We are in the midst of a major marketing effort for a property and phone calls are coming in. We are running an advertising campaign that is geared to the general public. Mostly, the calls are pretty straight forward and mostly ends up in a showing.
Then there was one that just put up some red flags for me. Don't know why, but this is what happened.
The call came in with no caller I.D., which is pretty unusual these days.
The caller repeatedly said his name was "John" when I asked his name several times in several ways.
He asked me to send all the disclosures for which he would give me his email. I told him I could supply those to him after a showing and if he was prepared to make an offer. I pushed him on setting up a showing this weekend, but he said he would not be able to until sometime next week.
Then he kept asking me about the "zoning" and I repeatedly said it was "residential". The property does have a house, guest house which is rented out and a huge workshop. He kept referring to it as "multi use" or "higher density" and I had to keep correcting him, that it was "residential".
I did tell him that the property used to be a business but he would need to check with the county if whatever business he planned to have there would be legal.
During this strange conversation, I could hear someone prompting him, feeding him lines. But, who knows, it could have been a helpful spouse or friend.
Do you sometimes have the feeling people try to trip you up? Which is not happening to this real estate broker. I would never sell a property as something it is not.
Let's see if he calls back next week to want a showing. Hopefully, by that time, it will be under contract.
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