New Hampshire Real Estate & Consumer Resources

There were two customers that were more instrumental than any others in my decision to quit the real estate business.

I was on “up time” duty one morning in the office when one of the veteran agents approached me and asked me if I’d like to take over a customer for her. Apparently, with all the other business this other agent was dealing with at the time, she totally forgot that she had this customer flying in from Texas that day to do some intensive house-hunting. Ooooops!

Appreciating the chance to pick up some business I agreed to take care of this customer for her and I was provided with the customer’s information. I immediately attempted to call her on the phone but was only able to get her answering machine. It was quite possible that she had left for the airport already and I would have to try her on her cell phone later on to let her know about the change in plans.

As leads go, this was a pretty good one. There seemed to be little doubt this customer and her family would be leaving Texas to settle somewhere in our general vicinity. Her husband had a new job lined up and was ready to make the move.

When I was finally able to reach the customer on her cell phone later that day, she had already arrived in Boston and was in her rental car on the way to the hotel.

She was not too happy when she found out that she had been suddenly handed over to a new agent that she had never heard of or talked to. I managed to smooth things over with her and convince her that I would be able to provide her with all the assistance she needed.

By the time she showed up at the office the next morning, she seemed to have forgotten all about the fact that she was ticked off at the other agent for handing her over to me. She seemed like a nice, reasonable woman and I was under the impression that she would be pleasant to work with.

Accompanying her was her friend from New York who also seemed quite pleasant.

I had scoured the MLS listings the night before and lined up a bunch of homes and parcels of land to show her, so with listings in hand, we hit the road. We piled into my car and headed over to a nearby town to check out a few parcels. This particular town is notorious for being very rural and having many dirt road. After a number of miles on dusty dirt roads to check out these isolated parcels of land, she seemed to lose any interest she had in that particular town.

She had also expressed a particular interest in my home town which was a very good thing for me. Being a new agent, I was not terribly familiar with most of the towns we usually did business in. My adopted home town was a little outside our usual territory but it certainly was not unheard of to close a few deals there every year.

Being quite confident in my knowledge of my own area gave me a little extra measure of confidence, which was very welcome since it was a rather nerve-wracking experience at first. I had not been out with many customers and still feeling like I did not know what the hell I was doing contributed a great deal to my anxiety.

It was not long before I started feeling pretty comfortable with my new customer and her friend. They were pretty down-to-earth people and seemed genuinely nice, so it was easy to relax after a little small talk.

We drove around the area for a number of hours looking at homes and talking about the area. Although we were probably out for about five hours or so, it seemed like an eternity to me. Although it was nice to be able to relax a bit and get a better feel for what the job was all about, I can’t say that it was a fun or enjoyable experience for me.

At the end of the day’s searching, there were three homes that she seemed to have a real interest in. One a nicely-kept split-level that was located in the town that bordered the town where the real estate office was located and the other two where right here in my home town. The first was an old, large house located in a historic area of town that was at least 150 years old. Kind of interesting to visit, but I decided that I would never want a house this “historic” of my very own.

The second was an immaculate contemporary style house not 5 minutes from my own home. When I say immaculate, I really mean it. Although this house was about 4 or 5 years old, you would have easily believed that this place was brand-new. The owners kept it absolutely spotless and very nicely furnished. It was also set on a very private lot on a quiet road. Now this was the kind of house I could get serious about if I happened to be in the market for a new place.

I knew that my customer was pretty impressed with this place and she seemed quite anxious to learn all that she could about it. Unfortunately, the listing agent – despite being an old pro who was very well-known in the area – had neglected to leave any information beyond the standard listing sheet at the house.

My customer had a lot of questions about the house I could not answer because the listing agent did not take the time or invest a little effort in creating a nice little packet of information to display on the property. Fortunately, the listing agent’s office was about 2 minutes up the road and I was able to call her on my cell phone and get her to agree to provide me with the information my customer wanted right away.

When we parted company for the day, my customer and I agreed to meet again the next afternoon at the first home we looked at which was the one located closer to the real estate office. Her husband was flying in from Texas the next day and would accompany her to look over the three homes she had selected as her “finalists.”

Much to my surprise, they met me right on time at the first house the next afternoon. I expected them to be late since I knew she had to pick her husband up at the airport in Boston and then drive over an hour to meet me at the house. Airline schedules and city traffic are well known for creating significant delays.

Fortunately, the husband seemed like a pretty decent guy and he seemed like he would be an easy person to deal with. All I needed was some real jackass to deal with on one of my first real estate deals, so it was a great relief to discover that I was dealing with a couple that seemed quite reasonable and pleasant to work with.

The first house really didn’t impress the husband very much and the she seemed just as happy as he was to leave it behind and set off for our next destination.

He seemed genuinely interested in the historic place. Being the kind of guy that likes “handy man” projects, his wife expected him to have an interest in a place like this and it appeared to me that she was correct.

We explored pretty much every nook and cranny of the old place and the large attached barn. We even walked a few hundred feet out into the woods behind the place (dodging swampy areas and swatting mosquitoes) to see how far the property extended.

After our historic tour, we set out for the next and final house – the immaculate contemporary that was very near to my own house.

Since we were a little early, we arrived to find that the current residents were still home. The usual procedure is for the listing agent to advise the owners to leave the house during the showing to avoid making the customers uncomfortable.

I went to the door and explained the situation and they told me they would be happy to leave a little early so we could go through the house. They also seemed like very nice people and even ended up meeting my customers and talking with them a little bit. It all seemed to be going too well.

Once the owners had left we gave the house and property a thorough going-over and I became even more convinced that they would be making an offer on the house.

They spent considerable time inside the house talking about which of their kids would get which bedroom and even taking some pictures with a digital camera and talking about knocking out a wall or two. If these were not signs that they were seriously interested in this house, I could not imagine what would be.

In my mind, this was practically a done deal.

There were still a few unanswered questions regarding the other two properties that they seemed to lack interest in, but they still expressed interest in getting those questions answered, so I took the time to make the phone calls and get the answers that they wanted.

I knew they were staying in the area for a few more days and I expected to be sitting in the office with them in a day or two writing up an offer. They told me they would be in touch sometime in the next day or two to let me know where things stood.

After two days, I began to wonder if something had gone wrong. I did not hear from them and wondered if I should make the effort to call them. Being the type of person who does not like to be too pushy (mostly because I hate people being pushy to me), I decided to wait another day or two and see if they get in touch with me.

That weekend, our real estate office was having their annual flea market. At this point I can’t recall which charitable organization it is that benefits from this event, but I’m sure it was a good cause so I agreed to show up and help move stuff around and do whatever else needed to be done for the event.

Some of the other agents who knew I was working with the couple from Texas asked me how it was going. I had expressed my confidence about a deal to some of the other agents, so I guess they were expecting to hear some good news.

A few hours into the flea market festivities, I was told that I had a phone call in the office.

Sure enough, it was my customers from Texas and they had some news for me.

It was the husband and he was on a cell phone. It sounded to me like they were in the car driving around at the time. I suspected they were on their way to the airport for their flight back to Texas.

He thanked me for all the assistance and informed me that they had decided that they wanted to settle in Massachusetts instead of New Hampshire and as a result, would no longer require my services.

He was as nice as someone could be when delivering that kind of message, but still it felt a bit like a slap in the face.

Make no mistake, I knew that was the nature of the business going into it and if I had been enjoying the job, I likely would have stuck with it. This new development, coupled with my growing dislike for the job was all I needed to make up my mind that this was not something I wanted to spend more of my time on.

Fortunately, other business ventures were beginning to show promise for me at the time and that made it even easier to walk away from my fledgling real estate career.

Within a couple of weeks I had made my decision to quit and informed the office manager of my intentions. She said she had never seen anyone so happy about quitting before and she even seemed a little entertained by it.

I left on very good terms and still think highly of the majority of people who work in that office.

Since I left, I have not had a single moment of regret. Thinking back on the experience, I am amazed that I was able to stick with it as long as I did, since it was truly a job I disliked a great deal.

As I have pointed out here in the past, it just wasn’t the right job for me, and I don’t miss it even a little.

[tags]real estate career[/tags]