To many who are not in my profession, this story may not have meaning. To me, when I read this from my real estate friend residing back East (I will refer to her as Susan to protect her identity)I could empathise. She writes:
‘Just picked up a new buyer through an Internet lead service. Nice young woman. Returns calls immediately, responds to e-mails promptly, agrees to work with me and we meet last night to go over paperwork, chat, then go view a two-family she knows she wants. She lives near the place, knows all about it, knows she is going to want to put in an offer. In the ten minute drive to the property, I learn:
1) Her fiancé was killed in a drive-by shooting;
2) She is suspicious, does not believe the story given by the other guy in the car; starts her own investigation;
3) A few weeks in, her dog is poisoned in the yard;
4) Her mother is now dead, she cannot turn to her for help;
5) Dad’s in prison. No contact.
6) The house she has been renting a room in, and paying fairly high rent for, is going into foreclosure because the landlord took the money, did not pay the mortgage, and split.
7) She begins talks with the bank about buying the house herself because she loves it. At first they tell her she can buy it; she gets her financing in order. She qualifies for a mortgage larger than what the house will go for, so she figures she is all set. Not so fast. Sooooo many problems attached to this house, the title, etc., that she just decides she wants to get something else.
We go to the house, in the dark, in a not-safe neighborhood (her neighborhood, so I feel somewhat safer with her). Get key out of lockbox. Great. I can see that it is a brand new key, and I know what is coming. Right. Key does not work. I call the listing agent, a bulldog of a guy, Nickolay, who sounds like he is from the Russian Mafia. Nickolay keeps saying , “RRRR, YES, key should vork. Key should vork!” I keep trying. Key not vorking. Nicolay cannot meet us, he is having belated Valentine’s Dinner with his girlfriend. Which is interesting, because I know Nikolay and his WIFE, lol. Met them at Realtor functions in the past. I reschedule for Saturday at 10:00.
9) This is going to be a short relationship. She is sweet and trusting, but I don’t see her becoming one of my future friends-who-started-as-buyers. We just don’t seem to run in the same social circles.’
Just another day in the life of a realtor.
I think we all underestimate realtors patience and bravery
It must be hard some day
This story gets stranger and stranger as I kept reading it. No one ever said working in real estate was going to be a walk in the park!
This is a very interesting sharing. Indeed, we could never underestimate the depth of the stories we hear about as a realtor. This is also one of the best parts of being a realtor. You get to meet a lot of people and you get to be a part of their lives.
This sounds excellent for an episode of CSI or something on tv. What drama from one person. Her life is filled with things from a novel.
Wow, this is quite the example of truth being stranger that fiction! The poor woman has been through much more than her share of trauma; it’s very, very sad.
It also underscores the challenges of a profession — in this case, that of the realtor — in which fostering a favorable working relationship the client is where a great deal of the effort must go. One simply never knows what one will encounter in meeting a new client, and what kind of life history and circumstances that client might have.