As real estate agents we can simply answer the phone and obtain our next deal. Possibly a buyer or seller calling, desiring to speak with an actual person and you just so happen to be sitting close to the phone, see the number on the caller ID and think “this is probably not that guy looking to get my website on the front page of Google…I’ll grab it”. Lucky day, this is your next deal.
This is how one of my recent deals was acquired. I answered the phone. Since then, I have had the privilege to get to know their family. This transaction involved an estate sale where the children were selling their deceased parents’ home. Estate and Trust sales can involve an emotional aspect that agents are not trained or prepared for in any traditional real estate course requirement. Compassion and empathy are human and social elements that can be forgotten as we move forward through the motions and routine of our daily transactions.
Sometimes we answer the phone to our existing client and we become their therapist. On our day of closing, I 
was heading out the door with a full schedule on tap when I received the call. My client was suddenly faced with the realization of a closing for a very personal and emotional chapter of her life. My day came to a screeching halt and I sat back down and just let her talk. I closed the doors and shut down the computer and listened, really listened. She called me to reminisce about her life and her parents and allow me to know the parents in which I would not have the privilege to ever meet. She admitted that she had unintentionally procrastinated in the grieving process, and it was all boiling over, at that moment.
This was something I had overlooked, after all, I did what they wanted—I sold the house. But what never crossed my mind was the fact that on the surface these people seemed “all business”, but underneath they were still grieving. Once I closed the door to their parents’ home for the final time, I realized that these are people who, like anyone, miss their parents.
I’m glad she chose me and I’m glad I didn’t let my life and busy schedule get in the way of this extreme outpouring of emotion I was experiencing. After the call had ended, I revised my schedule and stopped at the flower shop for a small bouquet of flowers. I dropped them off at her front door with a copy of my favorite Native American Prayer. She called later that evening in tears, but these tears were different. She was so happy with my gesture and explained how it made her day. What she doesn’t know, is that she made mine.
Sometimes we have to deviate from the plan and the schedule of our busy life. Sometimes that phone call can be a transaction and sometimes it can be more. We must remember that the people we are working for are actual people. Each client has a story. Be sure to listen.
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