A seller receives 23 offers on his property. All of the buyer agents want to present their offers in person and introduce the buyers to the seller.
There are 23 buyer agents and their buyer clients seated on folding chairs in a big room. Picture 50 or more people sitting on folding chairs with Offers to Purchase in their hands.
In a little conference room sits a seller and the seller’s agent preparing to review these 23 offers. The seller is not happy. All he wants is one, good and acceptable offer. He is overwhelmed by the prospect of having to review 23 offers and send 22 people home “empty handed”.
One by one the buyers and their agents “present their offer to the seller”. After about 8 of these “presentations”, the seller is totally confused and beside himself, as all of the offers seem about the same to him.
Along comes buyer number 9 and his agent. The savvy buyer’s agent can sense that the seller is completely fried and wants this over with. So he makes the seller an offer he can’t refuse, and the seller says to his agent “I’m going to take this one, get everyone else out of here.”
So the totally embarrassed seller’s agent goes out to the big room of many people in folding chairs and announces that the seller is DONE! He thanks them all for coming, but the seller is going to take offer #9 and they should all leave now.
AND THEN, AND THEN….ALONG COMES HANNAH!!! She jumps up from her chair, runs past the seller’s agent, kicks open the door to the little conference room, points at the buyer and buyer’s agent in the room and says “Whatever these guys have offered…we’ll go $100,000 over THAT!!
The seller’s eyes get as big as saucers. He realizes that it may be in his best interest to let everyone compete with one another and so he tells his agent to proceed as originally planned and “the game” proceeds until all 23 agents and their buyers have given their “Final and Best” offer.
I just love the picture in my mind of Hannah jumping from her chair, TACKLING THE LISTING AGENT, kicking down the door and refusing to be eradicated! I wonder why no one has ever made a movie of her valiant move! Her client must have been stunned, the whole room must have gasped in awe! I totally LOVE this story.
End result: Hannah’s client did NOT get the house. In fact Buyer #9 did, in the end, get the house for $400,000 more than his first acceptable offer. Buyer #9 got the house AND he sued Hannah’s company for making him have to pay $400,000 more for the house, as Hannah and Buyer #9’s agent worked for the same company. The suit was settled out of court and we now have “the Hannah clause” in all Buyer Agency contracts stating that the buyer is aware that the company may have other buyers under contract competing for the same house.
So Hannah’s efforts have become legendary…but only in the archives of lawyers and new stock clauses.
Hannah deserves much better…she at least deserves this article on a blog. So here’s to you Hannah! You are my idol!
Where did this Hannah work and when did this take place? Any idea?
Bay Area (CA) during its heyday.
It’s referred to as “The Debs” case, it was in Palo Alto in 1999 and Blanche’s (RealtyTimes) story on it says the buyer paid a million more than “list price” which was $400,000 more than his original offer…
It’s a real case, but some of it is urban legend because the case was settled out of court, so some of the details are not public record.
Personally, I like my version best π
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Hi Ardell,
Great little article!. I’m going to add a link to it in my “Weekly 7” post on my blog this week (http://www.FollowSteph.com), probably in the next day or so…
May I offer a quick tip, on most of your articles you use bold, which is a good thing. However I would suggest using a little less, it makes it harder to read. I always enjoy your articles, it’s just that the quantity (almost 50%) of bold makes them a little harder to read.
Hi Ardell,
Great little article!. I’m going to add a link to it in my “Weekly 7” post on my blog this week (http://www.FollowSteph.com), probably in the next day or so…
May I offer a quick tip, on most of your articles you use bold, which is a good thing. However I would suggest using a little less, it makes it harder to read. I always enjoy your articles, it’s just that the quantity (almost 50%) of bold makes them a little harder to read.
Stephane, I’m Italian. Blogging in bold is like talking with my hands π But I’ll try to tone it down for the Medigans.
Ardell,
Considering I can often “see” your hands waving while reading your posts, it seems to be working! π
Ardell,
Considering I can often “see” your hands waving while reading your posts, it seems to be working! π
Thanks for the background, Ardell. It’s a great story.
My I suggest ALL CAPS for emphasis when bold just won’t do? Tongue-in-cheek of course.
When I first started blogging, a Microsoft friend of mine “complained” about font size and bold and caps. Can someone tell me why all that matters? Serious question. From someone who reads women’s magazines, which often use these techniques so you can easily scan an article, I’m in the dark as to why it matters so much to people reading blogs.
Your help appreciated. What does “hard to read” mean? I’m not getting that part.
I think most people read all caps as yelling and it sort of reminds me of the “literature” the communitsts used to pass out at my high school (no kidding).
I think bold is great for less than 10 percent of an article, but beyond that it looks like a myspace page or like someone can’t figure out what the most important parts of their post are. When it’s more than 20 percent of the page, it hinders rather then helps scanning for me.
Ardell, I read your posts from top to bottom though, so it doesn’t matter.
I think most people read all caps as yelling and it sort of reminds me of the “literature” the communitsts used to pass out at my high school (no kidding).
I think bold is great for less than 10 percent of an article, but beyond that it looks like a myspace page or like someone can’t figure out what the most important parts of their post are. When it’s more than 20 percent of the page, it hinders rather then helps scanning for me.
Ardell, I read your posts from top to bottom though, so it doesn’t matter.
Ardell,
It’s a really hard thing to quantify, but there comes a point with bold, color and font size when things simply become more difficult on the eyes and become distracting.
Being lazy, I’ve been known to skip around blog posts looking for the nuggets of information. When someone bolds one or two things in a post, I’ll skip right to those sentences and know if I want to spend time even reading the other parts of the post. When someone uses a lot of bold, I get reading schizophrenia because even if I want to read the post straight through my eyes naturally want to jump to the next bold point. π In other words, a little bit of bold is great for highlighting the point of the article, a lot of bold negates their impact.
I’ll give an example from my previous profession: traffic engineering… If the state government were to double the number of signs on the freeway it would actually negate the impact of any one sign and make all the signs less useful. In other words, you’d miss the signs that are actually useful if there were twice as many signs on the road. Just like with traffic-related signs, too much bold can over-inform your audience.
I only write this comment because you asked. In reality, your use of bold has become part of your style and part of what makes you interesting. I don’t even want to suggest that you change since it seems to work very well for you!
Ardell,
It’s a really hard thing to quantify, but there comes a point with bold, color and font size when things simply become more difficult on the eyes and become distracting.
Being lazy, I’ve been known to skip around blog posts looking for the nuggets of information. When someone bolds one or two things in a post, I’ll skip right to those sentences and know if I want to spend time even reading the other parts of the post. When someone uses a lot of bold, I get reading schizophrenia because even if I want to read the post straight through my eyes naturally want to jump to the next bold point. π In other words, a little bit of bold is great for highlighting the point of the article, a lot of bold negates their impact.
I’ll give an example from my previous profession: traffic engineering… If the state government were to double the number of signs on the freeway it would actually negate the impact of any one sign and make all the signs less useful. In other words, you’d miss the signs that are actually useful if there were twice as many signs on the road. Just like with traffic-related signs, too much bold can over-inform your audience.
I only write this comment because you asked. In reality, your use of bold has become part of your style and part of what makes you interesting. I don’t even want to suggest that you change since it seems to work very well for you!
HI Ardell,
I’m sorry to have distracted the attention from your story to your bolding, that wasn’t my intention. But I guess others were thinking the same, so it’s probably a good thing I mentioned it…
The good thing is everyone reads your articles anyways, which means you’re an interesting writer!
I have to say that your latest articles with the bold toned down a bit are much easier to read π
HI Ardell,
I’m sorry to have distracted the attention from your story to your bolding, that wasn’t my intention. But I guess others were thinking the same, so it’s probably a good thing I mentioned it…
The good thing is everyone reads your articles anyways, which means you’re an interesting writer!
I have to say that your latest articles with the bold toned down a bit are much easier to read π
Keep an eye on me Stephane, and slap my hand if I start creeping back into my old ways π
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Two simple points.
1. You must immediately identify Hannah as an agent for the buyer. Otherwise, a reader may reasonably conclude that she is a buyer.
2. As an advertising expert, I’m qualified to state that your font size is indeed ‘way too large and adds nothing to you or the site. The text formatting violates many rules of typography, which were developed over centuries by artists and designers. The whole point is to make the text attractive and reader-friendly…not the opposite.
Two simple points.
1. You must immediately identify Hannah as an agent for the buyer. Otherwise, a reader may reasonably conclude that she is a buyer.
2. As an advertising expert, I’m qualified to state that your font size is indeed ‘way too large and adds nothing to you or the site. The text formatting violates many rules of typography, which were developed over centuries by artists and designers. The whole point is to make the text attractive and reader-friendly…not the opposite.
Thanks Larry,
I wrote this over a year ago. I don’t like to modify old posts, but I have toned down a bit.
I don’t necessarily view this post as “an ad”. My blog style reflects my speaking style. I do understand it is a bit odd. But then, so am I π
Larry,
There are several references to “Hannah’s client”, so your “immediately must identify Hannah as an agent” I believe is already well covered.
Besides, it’s obvious from the picture I used that Hannah is an agent “)
She is introduced to your readers as follows:
“AND THEN, AND THENΒ .ALONG COMES HANNAH!!! She jumps up from her chair….”
Really, it’s more honest just to say “thank you” and fix it then try to defend it.
Of course this is not an ad. However, the rules of good typography apply to all published materials. Either you look professional or you look sophmoric and amateurish.
Creativity is a separate issue.
You’re welcome.
She is introduced to your readers as follows:
“AND THEN, AND THENΒ .ALONG COMES HANNAH!!! She jumps up from her chair….”
Really, it’s more honest just to say “thank you” and fix it then try to defend it.
Of course this is not an ad. However, the rules of good typography apply to all published materials. Either you look professional or you look sophmoric and amateurish.
Creativity is a separate issue.
You’re welcome.
I must add that the site looks much, much better when viewed with Opera. Using IE, it’s really bad.
Seeing it this way, I have no criticism of the typography.
After adjusting IE, I take it all back. The typography is fine.
Larry,
Rules of blogging are you are not supposed to “change” a post from last year. If I catch something within five minutes or so of posting it, then I take a little latitude. But the “credibility” of blogging is different than pure journalism standards.
It’s more like a diary of thoughts…a log…a journal…than the rules you are applying. Blogs have their own and different rules, and we are far from journalists. I’m a real estate agent/ blogger.
Larry,
Rules of blogging are you are not supposed to “change” a post from last year. If I catch something within five minutes or so of posting it, then I take a little latitude. But the “credibility” of blogging is different than pure journalism standards.
It’s more like a diary of thoughts…a log…a journal…than the rules you are applying. Blogs have their own and different rules, and we are far from journalists. I’m a real estate agent/ blogger.