Navigating the Frights of a Home Transaction!

The Witches and Warlocks: Now, everybody can have a bad day. It is our responsibility to protect you from this hazard by shielding you from their spells and incantations. It is very common for some agents and clients to appear to dazzle other agents or clients into appearing much more qualified than they actually are. Our job is to make sure that what we are being told is true. Trust, but verify! It is also our responsibility to protect you from the customer, agent, or other party to the transaction that simply must have some drama in their lives on a daily basis. We may pass on the message that we are required to, but we always try to tone it down a bit. A good example of this is we recently got feedback on a listing that was just insanely harsh. They didn’t even like the type of grass that the home had. That was one person’s opinion. If we thought it was valid, we would have passed in on even though it was harsh. It was a judgement call that we made to couch their comments to being constructive instead of destructive, which spared our client’s feelings.

Zombies: Zombies, in the real estate context, are buyers that are running around trying to buy a house, even though they cannot possibly qualify for the property. They are dead; they just don’t know it yet. This can be a complete waste of time for a seller, and we have to be vigilant not to enter a contract with them.

Vampires: Vampires, in the real estate context, are those customers that no matter what happens, they are never satisfied. They are also called continuous negotiators. They can only see things from their perspective, and a true meeting of the minds never actually occurs. They likely are still negotiating even after the transaction has closed. We can’t easily screen these customers out, but we can suffer the brunt of their attacks and allow our client to survive very nicely - and usually peacefully.

Ghosts: No way to protect our clients from these little problems. This is the customer or agent who, after you enter a contract, simply disappears. We can’t know they are a ghost up front, but contractually we can be very proactive in getting our client out of this contract at the first instance of failure to perform. The problem with this category is also that life happens. Someone may become a ghost through no fault of their own. At our team, we go out of our way to help the other side of the transaction if necessary, and as long as the benefit still confers to our client. We have to be especially careful around the Casper’s of the world. They are friendly, but they are still a ghost!

Goblins: Those malicious and ever-hungry little monsters that eat little children and real estate transactions. The first thing to remember when facing a goblin is to remain calm, and work through the problem. Many, many of my colleagues simply throw their hands in the air and let the transaction fail at the first sign of a goblin. We have saved almost all of these transactions, although it may result in a delay. Proper communication and years of experience in both problem solving and evaluating the voracity of what you are being told is essential in getting past a goblin.

Werewolves: These are also tough to identify. They appear normal until that full moon strikes, and then they turn into . . . . . Well you know what they turn into. Again, our method to deal with this client or agent is to kill them with kindness . . . . . . . Just make sure we kill them! (the transaction closes)

Remedies: At the Al Gage team we have the silver bullets, wooden stakes, magic potions and other remedies for all of these evil little entities. And we don’t even need a séance or a Ouija Board.

If you want a quick, smooth and efficient sale or purchase of a home, give the Al Gage team a call at 623.536.8200 or email us at al@algage.com