Unusual topic? Perhaps. But sometimes I think we (speaking collectively here), as REALTORS, focus more on the problem or difficult clients when we seek assistance and counsel from others, or possibly forget that (hopefully) a large percentage of the people we deal with are really pretty nice folks. I guess I like to be reminded of that, which prompted me to write. Plus I have just recently met a new client that I really really like - she's nice!! - and have very recently heard from several other past buyers and sellers that I really enjoyed working with and would describe as kind.
So what's a nice client to you? Well, for me, someone who is kind (per Wikipedia, Kindness is the act or the state of charitable behaviour to other people), respectful, and courteous, for starters. They don't have to agree with me - in fact I like those that challenge with questions, or who like to engage in a bit of intellectual discourse - nor do they need to take my advice. Someone who will listen to me when I speak, just as I try to do with them. And who wll treat me in a way I like to be treated and respected.
I also like clients who are kind and polite to others - you hear them on the phone with their mortgage lender, or in speaking with the other agent in the transaction, or talking to their children, and around pets, and you can't help thinking how kind and nice they are. They make me smile and laugh, and in difficult times they can still be kind even when being forceful, decisive or expressing their dissatisfaction. They are the ones that make me want to be like them, and to spend time with them, and to feel so badly when things do not turn out as they had hoped.
I've been blessed in that I would describe almost all the clients I have had as nice, kind people. Is this unusual - I don't think so, and I certainly hope this is true from other's perspectives. But it's easy to forget admidst the problems and emotionality that so often occurs in a transaction. And kindness, in turn, causes similar behavior (at least in most people). I hope I can always keep this in mind, even when I am dealing with someone who is not nice. Pass it on!
Jeff, My experience has been that the vast majority of my clients have been kind. That's why the occasional client who gets nasty overnight (all three of mine changed overnight) is such a shock and why we right about them. It's like a comment I heard on the radio the other day, "The reason it's so hard for us to accept that people do things that happen like the Nazi concentration camps is because we have to embrace insanity to believe those actions can be true." Most of us can't imagaine that kind of behavior. In like manner most of us can't imagine why a client would be unkind. It's just not normal.