Reach Out and Touch Base

We've all had them. We've all complained about them. Yes, I'm talking about the customer who forever prolongs their search and makes seemingly empty promises of "listing soon." I often run into situations like this, and the answer is simple: STAY IN TOUCH. The story I'm about to tell is proof that sticking with people (again, loyalty...what a concept) pays off.

About 8 months ago, I referred out someone who was looking to sell their home on the south shore of Nassau County and purchase on the north shore of Suffolk County. As we all know (well, maybe you don't. You could be in Kentucky for all I know), these are two very different areas and to find an agent that covers both, well, that's just crazy. Call me crazy, I found one. Within hours the potential buyer/seller and my agent were in communication and making plans to meet the following Saturday. So far, so good. Being the optimist I am, I sent back my generic "Thanks for the update, So and so! Keep up the great work!" Low and behold, they meet and are instantly in love with one another. Can you imagine, a nice, Jewish girl from Long Island has the ability to match-make for real estate? Who would have thought (Please, laugh at this...my cultural background and gender make me the ideal matchmaker. It's funny. get it? Haha? No? You'll get used to me) Words like "lovely" and sentences like "we've forged a nice relationship" are being thrown around. At this point in any match, I'm thrilled. Things like this are music to my ears. Weeks pass with updates from my agents saying "they're going to list soon" and "any day now!" I'm starting to wonder, "what the hell's going on?" These people who were so desperate to get out of their small, starter home and move to a big beautiful new one, are skirting around listing. This went on for months. Their kid was sick, they took a vacation, their kid was sick again, they had to attend the president's ball at the white house, they were called away on secret spy business for the military. (Fine, the last two are bs)...You get the point though, every week was something else. I had lost all hope. First we were looking to list the first week of November, November became December and December became January which brought us to February. At this point, I openly admit that I probably would have given up. Not my agent. She stayed on these people like white on rice. She wasn't letting them get away so easily. For lack of a better term, she stalked these people until she was considered part of their family. Her stalking paid off. 6 months and 23 days later, she listed the property. Not only did she list the property, she put it into contract within a week and a half of listing it. In addition, she found them a house to buy and got THAT into contract the same week. Needless to say, the seller was thrilled and so was I. Here I thought this was a dead issue, and all of a sudden, we have not one, but two deals signed, sealed and delivered. Both deals are expected to close next month.

The moral. Ah yes, there's always a moral. Stick to your clients as closely as your stick to your gut. Your gut is always right. Not only will people appreciate you staying with them through months and months of white house benefits and militia endeavors, they will come to you first when the time is right.