There’s nothing I hate more than feeling like I’m being played. So you can imagine my constant state of joy when dealing with real-estate agents.
Example: the dude who showed me a one-bedroom in New Farm last week. It was at the back of a retail complex and really small. The price was reasonable and it had a car park, but it wouldn’t have even been 50 square metres. I wasn’t keen.
He called today - a week later. Firstly, that’s way too late to leave a follow up call. I’ve looked at seven or eight others since then. I told him I wasn’t keen because it was too small, and the conversation took an interesting turn.
“Could the size be compensated by a more competitive price?” he asked.
To me, that means the seller is desperate and will take just about anything. Suddenly, I was interested again - but I played it cool and calm. I asked how competitive, and he said very. They want to sell, like last week.
“If they’re willing to go much lower I might look again,” I replied. I could almost hear him panting, but it became obvious he wanted a quick sale.
I told him I’d think about it and send my partner to the open house on Saturday if I was interested. His tone suddenly changed.
“Well, that’s pretty far away. There are a whole lot of people interested and I’d hate for you to miss out,” he said in an annoyingly condescending tone. Dude, you’re a real-estate agent - drop the ‘tude.
I brushed him off and hung up. I don’t care how good the price is… if it’s clear I’m being lied to, I’m out.
Let’s summarise: you’re so desperate I can smell it through the phone and your client is willing to slash their price significantly… but you’re also over run with interested parties? Bullshit!
