Irrational Habit 2 ..from Chapter 6 reminded me of a time when I should have considered taking a referral and moving on. If I stretch what Jim is saying just a little bit I can make it fit into this story...
(Que dream sequence sound...)
I was a new agent at Williams and Associates. I hadn't sold a lot (maybe any?) homes in the 200k price range.
I was intimidated by clients shopping in that price range.
And I was on the hook to help a new family about to transfer to Terre Haute and looking for a home priced around 200k.
We met at the office, got in my car, (my 99 Buick Century) and started looking around town. They were lovely people, I started to feel better about this... We ate lunch together, we stopped for cokes, at the end of the day we headed back to the office to call it a night.
I was going south on 3rd Street towards the William's office and I reached for my coke, I lifted it out of the cup holder and I ...DROPPED IT ...into her purse. The only noise you could hear above my gasp was the chug-chug-chug sound of my Diet Rootbeer pouring into her leather bag.
I barely slept that night.
We were supposed to meet again the next day to look at more houses.. Would they still want to see me? How expensive was that bag?
Let me tell ya, it was expensive... but she was forgiving... so we were ok to continue.. I pushed thru with nervous laughter and swore off drinking in the car.
Skip ahead.. they found a house! It was a For Sale By Owner.. (Criminy!) But I was able to get a purchase agreement together for them and we ordered our inspections. They headed back out of state to start packing while the loan progressed and we waited on the inspection results.
Oh my goodness.. The inspector emailed the report to them. It was Father's Day.. my sweet husband went shopping with me and the kids on that day -- can you believe that?? I was in the dressing room at JCPenneys when the buyer calls me.
"Did you get the inspection?" she asked.
"Yes! I did!" I answered.
"Did yours have porn on it?" She asked.
"What?"
"Did your report have porn attached to it?" She repeated.
"I don't think so..." I said.
At this point the reception in the dressing room is waning. I tried to confirm that she was actually talking about porn and in a loud voice (b/c you are supposed to talk louder when you have a bad cell phone connection) I over annunciated "PORN--A--GRAPH--EE?" ..and walked out of the dressing room (forgetting my surroundings) right into a group of women standing in the loungerie section at Penneys.
Okay... I called my broker.. he told me I was going to have to call the Inspector.. In my mind I just knew that he was better suited for the job.. but he did not agree.
So this do-what-you-have-to-do-to-avoid-confrontation girl ...called the inspector. We worked it out. (This really just has to be another blog about what to do when porn gets attached to your clients docs...)
Skip ahead.. we are at the appraisal. IT DID NOT APPRAISE. At first the seller did not want to lower her price ..and when she finally came to her senses.. guess what the buyer said... You probably guessed right!
And I have never heard from these people again.
(Again -- que dream sequence sound....)
Sure you applaud my sticktuitiveness.. But in reality they were Debbie-Hill-Weary by the time that appraisal came back and I should have suggested a new strategy. Too many things had gone wrong and I was still trying to talk them into spending more time with me!
Thankfully, I have improved my troubleshooting abilities since then. I am no longer intimidated by large price tags, I am more careful when drinks and clients are both in the front seats, and porn hasn't been an issue for me of late.
I have also developed my sense for knowing when enough is enough.. or when there is no more I can do to help my client and it's time to take the referral. In this case I wish I would have referred them for their next attempt at home buying .. rather than lost them forever.
No comments:
Post a Comment