November 12, 2004
I’m away this week, so current real estate news is hard to come by. Here instead are some general observations and pet peeves.
Don’t Call Me, I’ll Call You
One of the biggest fears of people who call into real estate offices, it seems, is that whoever answers the phone there will never, ever leave him alone for the rest of his life. These fearful callers won’t give their names, their phone numbers or any means of contacting them but, what they don’t realize is that we don’t want to waste our time flogging an uninterested prospect. It is true I’ve seen a broker cling to a would-be buyer like a crazed Pekinese with loving on its mind but that’s rare. If you’re interested in a particular house we’ll be glad to tell you about it right there over the phone and even, if you’ll trust us with an email address, send you its particulars all without subjecting you to midnight phone calls and knocks on your door.
Civility
People in Greenwich tended to use manners in the old days. It made life more pleasant and enjoyable. We didn’t yell at salesclerks, demanding whether they knew who we were. We waited patiently for elderly drivers to fumble for their keys and back out of a parking space – now we honk at the old fool to encourage him to get on with it. All in all, I miss manners and wish they’d make a come back. Until they do, perhaps those of us involved in the great game of real estate could play by some ground rules. Showing agents, for instance, might call an owner if they are canceling an appointment rather than have them vacate the house for two hours for nothing. Those same agents might shut off lights they turn on, close doors they open and not let the cat out to be fed on by coyotes unless he absolutely deserves it (I’ve run into few that did, but have resisted the urge so far).
Home buyers, on the other hand, might try respecting an agent’s time. It’s rude to show up an hour late for an appointment and ruder still to simply not show up at all. Phone calls to an agent’s home at eleven at night are considered by some of us (me, anyway) to be bad form. When, in what was the worst part of my professional career I was forced by my bosses to practice matrimonial law, I had a nice means of retaliating for anyone calling me Sunday night to complain about child visitation gone bad: I’d fire off a bill for an “emergency consultation”, $500 minimum and that ended that. We can’t do anything so creative as real estate agents but that doesn’t mean you should take advantage of the situation.
House sellers might want to return to the days when one’s word was one’s bond. If you agree to sell your house for a certain price, if you gave your word on it, it’s not nice to renege or shop that price around town. Again, just because there’s no law against it doesn’t mean you have to act like a boor. Really, try it: you’ll feel much better about yourself.
None of which is to say that most agents or home buyers act badly (we’ll leave house sellers who go back on their word out of the rest of this discussion). I’ve been blessed with great clients and I think, although we’ve all had clients from Hell, most agents would agree that we meet some very nice people. Similarly, most of the agents I work with in town are polite and fun to deal with. But some of them, sometimes ….
Home Warranties
I attended the annual Greenwich Association of Realtors broker/lawyer meeting not long ago. I tend to flee as fast as I can when faced with spending time with lawyers but the trio at this meeting: Jeremy Kaye, Tom Ward and Lorraine Slavin are three of the top real estate attorneys in town and, as such, always have something useful to say. I found it interesting, and reassuring, to hear from all three of them that they had experienced no problems in the past five years with home builders failing to stand behind their product. New homes carry, by law, a one year warranty, but a decade or so ago my experience was that the builders often disappeared or went bankrupt just about the time the first complaints came in. Those times may reappear when the next down-turn arrives but for now, it seems that the builders are more concerned with establishing and maintaining their reputation than in avoiding responsibility. At the prices they charge, they ought to be.
Don’t Call Me, I’ll Call You
One of the biggest fears of people who call into real estate offices, it seems, is that whoever answers the phone there will never, ever leave him alone for the rest of his life. These fearful callers won’t give their names, their phone numbers or any means of contacting them but, what they don’t realize is that we don’t want to waste our time flogging an uninterested prospect. It is true I’ve seen a broker cling to a would-be buyer like a crazed Pekinese with loving on its mind but that’s rare. If you’re interested in a particular house we’ll be glad to tell you about it right there over the phone and even, if you’ll trust us with an email address, send you its particulars all without subjecting you to midnight phone calls and knocks on your door.
Civility
People in Greenwich tended to use manners in the old days. It made life more pleasant and enjoyable. We didn’t yell at salesclerks, demanding whether they knew who we were. We waited patiently for elderly drivers to fumble for their keys and back out of a parking space – now we honk at the old fool to encourage him to get on with it. All in all, I miss manners and wish they’d make a come back. Until they do, perhaps those of us involved in the great game of real estate could play by some ground rules. Showing agents, for instance, might call an owner if they are canceling an appointment rather than have them vacate the house for two hours for nothing. Those same agents might shut off lights they turn on, close doors they open and not let the cat out to be fed on by coyotes unless he absolutely deserves it (I’ve run into few that did, but have resisted the urge so far).
Home buyers, on the other hand, might try respecting an agent’s time. It’s rude to show up an hour late for an appointment and ruder still to simply not show up at all. Phone calls to an agent’s home at eleven at night are considered by some of us (me, anyway) to be bad form. When, in what was the worst part of my professional career I was forced by my bosses to practice matrimonial law, I had a nice means of retaliating for anyone calling me Sunday night to complain about child visitation gone bad: I’d fire off a bill for an “emergency consultation”, $500 minimum and that ended that. We can’t do anything so creative as real estate agents but that doesn’t mean you should take advantage of the situation.
House sellers might want to return to the days when one’s word was one’s bond. If you agree to sell your house for a certain price, if you gave your word on it, it’s not nice to renege or shop that price around town. Again, just because there’s no law against it doesn’t mean you have to act like a boor. Really, try it: you’ll feel much better about yourself.
None of which is to say that most agents or home buyers act badly (we’ll leave house sellers who go back on their word out of the rest of this discussion). I’ve been blessed with great clients and I think, although we’ve all had clients from Hell, most agents would agree that we meet some very nice people. Similarly, most of the agents I work with in town are polite and fun to deal with. But some of them, sometimes ….
Home Warranties
I attended the annual Greenwich Association of Realtors broker/lawyer meeting not long ago. I tend to flee as fast as I can when faced with spending time with lawyers but the trio at this meeting: Jeremy Kaye, Tom Ward and Lorraine Slavin are three of the top real estate attorneys in town and, as such, always have something useful to say. I found it interesting, and reassuring, to hear from all three of them that they had experienced no problems in the past five years with home builders failing to stand behind their product. New homes carry, by law, a one year warranty, but a decade or so ago my experience was that the builders often disappeared or went bankrupt just about the time the first complaints came in. Those times may reappear when the next down-turn arrives but for now, it seems that the builders are more concerned with establishing and maintaining their reputation than in avoiding responsibility. At the prices they charge, they ought to be.
posted by Chris Fountain at 8:06 AM
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