An NYC broker who represents multimillion-dollar clients says people have a common misconception about why their homes aren't selling - and correcting them is one of the most difficult parts of her job
- Lisa K. Lippman has sold over $1 billion worth of real estate over the past four years.
- She represents multimillion-dollar clients across Manhattan.
- Lippman recently told Business Insider about she considers to be the biggest challenges of her job.
- Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
Working in the real-estate industry can have its ups and downs.
Business Insider spoke with top Manhattan real-estate broker Lisa K. Lippman to get her take on the biggest challenges of the job.
Lippman is a broker at the luxury real-estate firm Brown Harris Stevens, where she was the No. 1 broker in 2016, 2017, and 2018. In the past four years, she has sold over $1 billion worth of real estate and was named the No.4 broker in Manhattan by The Wall Street Journal in 2016.
Read more: 17 real-estate agents reveal the worst parts of their jobs
And while Lippman represents multimillion-dollar clients across Manhattan, her days are far from smooth. Here's what she considers to be the biggest challenges of the job:
Explaining to sellers that they may lose money
Lippman told Business Insider that since the luxury market is no longer a seller's market, a lot of sellers have to come to terms with the fact that their properties are no longer valued at the same prices they were a few years ago.
"In this market, the biggest challenge is explaining to sellers that they may lose money on their property or at the very least make a lot less than they imagined a few years ago," Lippman told Business Insider in an email.
Convincing clients that marketing isn't the problem
Lippman says that when dealing with a property that isn't selling, clients often blame the agent's marketing efforts. However, Lippman explained it has nothing to do with marketing and everything to do with the property being overpriced.
"The truth is, that if a property is marketed with great photographs, a clear floorplan, is on all the major websites, and the listing broker does broker open houses and e-blasts, and still no one calls to see it, or not enough people do, then the listing is overpriced," Lippman told Business Insider. "No amount of marketing will coax buyers in to see a property they deem overpriced. Sellers can get very frustrated by this."
There is just too much inventory
Lippman explained that if and when a property gets an offer, sellers have to act fast or the buyer will move on to another option. In order to prevent losing a potential buyer, sellers have to engage - as long as the offer is reasonable.
"It's often hard to explain to a seller that their property does not have the same cache as before, or at least that people have so many second and third choices!" Lippman told Business Insider.
The challenges Lippman lists are just a few of the many real-estate agents face on a daily basis. Business Insider's Katie Warren previously reported that many real-estate agents say that managing clients' unrealistic expectations can be the hardest part of the job.
Other challenges real estate agents struggle with are having to be available 24/7, dealing with endless emails, having mistrustful clients, and inconsistent income.