Could Somebody Check me for Ticks?

We have several clients trying to move here from out of state that have businesses or jobs and cannot come here more than a few times per year to look for property. Many of you probably have similar situations. Every so often, our clients will call or e-mail and ask us to go out and look at this or that piece of land, or maybe a uncleared lake lot.

One thing that is great about this is that usually our client has the MLS number and some very detailed info on the perspective properties, so some of our work has been done for us. We love it when a client is so pro-active, and willing to do some of the searching for properties themselves. Not really because it saves us work, but because we have found that it educates them on the area, and they become much more involved in the process. Of course this can create additional work for us, because while we are coming up with potential properties for them, they are also doing the same. But in our experience, having a pro-active client who is really into the process can be a great thing. Sometimes they get to know the area's developments better than we do!

After some initial investigation at the courthouse, we usually hop in the car, and take a ride out to take pictures and inspect the properties, and then e-mail them with additional information and pictures.

Sometimes land and lots for sale around here are completely uncleared, and it's pretty much like walking in a forest. We've been in quite a few places where our 4WD was needed. One of our clients went out to look at a property last year and got stuck in their vehicle, and had to be towed a little bit to get out! We all joked about that for a while.

Down here in the deep South, it's quite common for Sarah and I to come back to the office and ask "Could you check me for ticks?" during the spring and summer months. We bet that's something that many less rural Realtors have never dealt with!  Probably not very high on the top 10 list of the questions Realtors ask each other right? :)

As with most Realtors, we also work with many people who just ask us to find them a property, and then let them know what we find so we can take them to showings. Not pro-active at all really, but still enjoyable and that type of less involved client is getting much more rare these days.

There are so many tools available now with the huge amount of current information available online, that we are probably going to see more and more clients moving into the pro-active category. Fine with us. We'll work with them pro-active or not. Ticks or no ticks :)