am handing over the most valuable thing I own to a process I cannot see, on a timeline I cannot control, through a contract I do not understand, to a buyer I have never met."
"And my agent's last message was four days ago."
So he went looking online. He found a coach who coaches Realtors. And he hired her.
https://www.tanyabugbee.com/services
The part that should stop you cold
He didn't hire me because his agent failed him.
He hired me before his agent even had the chance.
He hired me because nobody -- not one person in his life -- had made him feel like they understood what this process looked like from where he was standing. So he went looking. Alone. Online. At night.
That is what silence costs you.
Not just this deal. Not just this referral. The trust that was never built in the first place.
Your sellers are doing this right now
After more than 5,000 hours coaching Realtors, here is what I know to be true: most agents have no idea how scared their sellers are. Because the seller doesn't say it. He says sounds great. He seems fine. He goes quiet.
And then he starts googling.
The ones you haven't heard from in a few days. The ones who respond with one word. The ones who said everything looks good on the last update. There is a real chance some of them are sitting in the silence you left, filling it with worst-case scenarios and Zillow articles written by people who have never closed a deal.
Silence is where fear lives. And fear makes people do things -- like hire a stranger online to supervise their own transaction.
What the best agents do differently
The best agents I coach never let the silence form in the first place.
They have a written communication plan before the listing goes live. Not a vague intention to check in -- an actual cadence. What they will say. When they will say it. What the client should expect each week.
They ask open-ended questions that unpeel the layers: not just "any questions?" but "what part of this process feels most uncertain to you right now?" and "what would make you feel most confident going into this week?" and "what are you most worried about that we haven't talked about yet?"
They treat their client's fear as information, not inconvenience. They understand that the person on the other end of that transaction isn't thinking about comps and contingencies -- they are thinking about where they are going to live and whether anyone is actually watching out for them.
That is a skill. It is coachable. And it is the difference between a client who refers you and a client who hires a stranger to supervise you.
The thing that should make you uncomfortable
I am still coaching this man. His sale is in process right now.
He should never have needed me in this role. His agent should have been the person he trusted. But no one taught his agent how to lead a scared human being through the most financially terrifying moment of his life. That is not a character flaw. That is a coaching gap.
If you have ever lost a referral you thought you earned, this might be why.
If you have a client right now who seems fine and you have not spoken to them in four days, go call them. Not text. Call.
And if you want to build the kind of communication plan that makes your sellers feel like the most taken-care-of person in the room -- that is exactly what we work on.
Book a free 30-minute Performance Reset call. The link is below.
