The Other Side of the Table: Why the Listing Agent Matters in Your Deal

On the listing agent you’ll never meet — and why they matter as much as the one sitting next to you.

“Our job isn’t just to find you a house. It’s to keep you out of the wrong one.”

Earlier this spring, clients of mine fell hard for a house. Good bones, right block, the kind of listing that moves fast in any market. So we did what we do — we moved first. I called the listing agent four or five times over a few days to get disclosures and set up a strong backup offer. No callback. No disclosure packet. Not even a “we’ll circle back.”

My clients could feel it. When you can’t get a straight answer about a house you’re about to put your life savings into, your gut starts talking — and we listen to it. They moved on. We found them something else. It was the right call.

Then, three weeks later, my phone rings. It’s her. “The offer is starting to unravel.” Her words, not mine. Would my clients like to come back in as a backup?

Here’s the part I want you to know. While that house was pending, she quietly raised the list price by $200,000 — telegraphing to the next buyer where she wanted the replacement offer to land. A million dollars is almost exactly what I suspect she’d always wanted. If she had just taken my call back in February — shared disclosures, had a real conversation — we could have gotten her most of the way there in a clean backup, no drama. Instead, she’s sitting on a house she can’t sell at the price she needs, calling every agent who rang her when it first hit the market.

I’m not telling you this to stir anything up. I’m telling you because this is the part of the transaction you don’t see from your side of the table — the agent on the other side of your deal matters almost as much as the agent on your side. How they return calls, what they share, what they hide — that’s what decides whether your offer closes cleanly at week four or falls apart at week six. My first job when a property comes up for you isn’t to write the offer. It’s to read the room.

We dodged a house that wasn’t really for sale at a price anyone was ever going to pay. And my clients? They’re under contract on the next one we found — a better fit, at a number that makes sense, with an agent on the other side who actually called us back.

One more thing before I go. Happy Mother’s Day to all the mothers on this list — and to mine. Primavera means spring, and from day one this has been a mother-daughter shop. Vera still reads every one of these before it goes out. I don’t think there’s a better way to run a business.

— Bea