
11 minute read
To Hire or Not Hire
Chapter Three
Mindset Matters
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“No problem can be solved by the same consciousness that created it. We need to see the world anew.”
– Albert Einstein
“Okay, what’s the damage?” I asked.
I’m standing at the bus stop, cell phone in my hand, ear buds plugged in my ears. It’s one of those dark-at-4:30 p.m. winter days Seattle is famous for, and it’s cold enough for me to regret not having brought gloves. My auto mechanic, Andy, is on the other end of the line.
After weeks of avoiding the inevitable, I finally got him to look at my silver, 2001 VW Jetta wagon. I’d put off getting the clutch handled for so long, I couldn’t drive it to him, so he’s standing in my driveway.
“The clutch is about $1200. But since I need to pull the engine to get to it, and the age of this baby, I’d think you’d want me to replace the serpentine belt while I’m at it.”
“Great... and how much more is that?” I ask, not convinced it was great at all.
“Well, it’s about another $600 all in… and if you don’t do it now, and it goes later, I’ll need to pull the engine again and it’ll be about double.”
“Sure. Makes sense. Go for it.” I say, and sigh the sigh of a man about to drop $1800 on a 16-year-old car.
And that’s it. I’m getting a new clutch and a new serpentine belt.
Now, I know what a clutch is. I’ve rebuilt a few cars in my time. I like to think I have a good understanding of the basic mechanical features of a car. But I have only a vague wisp of an idea about what a serpentine belt might be. I assume it’s something like a timing chain, but I wouldn’t bet on it (and I’m a gambling man).
Ever been there? Ever been in a conversation where you’re uncertain about something? It might have been something trivial and unrelated to you. Or, like me and my serpentine belt, it could be something important and costly. It’s one of those times when you have a question you could ask, maybe even you’d like to ask, but you don’t. Those times when you don’t remember someone’s name and are too embarrassed to ask, fall into this category. That ever happen to you?
What’s probably obvious here is the concern stopping us is a fear of looking stupid. Nobody wants to look stupid. Doesn’t matter who you talk to, or where you go, the pull to avoid looking stupid is universal and all pervasive. That is, we all automatically act in ways that will have us avoid looking foolish in the moment. Do we overcome this from time to time? Of course we do. But it’s something we need to “overcome.” What’s automatic is avoiding looking stupid.
Let’s go one level deeper here. What’s the avoiding looking stupid about? Why do I fear asking about the serpentine belt would make me look stupid? Why would asking a forgotten name make you look stupid? What’s the mechanism that has asking those types of questions trigger the fear of embarrassment?
Looking at these scenarios reveals a theme. In each case, you’ll find there’s the same assumption operating in the background. We may not be aware of this but it’s there. If you listen to your
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own thoughts, you’ll hear it. In every case in which you have a question to ask and aren’t asking it, you think something like, “I’m already supposed to know the answer.”
Asking any question when we’re supposed to know the answer is bad news. It’s a universal human phenomenon to have been laughed at as a child for not knowing the answer to some question. While we might think that was personal, that it only happened to us, it didn’t. It happened to everyone. Nobody wants to look dumb, and there is no quicker way to look dumb than to ask questions we think we’re supposed to know the answer to.
The end result is now, standing at the bus stop, talking to my mechanic about my serpentine belt, I need to suck it up, tell him to go ahead, and pray for the best.
Now my wife has no similar constraint. She doesn’t have any hidden assumption that she’s supposed to know anything about cars, so I know she’s going to ask me about this new expense. This, I handle, in all my savviest glory, by researching it on Google before I get home (the moral equivalent of asking her to whisper me the name of that lady who just walked in to the party).
But what in the world does this have to do with buying or selling your home?
Consider, and I am asking you to stop and consider this, for real estate you think you’re supposed to know how to do it. The background assumption most people have is, “I am supposed to know how this goes.”
Look at the amount of freedom you have to ask questions. Do you understand what a title search is? Do you know what an escrow officer does? How do real estate agents get paid? How does an escalation clause work? What’s the difference between the tax-assessed value and the appraisal? What happens after a seller receives your inspection response? Tell me everything you need to know about FIRPTA, or the CFPB, or lead-based paint and asbestos abatement... need I go on?
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This brings up the other side of the hand. If you do know what these things are, you might be even more constrained. Knowing these things could leave you with “I already know about these things.” The assumption that you already know is even more damaging to your ability to ask questions than the assumption that you’re supposed to know. At least when you know you don’t know something, you can overcome the barrier. People who “already know” something don’t think they have a barrier to overcome. This was the case with driver #1 in the story I used in my introduction.
My point is, the damage is caused by not asking questions. The degree to which you’re operating under the unspoken assumptions that you either a) are supposed to know how to do this, or b) already know how to do this, is the degree to which you’ll have no power to ask the questions you need to ask.
Putting aside either of those assumptions is simple yet not always easy. First, you’ll need to acknowledge which one is running your life. Are you a “supposed to know” person or are you an “already know” person. It’s acknowledging this that will give you the freedom to create a new place from which to approach the process. By the way, it’s possible to be either one at different times. It’s the listening for which one you are now that’s important.
There’s one more hidden assumption I’d like to examine that shapes the buying or selling experience. “Supposed to know” and “already know” are assumptions you have about yourself that constrain your effectiveness. Let’s look at one hidden assumption about the situation that also limits your effectiveness.
The National Association of Realtors reports that “Nearly seven in 10 buyers interviewed only one real estate agent during their home search.” That number climbs to 72 percent for home sellers. This means that about 70 percent of the population will take the most expensive thing they own, the one thing they
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physically touch more than they touch any other thing, the thing that holds almost every key memory of their entire lives, and will put this multifaceted, complex, legal transaction in the hands of the first person who comes to mind, even if that person is a total stranger.
Wow.
What are the assumptions running in the background that would create this outcome? What world would you need to be living in to think that’s a smart plan?
I can’t answer for you, but I suspect it’s something like, or at least includes, “All real estate agents are the same, and/or I can’t tell the difference between them.”
Either, or both, of those thoughts operating in the background would lead to an action called hiring the first person you meet. Those assumptions would give you permission, and perhaps confidence, in hiring your kid’s soccer coach, or your nephew, or that nice guy you met at that open house 15 minutes ago, or hiring the person who offers the biggest discount.
If you start with the assumption that there’s no real difference between agents, and even if there is, you couldn’t find it anyway, then there’s no point in interviewing a Realtor. Why bother? Everyone knows they’re all the same and/or you can’t tell (until later) if they’re any good. Hey, seven out of ten people can’t be wrong....
Except they are wrong. Even the littlest bit of rational thought immediately tells you all agents can’t be the same. There’s always good, bad, and average performing people in every profession. And, since they aren’t all the same, what if you really could tell the difference? What if there was some way to discover who was most likely going to outperform the others? Would that interest you?
What happens if you put aside your default, automatic, “already there” assumptions? If all agents weren’t all the same and you could freely ask questions, what questions might you ask? I have
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some thoughts about that I’ll share in Chapter 6, but first let’s follow this thinking a little further.
If you’re going to give up your default, automatic assumptions, you’re going to need to replace them with a different set of assumptions. In other words, you’re always coming from some viewpoint, either a default, automatic view or one you intentionally create. Instead of coming from the view that you are “supposed to know” all this, or what you know is “all Realtors are the same,” I’m suggesting coming from a different view will give you different results.
Here’s one possible mindset you could adopt when buying/selling your home that might give you enough distance from those default assumptions. I’m asking you to take a moment and try relating to yourself in a particular way. See if you can picture yourself as the CEO of a business. Your business has assets somewhere north of half a million dollars (change this number to be consistent with the value of the home you are looking to buy or sell). And the business you’re in has you out to either purchase or sell a particular commodity in a crowded market place.
I think that if you related to yourself as the boss, as the owner, as the CEO, and you related to the purchase/sale of your home as the business you were in, you’d naturally take different types of actions when it came time to find an expert to help with each step.
If you were the CEO, hiring a Realtor would be analogous to hiring a COO (Chief Operating Officer) or at least hiring a CMO (Chief Marketing Officer). Does every CEO hire a COO? Nope. But when they do, how many decide to hire the first COO they think of? Probably not a lot. What do CEOs do when looking for a COO? They ask around, they collect resumes, and they conduct interviews. And what do they look for during those interviews? They look for a track record and they determine if this is someone they’re comfortable working with. Does the CEO look for specific
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performance results each potential candidate has had in the past? I bet they do.
Did you know you could do this before you hire a real estate agent? Did you know that you could ask any prospective real estate agent you think you might want to hire to show you their last 12 months of sales? You might not have had that thought before because your hidden assumptions have told you that’s not even a question you could or should ask.
In fact, the assumptions have kept it from looking like you’re hiring someone to represent you. I’m asserting it couldn’t possibly look to the 70 percent of the population like they’re hiring someone. What evidence do I have to back my assertion? Well, if it looked to them like they were hiring someone, they’d interview them. They’d use a specific, repeatable set of standard questions that uncover the interviewees’ track records of past performance – because that’s the action people take before hiring someone.
Changing the assumptions changes your actions, and changing your actions is the only thing that will change your results.
Key Point: Does hiring someone with a track record of getting more money than average guarantee that you’ll get more money for your home? Of course not. But expecting someone who has a track record of getting less money than average to, suddenly, get you the most for your home is pretty silly.
No matter what happens, in the context of being the CEO, you will be empowered to ask questions and make the calls that need to be made. The buck will stop with you.
Now, let’s get into the information a CEO would need to run their business.
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