One day, I woke up to my alarm clock and said to myself, “This will be the perfect day in real estate.” Little did I know, it was never meant to be.
Normally I will wake up in the morning, pour myself a cup of coffee, and head to the computer to check my e-mail. Boy was I surprised to find an e-mail from a local condominium owner requesting a listing presentation. Not only had I never met the owner before, but he said that he must list the condominium immediately for personal reasons. Forget the coffee, I was awake! It normally takes about four hours to prepare a listing presentation if the Realtor does his or her homework properly. That morning, I did not have time. It was 5:30 AM and I had to show property to a prospective buyer at 9:00 AM
I showered, got dressed and drove to the office as quickly as possible. Being a male Realtor and having a commute to work of less than three tenths of a mile, this can all happen within approximately nine minutes. Without traffic signals on Sanibel and no kids waiting for the school bus that early in the morning, I was driving exceptionally fast. I did, however, catch a glimpse of a brand new “For Sale by Owner” sign in the ground in front of a nice Sanibel residence. I backed up, jotted the phone number down and promised myself I would call the owner at a reasonable time in the morning.
When I got to my office, I noticed my phone blinking indicating a message was waiting for me. I found it hard to believe that another Realtor had awoken and conducted business before me. I almost dropped the phone when I heard the message from her stating she thought she would bring me an offer on a condominium I had listed for nine months. In this business, one never knows what each day will bring. You can plan your day out on your Day-Timer on PDA, but the activities invariably change hourly. This day however, was too good to be true! Real estate lead generation is a tough and competitive sport. Fortunately on that day, I was batting four for four before my client even arrived.
I finished preparing the listing presentation at approximately 8:53 AM, and asked my assistant to overnight the package to the prospective seller in Minneapolis. “Make sure you request early morning delivery,” I said to her, because I wanted to get my presentation there first. Having time before my client arrived, I decided to call the FSBO and explain to them the advantages of using a Realtor versus going alone in trying to sell a house. The owner picked up on the first ring while I was still clearing my throat. Usually they don’t pick up at all when they see a real estate office number on their caller ID. I gave the most powerful 30 second presentation over the phone and thought for sure the owner would ask me to come over and discuss the situation in more detail. However, I could not apologize enough or hang up too quickly when he informed me he had been on the Do Not Call list since the day before. I will have to tell our office manager to update those lists in the office a little more frequently. Oh well, three for four is not bad at all.
My prospective buyer showed up to the office on time, and he couldn’t have been more excited to buy a condominium. He said he left the wife and three kids at home in Chicago, and he was here for 30 hours to buy a piece of paradise. We looked at several condos in which many he had stayed since his family had been coming here since before the original Sanibel Causeway was built. By the end of the day, he was convinced he had found his second home, and he was ready to make an offer. He gave me the details I needed to write the offer and asked if I knew of a good place to get a burger and beer and watch the Stanley Cup semi-finals. He mentioned that a prerequisite of his buying a condo was that I sit with him to have a beer and watch the game. I ran home quickly, read a few books to the kids, tucked them in bed and kissed them good night. My wife was in the bath, so I left her a note stating that I had to meet a client to get a contract signed.
Arriving at the restaurant, I noticed my client had a funny look on his face. Could it be the Blackhawks were losing? As I sat down, he informed me that his first burger was delivered with ants crawling all over it. After a minor argument with the waitress, he received a new burger sans ants. The one he was eating looked fine, and I quickly changed the subject mentioning that the beer sure was cold. After the Blackhawks won, I drove him to his hotel, got his signature for the offer, and said I would call him in the morning. I ran by the office to see if that offer from the other Realtor had been faxed in yet. Still nothing in my In-Box.
The next morning couldn’t come quickly enough. I was staring at a potential listing, a potential offer for one of my listings, and an offer my buyer had made. I couldn’t wait any longer, so I called the other Realtor about the offer. She stated that the buyers decided rental income was important to them since they were not ready to retire, and they made an offer on another condo. Oh well, such is life in this business. I can still go two for four which is better than any statistic you read about in real estate class.
Not wanting to call my client too early since a night away from the kids is a rarity for any dad, I decided to call the potential seller in Minneapolis to see if he received my listing presentation. He answered the phone promptly, and said he did receive the package. He said I did a great job, and he was very impressed with my work. He mentioned that he had a good relationship with the Realtor from whom he bought the condo 16 years ago, and he was really just checking the value since his Realtor was not working full time anymore. He did say, however, that if the condo did not sell within the six month listing period, I would be the first one he called to discuss re-listing his property. At this point my best case scenario is one for four. There are many major league ball players who make a lot more money than me going one for four, so I am not going to throw in the towel just yet.
I convinced myself that 10:00 AM was not too early to call a dad on vacation from his kids especially since his team won the night before. To my surprise, when he picked up the phone, I could barely hear his voice. Did he go out after I dropped him off? It was barely audible, but the words “food poisoning” could not have been any clearer. He said he would call me from his car while he was driving to the airport. As I sat in my chair and stared at the ceiling fan, I could not get over the fact that a few dozen ants were about to ruin my entire day. Should I call the restaurant? Or the client? How about the offer, will it get accepted? To make a long story just a little bit longer, the offer did get accepted. However, the client did not get accepted by the loan officer, and the contract fell apart due to the financing contingency. FYI, the client was fine after three days, but he has not returned to Sanibel since then.
Well you don’t need an abacus to calculate I went 0 for 4 over those two days, and that is a bad average. Fortunately, my sales manager is not as tough as George Steinbrenner, and he told me to hold my head high. “You can’t win them all, Eric.” Maybe I should have had that coffee.