Naples Florida Real Estate: Stick With Honesty, It Might Get You A Little Further!

I was contacted the other day by a colleague who had been told that another agent in town was looking at hiring a buyer's agent.  He was considering the position and had called to find out if I knew the agent and asked my opinion.  Here was my response:

Actually I've only dealt with that agent once that I can remember.  It was back when things were really crazy and I was checking mls about 10-20 times a day looking for new listings to hit the market.  A new listing had just been entered that matched one of my prospects so I called to make an appointment.  The lady on the other end of the line huffed when I told her I was calling to make a showing appointment for the house she had just entered in MLS.  She replied, "I just hit send 5 seconds ago".  I said, well that's great.  I'd like to see it within the hour.  She replied, no showings til next week.  HUH?  No showings til next week the owner's dog died.  Did the owners dog die and leave a mess in the house?  What's this 1 week mourning stage all about?  (Don't get me wrong...I AM an animal lover but seriously..no showings for a week)?  She said, NOPE, NO SHOWINGS TIL NEXT WEEK...call back then.  CLICK.  Well DAMMIT!

The next day I was talking to my contractor about the house we "knew existed" but couldn't "see".  Then I had a brilliant idea.  I said, Chris, You call this number, tell them you're a buyer and make an appointment for tomorrow.  Voila, appointment set.  So I met Chris at the house to see if this was going to work for our out of town buyers.  (Don't start feeling creepy...when the deal worked, I told the buyer and they wrote the contract...they didn't have to see it to believe it). 

When I pulled up to the driveway I noticed that the other agent was getting out of her car to meet both me and my contractor who had driven separately.  I got out first.  With big smile and hand outstretched far to shake mine she said, Hi...it's so nice to meet you I'm _______ ________ you must be Chris's wife.  I said uhm....NOPE.  I'm just the agent who couldn't get in to see the property yesterday.  My name is Shannon Lefevre.  GULP...oh uh well did my assistant call you back to tell you it was ok that we could show the property now?  Uh no surprisingly she did not.  Oh well I heard her leave a message for you...I just showed her my phone that I had in my hand and said, uhm no message...can we see the home now I have another appointment. 

She stuttered through the house and tried to regain composure while Chris and I determined that unfortunately the house was a total train wreck and that the floor-plan was so horrid that the only solution would be to tear it down which was not what my buyer was willing to sign up for...so NO DEAL.

The house remained on the market for nearly a year and did not sell.

The real estate moral of this story...this is a people business...people can gain information and access from more than one resource...lying gets you no where and sometimes one less candidate for an assistant.

The Shannon Lefevre moral of this story...don't tell me no.  I don't like it, my mother can tell you it's always been that way...and oh well heck, I'm just hard if not impossible to hold down!  Not to mention the word "no" sounds more like a starting bell at a horse race to me.

See you at the finish line! :)