Really Real Estate....................... Blog

Maybe Some People Should Not Buy Houses

I had a Buyer Client, a single woman, who recently purchased her first house. She was a sweet woman, but was very nervous about the purchase. Every time I tried to guide her through the process, she made the assumption that somehow I was working in the Seller’s interests and not hers. Her friends and relatives had drummed it into her that the Real Estate Agent is always working for the Seller or their own pocket and she had to protect herself.  I understood where she was coming from and tried to allay her fears.

     On one house, I even stopped the inspection and got most of her money back because she could never have corrected all the problems on her budget (even though I knew I would have to show her twenty more houses before we found another one that she liked). However, on the next house, if I recommended an inspector, she made sure not to use that inspector. Same with the attorney, the mortgage person, etc. She was so sure that the septic system was in failure, that even after three septic inspections from three different septic companies certified that the system was functioning properly, she tried to get out of the contract. On the walk thru, she took a shovel out of her trunk to dig up the fields herself. I will never forget the look on the listing agent’s face as my client proceeded to dig up the yard. I still don’t know what she was expecting to find. She would call me late in the evening about a dream she just had of “doo doo” floating around her back yard.

     At the closing, their was mix up between the attorneys on a financial escrow and she yelled at me across the table that “this was all my fault” even though the attorneys on both sides assured that it was not. Through it all, I kept my cool, kept the attorneys from leaving the table, and made sure she closed on her dream house. The day after the closing it snowed. I made sure that she had someone to plow her driveway and deliver pizza to her new home. The other agents in my office thought I was nuts for continuing to communicate with my client. So was my wife. But you know, not everyone deals with the difficult process of buying or selling a house in the same way and our obligation is to the client whether or not they recognize (or appreciate) your intentions.

Sitting At An Open House

Sitting at an open house recently, I was struck by an observation of a recurring behavior of my “visitors.”  They walk into the house and seem annoyed by my very presence. They walk in as if they were expecting no one to be there so they can walk through the house unfettered, not to be bothered by a host of questions by an annoying and impertinent agent. They seem genuinely surprised when I ask them if they are already working with an agent. They seem more shocked when I ask them what price range they are looking in, as if that was a shameful secret and absolutely none of my business. (I haven’t even gotten to the Pre-Approval question yet.) When I try to ascertain what they are actually looking for in a house they look at me with great suspicion and with an eye on the escape door. I wonder what they think is my reason for being at the house. Certainly it’s not to ask questions, certainly it’s not to show them around, and most certainly it’s not to offer them any help in their search for a new home. They do take my card, however reluctantly, on the way out after forcing them to sign my login book.

            In trying to analyze this behavior, I need to figure out what the purpose of an Open House is for the visitor. I call them Visitors and not Buyers because they are not exhibiting Buyer behavior. Even though many of them are working with an agent (or say they are to avoid any solicitation by the sitting agent), why isn’t the agent accompanying them to the Open House? I find this a really curious phenomenon. I try to accompany my Buyer Clients to all the public open houses that I am aware of.  This is my naturally protective behavior of my business. So why do most visitors show up at open houses with out their agent of record. Is it because they just want to look and do not want to be sold? Is it because it gives them a chance to see the market for themselves without any professional input? Are they really just curious? Is it the desire to go to a neighbor’s house just to see how it’s decorated?

            I try to respect their position. But I still have a job to do, which is to ascertain whether they are truly a buyer for the house or potential future business. I am always astonished when the visitor is surprised when I try to do my job.

            That’s not to say that every now and then a Buyer walks in to my Open House and lets me do my job. And for those buyers I am grateful.

A Difficult Position

I find myself in a difficult position as a Listing Agent. For the first time I find a reluctance on my part to confront the realities of the Market head on. I gather my data, call for feedback, say I’m going to call my Sellers today to discuss where we are and I don’t make the call. Not today. I will make it Tomorrow. I will but not today. I have a generous amount of advertising out on each Listing. I have scheduled my open houses on a repeating basis. I uploaded all my listings on to all my internet portals. I keep track of all the inquiries, feedback, competing listings. So it’s not the fact that I’m not doing my work. I’m even having creative meetings with a few Marketing Directors to figure out if there is a selling angle that I haven’t considered. But I don’t have that offer in my hand. I didn’t get that appointment scheduled this weekend. And I know the Seller is getting anxious. I know the house is priced right because I’ve previewed every house in that price range. Well, almost every house (I’m not Superman.) I can’t keep coming up with reasons for not having that offer yet that is not a cliché. Short of having SpongeBoB Squarepants standing in the front yard waving a For Sale sign…There is a clarion call to return to basics. The first basic principle is Patience. Also, perhaps the hardest one to practice. If your are doing everything right and doing it everyday then the house should sell. It should. Absolutely. However, I did put in my order for a dozen statues of St joseph, just in case.

Do You Really Work 7 Days a Week?

I’m not one of those Real Estate Agents who can work at home. I have to get dressed, get my coffee and go to an office, any office just not the one in my house. Otherwise, it’s TIVO and chocolate cake. So typically, I make my way over to my office and try to do a day’s work. I can’t take off Saturday and Sunday because, well it’s Saturday and Sunday and if I don’t take out a few buyers those days I’m not going to pay my mortgage next month. Monday. I can take off Monday, but I have to at least call for feedback on my listings and do whatever follow up with my buyers oh, and I have to make a few phone calls…wait, I also have to talk to this lawyer on a deal, so maybe, I can take off Tuesday. Yeah, I’ll take off Tuesday, but I have that inspection that was set up last week, when I thought I might take Monday off. (I always think I might take Monday off.) And I also have floor time that afternoon, which I forgot to put on my calendar. So maybe I should take off Wednesday. So on Wednesday, I don’t make any plans. But my associate, we have a number of Listings together, he sets up an expired that we should go to. And I just got a new lead that wants to see something that afternoon. Oh, and I just got a call for a CMA, that looks like a real possibility and that I have to go to town hall for in Cortlandt Manor. So Wednesday is shot. Thursday is the office meeting and Open Houses and Friday, at the very least I have to set up for the weekend and since I’m in the office well…and there I am, it’s the weekend again. So today, I found myself, in the middle of the afternoon, staring blankly at the wall. I knew I was toast. I got up from my desk, went back to my house, sat on the couch, and watched what I had saved on the TIVO, and finished the chocolate cake. So much for my day off.

Shoes

                                                      

Recently, I had a Buyer who was interested in purchasing vacant land. We went to walk the property. She arrived in a pair of high heels. I suggested that we postpone the walk for another day so she could come back in a pair of shoes more suitable for the terrain but She insisted that we walk the property. What could have taken us twenty minutes took us two hours as She proceeded to dig her inch high heels out of the mud, with every step. It was agony, for me, for her, and for the property.  That same week, I took a couple on a tour of houses they were interested in purchasing. Both of them were wearing matching lace up boots. Of course, every house that day had instructions for us to remove our shoes. So, of course, I had to wait as they both undid their laces to tour the house and redid them to leave. Usually, I can show five houses in two hours, so I had another couple scheduled for later that afternoon. This tour took well over three hours and I was late for my next appointment. Now, I am trying to find a polite way to ask my perspective buyers what kind of shoes you will be wearing when we go out. There should be a shoe code for Buyers. Maybe it should be part of our websites. You know, a shoe chart on  what to wear depending on what kind of properties you will be touring. Work boots for vacant land, slip-ons for houses, old shoes for handyman specials, sandals for vacation houses -

Hot To Blog

Finally---I’ve done all the research, read all the other Blogs, went on hundreds of websites, went to tens of seminars, talked to my fellow agents, thought of all my topics, practiced my typing, bought a new camera, and now, I’m ready to Blog. Not only am I ready to Blog, I am Hot To Blog. Excited is an understatement. I have been thinking, planning, daydreaming, talking and now here I am typing my first Blog. I want this Blog to be a conversation about Real Estate…with Buyers, with Sellers, with my fellow Real Estate agents and with myself. (Yes, I talk to myself. I have noticed that this is an occupational hazard.) This is an “interesting” profession to say the least. Very misunderstood, sometimes even by those who practice it. We have a lot of issues that we have to be cognizant. There is a lot of pressure on us to be ethical, selfless, and still get the job done. There are so many minefields to negotiate through that an open discussion is of paramount importance. Speaking of minefields, here is a part of my disclaimer. I am not a legal authority. Many of these observations are just topics for discussion. None of the situations I will be describing are exactly as they happened but composites of multiple situations and/or composites of stories other agents have told me. This is a forum for discussion, not policy.  I am very protective of my clients and their privacy and my fiduciary to them. This is meant as an illumination of the difficulties and subtleties of what I consider a noble and wonderful yet sometimes (most times, it feels like) misconstrued profession.  I want to thank those of you out there in the Blogging world, in advance, for your support and contributions. And so, here goes ---