We got a "floor" call Friday from a woman who had seen one of our houses and wanted to take a closer look, so we set up an appointment for 4 p.m. that day.
I went out early in order to make sure everything was ready. While there I noticed that the builder building the house across the street was showing some people around. We weren't sure which house the woman wanted to see as this is a new housing community and she was somewhat mixed up on her details. So I went in to see if she was our client. Sure enough, she was. When I caught up to her, her husband and the "builder" they were upstairs. He was describing in detail the features of the house and doing a pretty good job "selling" it. I obviously surprised them when I walked in and introduced myself. The lady said, "Oh we must be early." Duh! It was 3 p.m. The builder had that hand caught in the cookie jar look and they all kind of got shy pretty quick. I left them alone as there was nothing I could do to impact the situation. Actually, I could have been pretty forward and fronted everyone, but I think it would have been a guaranteed loss of a potential client. No, I took the high road, said hi to everyone and let them be on their way.
Later - an hour later - they came out so I approached the potential client again. The builder pretty much ran back into the house and the husband and wife made it clear that they weren't interested in the house they had come to see - the one across the street.
I was pretty bummed. I mean this was a potential $700,000.00 deal. Pretty good commission. Luckily there was another agent from my company around. As I was leaving she told me to keep my chin up and hang in there as there would be lots more clients. She is right of course, but it was still a bummer. And it was a good lesson.
Yes I know this business can be brutal. Yes I know these things will happen. And yes I'm big enough to take my losses. But I will not compromise my integrity, my honesty, nor my ethics in order to squirrel another agent out of a deal. I believe there are too many good agents, builders and others out there to let one selfish person ruin the day. And further, there isn't any reason why some of us can't continue to show the buying public that we are good people who provide good service and who treat others right.
Am I wrong?
Bob
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