Grit & Fortitude

“Never, Never, Never, Never, Give Up!” is a famous quote from Winston Churchill that inspired the British during World War Two. Sometimes, our business demands this same grit and fortitude, and last week I found an example of this in a story that an agent shared with me! Four days and 21 emails of persistent negotiating on the agents’s part, brought a short sale offer from “rejected by the investor” to “accepted and ready to close” on one of his listings.
As I read the chain of emails between the agent and the Investor, I noticed a pattern that led to the agent’s success. First was his timely and persistent responses to the Bank.  And with each response, he stayed on message explaining his sellers’ dire financial situation, the bleak prospects of another offer, and offering “out of the box” solutions to the problem.  The tipping point was when the agent praised the negotiator for coming up with a great solution, and it was something that the agent had actually suggested earlier. By giving the negotiator credit, he built the bridge needed and now has a scheduled closing!