Honestly, I feel pretty safe in what I do for a living and rarely get any twinges or spidey senses going off indicating possibly danger or harm. Thankfully, those feelings are well tuned however if someone isn't serious
about a purchase or sale of a property!
A man left a message at the office professing great interest in one of our listings. I returned the call within a few minutes and we spoke briefly. It was quite late in the day and this fellow wanted to see the house that day but I wasn't available right that minute to show it and offered to show the following morning. He claimed he wasn't available then so we agreed to a showing the following morning of the day after.
Our policy is to meet clients for the first time at the office. Other agents feel differently and this is in no way a judgement on how they handle their own business. Meeting at the office accomplishes several things, primarily though, a level of professionalism is established (in my opinion). We are able to review agency documents and refer to the computer screen comfortably if we are trying to determine listings of interest. There is no denying though that meeting at the office also usually provides a witness who might be able to identify this person later if need be.
I explained to this man that we like to meet people that we didn't know at the office rather than the property and since our office is less than five minutes from the listing he was interested in, he agreed.
Thursday morning came and there I was completely on time with all the 
necessary documents printed out. Ten minutes later, still no fellow. At fifteen minutes late, I called his cell phone which went to voicemail. Still later I sent a text. By the forty-five minute mark, I was pretty steamed and sent an email suggesting he'd forgotten our agreed upon meeting and figured if he was still interested to please contact me to re-schedule.
Do I think his plan was to ambush me at the vacant property? No, not really but an intentional person who'd simply forgotten the appointment (who hasn't done that!) would have fallen over themselves getting in touch to apologize.
No, I don't think he was out to harm me. Those kinds of thugs usually don't provide their cell phone numbers and email addresses first. No, I think this was just a run of the mill inconsiderate expletive that real estate agents are
plagued with. Not only does something like this play havoc with an agent's schedule but it is also a real irritant to our emotions and who needs that?
MoonDancer Realty is a busy firm and I really don't have time for people not serious about their real estate transaction so I guess I'd rather have the occasional "Mr. I'll Meet You at the Office" stand me up for an appointment than to invest weeks of time into showing properties and then have someone not make a decision to purchase!
Consumers, please don't make appointments you don't plan to keep!
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