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Why Am I Selling?
Chapter 2 from our co-founders’ journey to sell his Breck Cabin…
Let’s get this out of the way up front, because people always ask.
Why am I selling the Breck cabin?
Ready?
For… the… money.
I didn’t invent that answer—but I’ve adopted it as gospel. Years ago, a friend of mine who’s both an agent and managing broker told me about an attorney who advised using that line whenever the question came up: “Why is the seller selling?”
The reply was always the same: For the money.
It’s brutally honest and almost always true. We can dress it up however we want—downsizing, relocating, simplifying, lifestyle shifts—but at the core? There’s a financial reason every time. So, I’m sticking with it.
But the better question is this:
Why am I chronicling this entire journey publicly?
Different answers.
I’m doing it because I want something to change.
I want one seller (or hopefully lots)—just one—to read something I post and use it to negotiate a lower commission. I want one buyer (hopefully thousands) to realize they don’t have to swallow “standard” compensation just because an agent says so. You already know I’m not anti-agent. I buy and sell with agents all the time. I just want fair
compensation and uncompromising ethics. That’s not too much of an ask I would think.
I just want honesty, transparency, and accountability. And to sell my house, of course.
Now I’m taking it deeper
I want to be a vehicle for change for an industry desperately in need of disruption from the consumer side.
I’ve had a great life. Real estate helped make a lot of it possible.
I want to give back to the consumer.
Years ago, as a consumer protection attorney, I sued industries that put profit above people. On a small scale, I practiced what I preached when we sold our Breck family home to a local couple with two young kids who we knew would thrive there.
But I haven’t done it on the scale I want.
That box is still unchecked.
That’s the reason I created Negotiate the Comp, Inc. —not as a vanity project, but as a passion project. Tools to help the consumer shift the industry from “this is how it’s always been” to “this is how it should be.”
And chronicling the sale of my Breck cabin?
This is part of the mission.
Maybe I won’t change the entire landscape. Maybe I won’t get to see the full result. But if one buyer or seller somewhere negotiates differently because they heard me say it out loud, I will feel content.
That might be enough to cross this item off the bucket list.
