*This post was started about 3 weeks ago and I never had a chance to finish it, so the timeline is a little off but the point remains the same*
In an ongoing effort to keep up with my sister's blog posts (See them here: Teaspoon SF) I actually have something to write about today.
I was holding a house open last Sunday at our listing in Lafayette. It was a bright sunny day and everyone who came into the house was in a good mood, which made it really easy for me to strike up conversations with the people who walked in. Now, not all of you might know this, but the purpose of holding a home open is actually twofold. First, it is a great way to showcase the house for your sellers and give prospective buyers a chance to casually walk through on a Sunday. Second, it gives you, the agent, a chance to meet buyers who might not have an agent yet and therefore are just waiting to meet the perfect person (me!)
So I was sitting in the living room fiddling around with my Barnes and Noble Nook (it has Soduku) and waiting for people to come in. Just a note, sometimes I will bring my computer with me and get a little work done but this house was vacant and without internet, so just me and soduku on this occassion. Anyway, a womann eventually walks in, let's call her Sally, and says hi and starts to look around the house. I give her a few minutes and as she passes by me in the living room I strike up a conversation with her. I am pretty sure it was filled with an abundance of witty banter and undeniable knowledge of all things real estate but who knows for sure. We end up talking for a good twenty minutes and I can tell that Sally is starting to get ready to head off so I ask her if we can meet at my office and talk more specifically about what she might be looking for. She smiles kind of sheepishly and says "Oh actually I already have an agent." I respond with something along the lines of, "Oh that's great, who are you working with?" She gives me an agents name and I actually know the agent and also know that she is a GREAT agent. I tell Sally that she is lucky to be working with that agent and best of luck on her home search.
At Open Houses, this kind of thing is pretty routine and I don't have any problem with it at all. The last thing I would ever do is try and persuede her to switch agents or spit the virtues of working with me. First off, If I do that, I come off sounding like an ass and second, it just doesn't feel morally right. If I found out that one of my clients was getting pestered by an agent at an Open House, I would be a little ticked off at that agent. It's a breach of ethics, and it isn't how I do business.
As I thought about the scenario in my head a little more after Sally left I realized that this situation bore a close resemblence to the act of chatting up a girl at a bar or party only to find out at the end of the night that the girl has a boyfriend or is married etc. In this situation I was trying to procure a client, in the other situation, I'd be trying to procure a phone number.
Either way, nothing you can really do about it but say "Next!" Just keep moving forward because as Will Rogers used to say, "Even if you are on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there."
Happy hunting!
Conor
