5.  What we do for you...

This letter will hopefully communicate to you the three distinct roles we perform during the course of a transaction.

Please Note:

We are Your Consultant's.

We are Your Negotiator's.

We are Your Overseers of the Transactional Details.

Role 1 - Consultant

Our first role is as your Negotiator's.

(Role 1)

(1)  As your consultant, you may notice we will ask you profound, insightful questions.

(2)  Maybe you'll notice they are the types of questions that the typical agent might not ever take the risk of asking you

(3)  Experience shows that a skilled consultant's like us will ask you probing, intelligent questions because discovering what is really important to you, is really important to us.

(4)  You may notice how quickly you can see, hear and feel that as your consultant's, it is important that we lead you through the process of clarifying your values, because when your values are clear, your choices are easy, and you want to make good, easy choices, do you not?

(5)  You might also notice, consulting is listening vigilantly to your answers.

(6)  What you may not know, is that only when you have confirmed that we have heard you, then and only then, will we craft a very specific strategic process to make sure you get the very best result possible.

(7)  Because we are your consultant, one of the things we do for you is appropriately define the problems we encounter during our transaction because you need to differentiate essential objectives from less relevant concerns.

(8)  Experience also shows us how to anticipate likely obstacles to achieving your objectives (9) and then identify sensible means to circumvent them.

(10)  What will happen when you imagine your consultant's recognizing and balancing the different needs of all the relevant people impacted by the decisions you make?

(11)  Now you may choose to listen carefully to this:  As your consultants, We will recognize when serious flaws in our own ideas require our swift, public acknowledgment.

(12)  We make mistakes and we are willing to make dramatic changes in new directions when required, and we would like to suggest that you do the same.

(13)  In the days and weeks ahead you will begin to notice that we will consistently demonstrate our ability to admit our own personal biases and we will use this awareness to constantly improve my thinking, because what is most important to us as your consultant's is that you realize your dreams.  (14)

Role 2 - Negotiator

My second role is as your Negotiator.

(1)  We treat your money like it is ours.  When it is time to save you or make you money, We are like Pit Bull's.

You, like us, know that money is an emotional issue and to represent your own self is like performing surgery on yourself.  You would never do that, would you?

(2)  We imagine being healthy is important to you.  Then we would like to suggest you delegate that to a person you trust and respect.  Like me, you probably believe it's in your best interest to have a skilled, experienced and focused negotiator on your team.

(3)  Imagine what it will be like to have two experienced professionals who deal with your money, to critically examine the accuracy of the underlying assumptions being relied upon.

(4)  What you will quickly notice as we are negotiating for you is that we will skillfully articulate the strengths and weaknesses of the suggestions other agents or lenders propose.

(5)  As a result you will sooner or later become aware that our negotiating skills alone are worth every penny you pay us.

(6)  Because we are your negotiators, it is our responsibility to recognize the likely underlying agendas and motivations of individuals that are involved in your transaction.  (7)  (Name), you'll also notice how quickly we anticipate the likely emotional reactions of individuals to actions or communications.

(8)  By now, you have probably noticed that as your negotiator, we will appropriately articulate the essential flaws in the arguments of others, and reiterate the strengths of your position.

(9)  We will recognize when it's appropriate to resist the objections of others and remain committed to a sound course of action for you.

Role 3 - I Oversee All the Transactional Details

My third role is to oversee all of the transactional details.

(1)  In the days and weeks and even months ahead, you will come to appreciate our role as the individuals who oversees all the transactional details.

(2)  As you can imagine, every i must be dotted and every t must be crossed, because there are 100 pieces of paper requiring upward to 43 signatures and initials, and making a mistake can be very costly to you.

Every transaction has 100 to 150 phone calls alone, and each one of them is loaded with critical details.

How does it make you feel knowing that there are 43 different people from 14 different industries that get involved during the seven stages of your transaction?  (3)  That's a lot of what is called "integrated complexity."

Imagine that selling, buying or financing a home is much like flying in an airplane across the country.  (4) Imagine that we are your pilot's and you're our passenger.

We may or may not run into turbulence.

Have you ever been a passenger in a plane?

Have you ever been in turbulence?

Then you know!

(5)  To make it easy for you to see everything that we do for you, that you don't see, because you are in the passenger seat, we've created a list of 88 different types of turbulence. 

(6)  You will also notice that, as your pilot's, we will always recognize what is known about an issue, what more needs to be known, and how to best obtain the relevant and accurate information needed.

(7)  As a matter of fact, one of our greatest skills is to see things from multiple perspectives, which means we can identify likely, unintended consequences of our decisions.

(8)  You can relax because as the individuals who oversee all of the details on your transaction, we recognize the conclusions that can and cannot be drawn from a particular exchange with all the different people involved.

(9)  You can be confident because we will appropriately consider the probable effects and likely, unintended consequences that may result from taking a particular course of action.

(10)  As the individuals who oversee all of the details of your transaction, we will pursue and encourage feedback that may reveal an error in my judgment and then make appropriate adjustments.

It is good you now know if we choose to work with you, and you choose to work with us, what we consider are our three most important roles in representing you, is this correct?

We look forward to the possibility of working with you . . . . .

David and Barbara Miller - The Miller Team  Since 1972