Years ago, I had a knack of ‘spotting the Estate Agent’ (our American friends call them Realtors) . It was a game I used to play as part of my People Watching past time.
BBC image from google
The men would wear dark suits with a striped shirt (usually blue stripes on white) and plain dark tie , and would drive large black or blue cars no more than a year old. They carried a clipboard and big grin, oozing charm as they shook your hand and proceeded to tell you the fantastic features of the property you wished to view.
Ask them a question not in the script, and they looked puzzled.
These days, women are no longer employed simply to type up the details and answer the phone. They are out there in their own suits, white blouses (no stripes) and high heels, driving nifty little motors in a variety of colours, and meeting potential buyers going through the same spiel as their male counterparts.
We are having a lot of experience with the selling agents of our modern times.
So much has changed since I bought my first property with my Ex, and now once you agree to market your property with the agent of your choice, it gets slammed onto the internet. AND THAT’S IT.
As a seller, you get little contact from your agent unless you make the call, or they give you feedback as to why an eventual viewer doesn’t like your property.
As a buyer checking out what’s available on the internet, any properties of interest to us are either Sold, Under Offer, or Withdrawn by the time we’ve done a drive by and contacted the agent (and we’re pretty quick off the mark) . We even had an instance where one hadn’t even been built yet, yet there was no mention of that on the details!
Also as a buyer, ask for details of a specific type of property in a particular price range, with a garden and parking, and they email details of anything but, and at twice the price, if they respond to you at all.
Well, we have had enough of the Internet, so this week we decided to get down to some serious leg work and go about things the old-fashioned way.
And we are getting results. There ARE properties available, in our price range, that may actually be suitable!
This week, we have been given details of about 10 properties. We have been able to view 5 and three are on our short list.
My post today is more about attitude than buying and selling though.
We went into three agents offices today, and were greeted with a cheery hello before I’d even closed the door in all of them.
They listened to what we were looking for.
They looked properties up from a FILING SYSTEM, not a computer check list.
They had pictures on their walls of properties available for sale, NOW.
They were helpful!
It was so different from the impersonal attention of a computer.
I would LOVE to buy a property from one particular young lady who took our details.
Why?
Because she was a doggie person.
How did I know?
She welcomed Maggie into the office and made a fuss.
What happened?
Maggie rolled onto her back, four paws in the air, exposing her belly, and absolutely adored this perfect stranger.
Vicky and her colleague David were both doggie people, and it showed.
Maggie knew this.
But what was really strange was that although she has allowed visitors to fuss her like this in our home, she has never let anyone close enough to do it outside.
Dogs know. It was a good sign.
pensitivity101 
Pingback: Hectic Frustration | pensitivity101