letting the man do his job
July 10th, 2007 @ 10:52 pm | dc | Post a CommentI generally pride myself on being pretty easy to work with, a good tipper, and nice to customer service-oriented people. So when my real estate agent (nicely) wrote me a come to jesus email I worried that maybe I was actually one of those pain in the ass people!
I wrote him back to say I agreed with his points (because I did) and I was on board with whatever advice or guidance he had for us. He wrote back to say, in all caps, “I’M SO RELIEVED.” Methinks I was stressing the man out a little bit?
My problem is that I sometimes delve too far into a project I know nothing about. Being the resourceful gal that I am, I dutifully scour all the MLS listings, and read the local neighborhood blogs, and download business development plans as a means of assessing the investment potential of a neighborhood, and look up crime data, AND research the cost of installing hardwood floors. And I agregate all of my not-so-professional knowledge to formulate my plan to buy our dream house. It might be a bit obsessive (who, me? never) but we are talking about many hundreds of thousands of dollars here. One cannot afford to be chill about things.
Armed with my Plan, I make the realtor show me a zillion houses all over town and quickly the Plan falls apart. These houses suck balls, y’all. They are either A.) smelly; B.) in the projects (and that is not an exaggeration, because by “in the” I mean “bordered on three of four adjacent streets by”); C.) boring to the point of falling asleep in the foyer; or D) extremely outdated. Bonus points for E.) grossly overpriced; and F.) condo fee that rivals the amount of my current rent check. (For those of you unversed in the condo real estate market, this is IN ADDITION TO THE MORTGAGE THAT FORCED YOU TO LIVE ON RICE AND BEANS AND CHEF BOYARDEE.)
Ahem. So now, we have a new plan, this one led by the Professional Real Estate man whose expertise we are indeed paying for. We are going to focus clearly on two neighborhoods that fit our criteria instead of running all over the place blindly. Should we truly not like these areas, we will find others. But now we have focus. And reason, and a (good) plan.
And hopefully my agent won’t have to write me any more ALL CAPS emails and I can go back to being smug about how sweet and nice and easy to please I really am.
An ALL CAPS email? That’s never good. I’m sending you all the good vibes I can muster up that the rest of your search goes a little more painlessly.
written by angela
July 10th, 2007 @ 11:07 pm
I’ve never received one of those emails before.. but all caps? Wow! He sounded a little frightened, haha.
But I think you’re completely in your right mind being slightly obsessed, it’s a huge step. Also good that you’re letting them have some control though, less stress on your shoulders in the long run.
(Or at least it sounds good in theory.)
written by alyndabear
July 11th, 2007 @ 1:03 am
I should probably clarify: He wasn’t writing me mean or harsh ALL CAPS emails or anything. Just a nice email trying to get me to focus a little, then after I wrote to say okay, sure, he wrote in all caps to express his relief. he thought he would offend me or something with his first email. he didn’t, and i got the message, ya know?
written by janet
July 11th, 2007 @ 1:23 am
That’s good.. on both counts. Because that would’ve just sucked.
written by alyndabear
July 11th, 2007 @ 6:38 am
I felt so guilty for making our agent take us all over town FOR FOUR MONTHS. We literally saw hundreds of houses, we didn’t care what area of the city we lived in, as long as it wasn’t a ghetto.
But, with that being said, it’s his job. He made a sweet commission off the house we finally bought (much to his surprise, since Joel had just gotten a well-paying job, so our housing budget tripled).
Narrowing down will probably help to save your own sanity, though. It starts to kill your soul a little after a few weeks of looking at houses every day and hating EVERY LAST ONE.
written by Operation Pink Herring
July 11th, 2007 @ 9:08 am
I’m glad you now have a good plan…that will help relieve some of the stress.
I don’t blame you for being obsessed…your money, your life, your investment…it’s HUGE…it’s not like you want to mess this up.
Good luck house hunting until you find the PERFECT one! It will happen!!
written by Shesabigstar
July 11th, 2007 @ 9:42 am
Wow. I imagine that your realtor was really nervous about writing that email!
But, why are you paying for his services? When we bought our house, the sellers paid his commission. I sure hope it was worth the 20 houses we saw over 4 weeks. Ugh. Stupid housing boom and making people think they could sell any ugly piece of property.
Anyway. JG is also a big researcher and it can be kind of intimidating for the actual expert, I think. In the end, the realtor knows what he’s doing, right? It sounds like he was trying to build a relationship with you, too, instead of just having a business transaction, so it sounds good in the long run.
written by RA
July 11th, 2007 @ 9:51 am
Mmm…Chef Boyardee….
written by INPY
July 11th, 2007 @ 10:01 am
I hear you on the smelly houses. We were so naive that when we chose our agent, we told her our #1 rule was, no houses that had more than one cat. The cat piss - it’s unbearable and extremely hard to remove. Little did I know, our agents license plate said “cat lady.” Yeah, imagine my pain, because she was completely immune to the cat piss and didn’t see the problem when we ran from a couple of houses holding our noses and gagging.
written by Marriage-101
July 11th, 2007 @ 10:11 am
Oh, that is funny, Janet. I am totally cracking up picturing you reading a come to jesus letter from your realtor.
Maybe invite him out for a margarita or two after a showing? That might help him relax as well
written by elise
July 11th, 2007 @ 10:41 am
It’s good to have a plan!!
And also, I think maybe you and The King were separated at birth. You sound very much alike!
written by Isabel
July 11th, 2007 @ 11:36 am
Ugh, our realtor kept showing us crappy houses too, then we found a dream listing, showed it to her and she was like I saw that but I didn’t think you’d be interested. UMM, not interested in house that was in our price range, had a 1/3 acre yard (IN BALTIMORE CITY!) fruit trees, a porch, 3 bedrooms, etc and was down the street from then mayor Martin O’Malley? Please! I still rue the day she “earned” her comission on that one. There is nothing wrong with doing some independent research, but I would narrow down the area!
written by rachel
July 11th, 2007 @ 11:50 am
Good luck!! I really hope you find something you love, and that your realtor will miss having you as his client.
xox
written by heidikins
July 11th, 2007 @ 12:04 pm
Ugh. I hated house hunting. At least you have an apartment and aren’t living at home like I was when I was looking.
cat piss - its amazing that apparently some can’t smell it…. until I got my latest roommate who needs to learn to change to litter box more often (I can’t believe she can’t smell it).
Good luck in the hunt! Sometimes its a sprint, other times its a marathon, but in the end you will get what you want.
written by Daniel
July 11th, 2007 @ 12:23 pm
I would show my realtor listings and he would politely tell me why this or that wasn’t a good idea and once in a while he would take us to the houses just to show me how much better he was at his job than me.
They are professionals for a reason. haha
I can’t wait to hear more details and stories as they come!!
written by Lauren
July 11th, 2007 @ 12:40 pm
Oh Jan, What an unwelcomed reality check! I am sure it will pay off and he’ll become a new friend
written by Alexa
July 11th, 2007 @ 12:58 pm
Not to worry. I would be doing the same thing if I were in the market for buying a house. Everything you’re doing is completely legit even if it is anal. Its better to be over educated about some things and allow the realtor to fill in the blanks about others.
I bought my first house in Pullman during college. I looked for MONTHS and probably toured over 40 homes in a town of 20k +/- if college was in session. I can’t imagine what its like trying to find a house in DC. Insanity!
Take your time and have fun. You’ll find the right house!
written by Alexa
July 11th, 2007 @ 1:13 pm
Oooh, Realtor-1, Janet-0
I’m just like you… I feel like if I can juuuust do enough research (-ahem- and OBSESSING), I will be able to CONTROL big scary decisions.
written by Laurel
July 11th, 2007 @ 3:17 pm
That does sound quite obsessive, but like you said — you’re talking about some big bucks here. You’d be more abnormal if you DIDN’T do your research!
written by Zandria
July 11th, 2007 @ 10:00 pm
Oh my gosh, I can’t believe your real estate agent had a come to jesus talk with you. You are so hardcore, Janet, but I am with you…if you are going to spend oodles of dough you better like what you are getting for it.
I’m happy you and your agent have a healthy relationship! LOL I think the catering director at my reception site is on the brink of a come to jesus talk with me. And we still have about 11 months to go. I pity him.
written by Lindsey
July 12th, 2007 @ 12:39 pm
De-lurking to tell you that I feel your pain with this whole “house business.” The fact that I’m incredibly anal, combined with my ability to over-plan, mixed with the fact that I like pretend, but I actually know NOTHING about real estate is the reason why my husband has not yet decided we’re getting our own agent. Or not to lock me in the basement. Whatevs.
written by JSauce
July 13th, 2007 @ 3:04 pm
[…] Guess what? I was wrong when I said that BlogHer started yesterday, which means we started our Pity Party a whole day early! Oh well, because I am totally taking the weekend off of blogging so I can hang out with my bestest friends, used car salesmen and real estate agents. […]
written by love is blonde » pity party part two
July 27th, 2007 @ 1:43 pm
[…] then there were some highly embarrassing moments in New Jersey. I took a (much less embarrassing) trip home to Colorado, where I got to meet my BFF’s baby and was asked to be her “fairy” godmother. You […]
written by love is blonde | blog archives | 2007: still pretty darn good
January 16th, 2008 @ 10:57 pm