Why Adversarial Tactics Backfire for Sacramento Buyer’s Agents

Why do some Sacramento buyer’s agents feel it is necessary to become adversarial when they don’t get their own way and that employing aggression is the secret to winning cooperation? You would think that after a few times of getting shut down they would give up this defeatist tactic, but some don’t seem to learn from their mistakes, like the rest of us. You always get further with diplomacy than you do hostility. Honey, not vinegar, is the adage. Gosh, didn’t their mothers teach these guys anything? Were they raised in a barn?

Lobbing a phrase like whore of Satan at the listing agent will not get an offer accepted. Total opposite. A pushy attitude is likely to send an offer to the bottom of the rejected pile. Buyer’s agents would improve their buyer’s chances of offer acceptance if they behaved a bit more like, oh, I dunno, Sidney Poitier, I suppose, instead of Kanye West.

I recall way back in my career when I was just a wee lass of a Realtor in the 1970s. I was a buyer’s agent back then and not primarily a Sacramento listing agent. I came into the business believing that presenting offers in person was an excellent way to circumvent the listing agent and speak directly to the seller. Layout my buyer’s case. Show the benefits. I was so naive and determined and wet behind the ears.

Fortunately, I learned rather quickly that adversarial attacks were counterproductive, and the person with whom I should be developing a cooperative relationship was the listing agent, because the agent is the gateway to the seller. Sellers typically trust and like their Realtor. They don’t know the buyer’s agent from Joe Schmo and, in fact, the buyer’s agent represents the buyer, not the seller; sellers could give a flying fig what the buyer’s agent wants.

Sellers rely on their listing agent’s advice. Even if the listing agent is a total doofus and completely incompetent, a buyer’s agent is not about to change that relationship between the listing agent and the seller. Apart from the Realtor Code of Ethics, which prevent a buyer’s agent from interfering in a listing agent’s transaction, it’s just not a good idea to try to implement a personal agenda from an adversarial viewpoint.

Acting like a pompous bully is simply not smart, if you ask me. Yeah, alienating the seller and the listing agent from the buyer’s agent and buyer is pretty much a 100% guarantee that a buyer’s purchase offer is going nowhere, regardless of price and terms.