Email Elizabethworking with difficult people
Working with People You Like in Real Estate
Real estate is one of the few professions in the world in which one can pretty much choose to work with people you like and ignore the ones you don’t. People who don’t work in the real industry and view it only from the outside have a completely different viewpoint of what’s going on and how it works — but that’s true for just about any industry. It always looks simpler and easier when you’re not the one doing the work. Clients try to be helpful and offer suggestions which, to them, may seem like wonderful ideas but are often unrelated to the real estate market at hand. Maybe they got these ideas from a book, somewhere online, or from a family member who sold a home 20 years ago, and it can be hard for these types of clients to let go and let a professional do her job.
There’s not a real estate agent working hard in Sacramento right now who doesn’t know exactly what I’m talking about.
Even when we lay out the principles of real estate in an ABC format, people still have their own ideas about what a real estate agent should do and how they want their property sold. It’s OK because they wouldn’t be human if they didn’t have preconceived notions. It’s tough for us agents to explain because we don’t want to come right out and say to a seller, for example, that the seller is wrong. Nobody wants to be wrong. But sellers can be less right than they may have a right to be.
It’s a delicate balance. To inform, educate, bring about an agreement, a mutual understanding, a mutual agreement and to overcome stubbornness that might be staring us in the face, but it’s all part of the job of a Sacramento real estate agent.
There are times in the real estate business when you can’t come to an agreement. There might be no compromise. A client could be working within the realm of a distorted reality. So, what do you do when that happens? Some agents will take the listing anyway and figure they can ignore the yelling and screaming later. Other agents will walk away and decide to work with only clients who are more reasonable.
I try to keep it simple. If I like the person, even if we don’t see eye-to-eye on every single aspect, I might still work with them. I don’t have to agree with their premise to do a job for them. If I don’t like them, there is nothing they could say to make me want to work with them. Not enough money in the world could make me do it. Money is not a motivator to me. I don’t sell out for money; I don’t compromise who I am.
There are agents who say they would have no clients whatsoever if they worked only with people they liked. I guess I’ve been more fortunate.
Dealing With Difficult People is Easier If We Look at Ourselves
Dealing with difficult people in a real estate transaction is a bit more challenging than dealing with difficult people in a normal day-to-day life because you can’t get rid of them on a whim, and you have to figure out, no matter what, how to get along with them. It’s kinda like getting married without the engagement or wedding. They’re just there, and you have to not only make the most of it, but one has do it in such a manner that these difficult people come to believe that you’re the most wonderful person on the face of the planet.
There are people who will tell you that even I, yes, this agent, can be difficult, although I know my regular readers would scoff at that premise and say oh, pshaw, but you guys are not my travel agent. That’s the guy who has to put up with me demanding stuff like, you know that photograph of the hotel room that says it is not indicative of the hotel room choice I have selected, well, that’s the room I want. It exists, and I want it. I don’t want a partial ocean view, or ocean view. I want an oceanfront, and not just an oceanfront, but a corner room, and it should be on the top floor. My heart goes out to this poor guy. He has to work with me. No mini bar? What do you mean there is no mini bar??
Yesterday I read an article about how not every person should expect to get a private room at the hospital. Oh, man, wait until I get old enough to be hospitalized on a regular basis. I will be terrible. I will not understand why ICU is on the 5th floor when I want a room on the 12th floor. Away from the elevators. They should move ICU to another floor. The sickest people should have the best view. This is how awful I will be, I just know it.
The article said that there is no clinical proof that sharing a room with another sick person increases your chances of catching whatever they’ve got. This is not something I have had any reason to consider but now that it’s been brought to my attention, I can’t help but figure I won’t be quiet until I know the disease of every patient on my floor. That way I can choose who I might not want to follow to the bathroom. If the doctors and nurses won’t give me that information, I’ll grab my own legal pad and make the rounds myself. People will tell me because I’m holding a legal pad.
I hope I never have to go to the hospital. I could not live with a guy in a bed next to me watching television after 9 PM. I would grab whatever breakable object is within my reach, maybe that empty bottle of grappa I’ve hidden under my pillow, and propel it toward the television screen with all the brute force I could muster. Then I would pull the covers over my head and pretend to snore.
And this is why I understand people with particular preferences and can work with difficult people. We all have our little quirks. If you’re looking for a real estate agent in Sacramento, you may as well call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916 233 6759 because you’ll find worse agents but you won’t find any better suited for you. At least try to catch me before I go on vacation or into the hospital.
