EXPECTATIONS
Here I go again, expecting those around me to live up to my standards. I just don’t understand why my friends and family so often let me down by not acting the way I want them to. What a disappointment! Why are they not more like me! Think like me!
Of course I am being a “little” over dramatic. But the truth of the matter is, we all from time to time are disappointed in those closest to us. Sometimes we are surprised by their reaction, or what we may consider as an over reaction, to our “choice” words of encouragement or misguided suggestions. It is these times that task our abilities of patience and finesse, particularly when we know that all misunderstandings could have been prevented if we had not projected our point of view on the situation and others.
In business, misguided points of view or expectations are what is responsible for more business failures than anything else. False projections on the worth of a business; sales projections that were never achievable; contractual promises that were unrealistic are examples of expectations gone awry. Many times the foundation of these failures rests in a concept of our own worth and achievement, or the ungrounded potential of the business’s ability to excel in other than a perfect market condition.
Let me bring this a little closer to what I experience in the real estate market. I find more often than not that buyer and seller’s expectations are what cause the inability to bring a sale transaction to a satisfactory completion. Sometimes our expectation of the worth of a property may far exceed the reality of the comparable sales. Sellers sometimes feel that all potential buyers should be as credit worthy as they are; after all they acquired the property when values were elevated and dutifully made their mortgage payments on a debt that now exceeds the worth of the property. Buyers believe that no matter what the listing price, it far exceeds the value of the property, and their expectations of depreciating home values are corroborated daily by the media.
Expectations are what keep me in business. A buyer or seller will have his or her own perception, wrong or otherwise, of how their sale or buy transaction will be consummated. The Realtor lives in a world of melding the expectations of both parties and bringing them to a level where both can be comfortable in the outcome. It is a challenge! I love my business!