New Hampshire Real Estate & Consumer Resources

Even though I did not see a great deal of action during my time spent as a real estate agent, the few customers I had dealt with were just a pain.

It seems like people were either cancelling their appointments, not showing up for appointments or changing their minds about that it was that they really wanted.

From what I observed, these things are all pretty normal in the real estate business. People buying or selling real estate can often be uncertain about what they really want and can change their minds frequently and that is probably quite normal when such big decisions are involved. A few examples from my brief time spent as a real estate agent:

All of the people I mention here didn’t really do anything wrong and I have no reason to think they are not perfectly nice, well-adjusted normal human beings. It isn’t difficult however, to feel somewhat put upon or perhaps even “used” as a real estate agent since that is the nature of the business.

Alas, another area where I would not do so well.

I should also point out that never did I have a harsh word for any customer or potential customer or even any of the agents I worked with during my time as an agent. Sure, there were people I ran into that I did not care for much, and that’s a normal part of any job, or, life in general.

Overall, I was fortunate to have a very good group of agents in the office I worked in. Sure, as you would expect, there were some that I liked more than others and even two or three I really didn’t care for much at all, but I never had any bad experiences with anyone in the office.

My very first dealings with real customers was a bit of a turn-off. As luck would have it, they were interested in finding a rental unit. As you might suspect, an agent does not make much money with a rental deal, but they were my first customers and I was ready to do all I could for them.

The were a young couple – married or engaged, I cannot recall which – and I took them out on a cold winter morning. If I recall correctly, I had three properties to show them.

They were somewhat pressed for time since one of them had to head to work right after we viewed the properties. For whatever reason, they arrived in separate vehicles and insisted on each driving their own vehicle and following me. This wasn’t what I had envisioned but it all worked out reasonably well.

What bothered them about me right away was that they didn’t seem terrible friendly and even seemed a little disinterested in the whole process. They certainly did not strike me as being too enthusiastic about locating their new home. Maybe they had a fight that morning or something, who knows? Whatever the reason, it did not make me terribly comfortable.

I had initially talked to the woman on the phone after being given the lead from another one of the agents in the office after the woman had visited my website. Yeah, I know, go figure. Apparently, when she called the office initially, she did not ask for me by name and became “fair game” for whoever was on duty at the time. Being a rental, the other agent probably did not have much interest and decided to offer the lead to me since the woman had called as a result of visiting my web page.

I had talked to her a few times on the telephone and she had seemed quite friendly and personable. I wondered what had happened to change her attitude between the time we talked on the phone and the time I met her in the office.

Despite my concerns about locating these properties in areas that were not terribly familiar to me, we pulled up in front of the first property without delay. That one turned out to be in pretty rough shape and not at all what they were looking for.

The second property was also easily located but that is where my luck ran out. The high-tech lock-box devices that are used these days usually work pretty well. Each agent has their own electronic keypad and code that is used to open the lock-boxes and obtain the key to the house.

On this particular cold winter day, the lock-box did not appear to be working as intended. After attaching the keypad and entering my code numerous times, the box refused to open. I could hear the little motor inside the unit and it sounded as if it were trying to do something but to no avail. It was either frozen shut from the cold, or not closed properly by the last person who has used it. If you are not careful, it was possible to jam the key in the little drawer as you were closing it and make it almost impossible to open again.

I called our office administrator on my cell phone to see if she, or someone else in the office, could offer any tips on opening the unruly device, but there really wasn’t anything else that I could do. I told the customers we would have to re-schedule since there was just no way to get into the place and being pressed for time, they could not hang around and wait to see if we could get someone from the listing office to come out with a key.

The customers has decided that they had seen enough that day and headed off to work. I was actually happy to see them go. It was good to be done with the stuck lock-box incident and since I was not all that fond of dealing with people who were so cheery, I rather hoped I did not see them again.

I heard from her a week or so later and she told me she had located a place and she thanked me for my help. Frankly, I was glad to be rid of her. Not a good sign.

Coming Next: Part 2