Sissy Lappin

35+ years · $2 billion+ in home sales · Top 1% of real estate professionals

Sissy Lappin has been selling homes in Houston since the 1980s, through every kind of market. Along the way she kept notebooks on every deal: what the buyer worried about, what the inspection turned up, what the seller couldn't let go of, and what finally got everyone to the closing table. She calls them "the receipts."

She sees the whole deal

Most people handle a home sale one problem at a time. Sissy sees the chain:

• Price decides who walks through the door.
• Condition decides how those buyers judge the price.
• One inspection finding can reopen a negotiation everyone thought was done.

She gives sellers her pricing reasoning in writing so they can weigh the evidence themselves. As she puts it: "If they read it, it's gospel, but if I tell them, I'm just a salesperson."

She knows the house, not just the paperwork

Sissy understands how homes are built and remodeled, and she has a deep network of tradespeople behind her. Her advice to buyers: deal with structural, health and safety findings first, and don't treat an inspection report as a shopping list.

Clients for life

When emotions run high, Sissy knows when to press and when to let the temperature drop so everyone can refocus on the house, the price and what they actually want. Only a handful of her deals have ever failed to close. Many clients have become lifelong friends, and now their grown children call her when it's their turn to buy.

The press and the pros turn to her

• The Wall Street Journal, on the NAR commission verdict: "It's a wake-up call for real-estate agents."
• The Washington Post, on how commissions were changing
• MONEY, on the Zillow-Trulia merger
• Bankrate, on selling a home without a Realtor
• Bylined contributor to Inman, writing for fellow real estate professionals

She wrote the book on it

Author of Simple and SOLD: Sell Your Home Fast and Keep the Commission (2012) and a series of practical guides for buyers and sellers. Co-founder of ListingDoor, which turned the book's lessons into tools homeowners could use to sell their own homes.

AskSissy

AskSissy brings that experience to buyers and sellers everywhere, in plain language: what to look for, what to ask and how one decision affects the next.