The tenant was a man in his 40s, and although no one on my team had ever met him in person, he had no trouble staging and sprucing up the property for us before we listed it. They were very accommodating and showed the apartment to prospective buyers during our stay. work. But he refused to clean up after himself, even while the condo was on the market, claiming he hadn’t made his bed since going to summer camp and had no intention of starting. Tenants generally have no incentive to make the sale easier by keeping the home available for viewing, but this tenant had more difficulty than usual. Every time I tour a property, I have to arrive early to make the tenant’s bed, wash the dishes, and clean up the dirty clothes and shoes that are scattered randomly on the floor or thrown over the back of the chair. It didn’t happen. Luckily, the condo itself was in great condition and in a prime location in Tribeca, so it hadn’t been on the market long enough for me to really develop my housekeeping skills.
real job
You might be surprised, but I’m not the only real estate agent who has had to make beds, wash dishes, and take on unexpected tasks in order to sell a property. Most of us love rushing deals and bringing good news to our clients, so we do what we have to do, even if it seems undignified to other professionals.
However, the real job is far from what is portrayed on reality TV. All too often, ordinary people don’t actually think that a charming agent opens the door, shows them a quick home tour, negotiates an astronomical number over two phone calls, and voila, this is the commission. It seems there is. In marketing and social media, we often find it difficult to portray our jobs as effortless because that’s what many service providers in any industry want their clients to believe. It often happens. Many of us feel it is our job to represent an aspirational lifestyle, claiming to lead our clients to bigger and better things as an extension of themselves.
Behind the scenes efforts
Oversee home repairs, dispose of excess debris, manage large-scale staging, and coordinate videographers and social media campaigns before we show properties or negotiate deals. That’s normal. The truth is, real estate agents work incredibly hard for their clients, and the job has its rewarding (and even fascinating!) moments, but any agent’s career You can wax poetic about some of the most unpleasant, embarrassing, and even disgusting moments. , all in the name of serving the client well and getting the deal to the finish line.
When I got my real estate license, the exam didn’t include making a bed or flushing a stranger’s toilet, but when it comes to selling a Tribeca condo, you never know what you’ll find, so make an appointment. I had to arrive extra early to do so. And some of the most colorful stories concern the moments just before a viewing, when the listing agent arrives and discovers the property isn’t ready to receive visitors.
Early in my career in New York City, my business partner (and mother), Coldwell Banker Warburg broker June Gottlieb, walked into an exclusive listing on the Upper West Side and said, “The seller… “I was lying in bed and there was an ashtray full of cigarette butts lying there,” he recalled. “duvet” even though they had notified us more than 24 hours before the screening. “After running around with the windows open, I had to tap dance with potential buyers in the hallway while the seller slipped out the back door in sweatpants. And this only happened once. “I want to tell you that,” Gottlieb says. Eventually she sold the apartment and now has contact information for multiple fumigators in her Rolodex.
“I had a seller who wouldn’t remove an area rug that made the whole house smell like dirty dog,” says Sarah Schwartz, a real estate agent with Berkshire Hathaway Home Services in Northeast Florida. Schwartz said that when she brought in a buyer she knew would love the house, she “arrived first, moved the furniture, rolled up the rug, put it in the garage, sprayed the floors, and left the rug in the garage.” “We mopped the floors and moved the furniture.” I put it back in its original position and showed it the house. ” And that person turned out to be her buyer.
In some cases, there may be little to no odor. “We had an unexpected showing once, and the seller had left behind underwear and sex toys,” said Glenda Baker, a broker with Coldwell Banker in Atlanta. She said, “After that, it is no exaggeration to say that the seller and I developed a close relationship.”
take another step
Schwartz took action after one seller didn’t seem to understand what “as is” meant. “I kept asking them how the packing and moving was going, and each time they said it was great and that they were almost done,” she recalls. their clothes. So, her husband and I went there in a U-Haul, loaded everything up, put some items in the yard, put them on Craigslist for free, and donated everything else and threw it away. But hey, I did it. ”
We pride ourselves on going the extra mile and love the friendships with our clients that blossom after a successful deal, but sometimes our clients’ questions are more than a raised eyebrow. “When we arrived at the open house property, the power was out in the bathroom and the seller had been working elsewhere since the evening before,” Baker says. “He wanted me to go to the bathroom rather than go home and deal with it.”
grit and grin
The real estate industry is competitive almost everywhere, and most agents work on commission only. Not only do we provide top-notch service, but most of us do whatever it takes on behalf of our clients. We want to provide a smooth experience despite all the hurdles you face in almost every transaction.
The truth is, even though they may be able to win new business through clever self-promotion on platforms like Instagram (but the reality is that real estate agents fluff up couch cushions and walk down the street in expensive clothes), Who needs to rewatch those overly sophisticated videos of us walking (or on the phone?), during the toughest, most sensitive, and often most undignified moments of our jobs? , proving our mettle to our clients (and ourselves). And years later, we smile when we remember these moments. Because it was funny and crazy and weird. But we did what we had to do and proudly provided first class service.
Many agents will tell you that even though we try to make it look easy, the job is getting harder every year. Buyers used to be more imaginative, so the preparation work required of sellers became increasingly tedious and often led to a tug-of-war with listing agents.
“Some sellers still think they’ll get multiple offers for $100,000 above the asking price,” Schwartz says. “They don’t think they need to do anything to make the house nice or clean. So, of course, I personally clean and touch-up paint multiple listings. , and see what stands out to buyers and fix it before publishing.”
make connections
The most dynamic among us are not only real estate advisors, marketing gurus, quasi-decorators, and construction worker supervisors, but also sometimes tour guides, marriage counselors, psychologists, babysitters, dog walkers, and housekeepers. They play a variety of roles, including women.
Marketing, staging, minor construction and closing deals is fun and exciting, but on a good day it’s fun and rewarding as we also spend long hours with a variety of people. To say that real estate agents have to be people pleasers is an understatement, and being “on” at all times is an important part of the job. We rely on our own judgment, and many of us, myself included, develop close relationships with our clients as we guide them into the next chapter of their lives.
Even if a client becomes emotional, we must remain calm, but while working closely together, we represent our clients regardless of excitement or disappointment. often live in Our diverse clientele brings excitement to our lives and no two days are the same. “One day you’re working with a preacher and the next day you’re working with a porn star,” Baker says.