Kathy Vaughan's (kathyvaughan) Blog

The revisions to the Code of Ethics for 2007 have been released. Upon reading the revised Code, I was struck once again by the poetry of the Preamble. Please take a moment to re-read it and quietly regard our awesome responsibility to the public and the honor of providing service.   "Under all is...

Early in my real estate career, I read an article titled "If You Can Smell It, You Can't Sell It." I don't remember the author, the publication, or even many of the details, but the catchy title has always stuck with me. It has stuck with me because it's catchy, but also because I am confronted b...

The National Association of Realtors has adopted several brand new Standards of Practice for the 2007 Code of Ethics that directly address "doing the right thing" when using the Internet in the practice of real estate.Here is a quick summary in plain English:Don't mislead the client when using th...

I am amazed by the feedback I have gotten on my blog about calling for feedback. It illustrates a point I forgot to mention in my post: If you put something out there that interests people, you will get feedback whether or not you ask for it.A few of the responses agreed with me that I can give m...

I once asked a seller whose listing had expired why their house hadn't sold. He told me there was no doubt about it, the agent had not called other agents for feedback. I didn't argue with him, but it seemed such an odd shortcoming to focus on, I gave it some thought.Why do we agents call for fee...

There is no shortage of resources for sellers on how to interview agents. I have gone to many listing appointments where the sellers proudly produce a photo copied sheet of questions. The list is always different. Sometimes the questions are good ones. Sometimes I've already answered them. Someti...

As a young buyer's agent, I was amused by the variety of responses from sellers when I asked to show their houses. Some stayed and chatted up the buyers, some tried to show the house themselves, some nervously met us at the door and then raced out as if we had a contagious disease, some scrammed ...

You've all been there You spend a lovely afternoon showing houses. The buyers see several homes they like and seem to be encouraged, but at the end of the day they haven't made a decision. Worse yet, you can't remember which houses they liked, which they didn't, which had the skylight in the kitc...

As a new agent, I was terrified of the question "How long have you been an agent?" I thought answering the question honestly would reveal my incompetence and lose me a precious client.I was lucky to have them, and I didn't want to lose them! After getting a few transactions under my belt, I began...

Every Realtor knows that property condition and "showing well" are of primary importance in getting an offer on a house. But we've all had this experience: Just after you've explained that the kitchen needs new counter tops, the cracked tile in the bathroom needs to be replaced, the yard needs la...