“Once, I was showing an oceanfront condo to a customer and I had been showing her boyfriend for sometime without any sale. She came to look at this condo and the door was hard to open. We had run into some other prospects coming out as we were trying to get in, and they actually opened the door and let us in. We looked around for awhile, and she really liked it. We went to go back out and the door was absolutely stuck and we could not get out. There was no phone there, and it was before cell phones. We stayed in there trying everything we knew to get the door to open, then the prospects who had been looking before and left came back and were able to open the door for us.
“Needless to say, we were relieved, but the best part about it was that when she saw them come back, she said we had to go immediately to write up a contract before they did, and I got a sale. So, it is not always a bad thing to be stuck with a customer. I don’t think we would have written that contract so fast otherwise, if we hadn’t seen them come back to look a second time. That is
definitely making lemonade out of lemons.”
— Connie Mabry
Coldwell Banker Walter Williams Realty
“I recently changed my car’s license plate to my cell number....476-SOLD. Two weeks ago, I was showing property in Ponte Vedra and received a call from an unknown number. I returned the call and the caller asked me if I was showing property in Odoms Mill. In fact, I just turned into that development! The caller informed me that she was driving behind me and noticed my license plate, thought I was a real estate agent and called the number. She is selling her home and wanted to know if I would like to show it to my buyers. We close next week!”
—Phyllis Staines,
Re/Max Coastal Real Estate
“When my son was four, I had to go from the beach to meet prospects in Mandarin who wanted to see a particular home. As it was after my nanny’s regular hours, I took my son with me, promising him that we would only have to show one house and then we could go to McDonald’s. Upon seeing the one house, the prospects had seen a sign on another house they wanted to see. I called the company and made an appointment to show that house as well.
“We were in separate cars and when we left the first house, my son started protesting, reminding me I had told him we were only showing one house!
“I then started explaining that this was what I did to make money so he could go to McDonald’s and get happy meals and so that he could buy toys, etc. This pacified him somewhat. After showing the second house [and now they want to see a third house], we get back in our car. This time he really protested having to show another house. I started the same spill again, to which he replied, ‘Mom, I watched and at that last house, they didn’t give you any money!’”
—Jeanell Wilson,
All South Realty, Inc.
“I had a final walk-through for new construction two days after returning from vacation. My 3-year-old son Dylan did not go to daycare that week. My buyers knew of my dilemma and suggested I bring him along. Things went fine and I was able to let Dylan entertain himself with little cars and other toys I brought along. All that was left to inspect was the bonus room. This fun little room upstairs was just too much excitement for Dylan to handle. He started jumping up and down, did a little spin and as he landed, lost his footing. His sandal caught on the carpet and he dove head first into the wall, leaving a perfectly round dent about five inches in diameter. So, we had to add one more thing to the punch list.
“Thankfully, my buyers were understanding as their 4-year-old son pulls similar stunts on a regular basis. I, on the other hand, felt like I wanted to die.
“A second story is not about selling, but rather buying my own home. We were in a model home looking at floor plans. Dylan was one and a half at the time and into everything. It was impossible to keep him still. We were just happy if he was not making too much noise or breaking anything.
“After milling around one of the site agent’s desks for a while, he suddenly emerged with an object in his hand. Apparently he had been digging through the trash. His loot was an empty flask-sized whisky bottle. We did not buy the house and the site agent is no longer employed by this company. However, I decided to enter the real estate profession on that note.”
—Kathrin Lancelle,
Prudential Network Realty
“Back in my Re/Max days, I had the privilege of escorting an 80-year-old gentleman on a house hunt. Now, I’m old, so I can talk about other old people. During our shuffle through the last house on our schedule, the gentleman wanted to go into the garage through the kitchen entrance. I’ve learned the hard way that you should open doors to garages very slowly, just in case there are cats, birds, snakes or ferrets. I cracked the door to about four or five inches when suddenly a giant set of teeth under a large wet nose were wedged between the door and the frame. No question that this dog had much practice in this method of getting out of the garage. He was not going to move his head and I was not going to open that door any further. I did not wish to hurt the dog, nor did I want the dog to hurt me. We just stood there looking at one another through the crack in the doorway. Well, the old gentleman recalled that dogs do not like to be spat upon. His plan was to do just that, thereby causing the dog to retreat into the garage. My suggestion for him to use a glass of water was ignored. Now it takes much effort and time for an 80-year-old to build up adequate volume for the task at hand. After what seems like 20 minutes he was finally ready to fire. He missed. The dog is now super unhappy. Just when all seemed lost, in walked another real estate agent with his client. He calmly walked over, took the door handle and proclaimed that he can resolve any dog problem. I say ‘Thank you,’ grab my 80-year-old and pull him out the door. As far as I know the agent is still in that house holding onto that door handle.”
—Walter Ivey,
Old River Realty
“I was showing a duplex and one of the tenants had a dog. The dog took off and I had to chase it all over the neighborhood and I drove around all over chasing the dog....and at Kmart, I lost it altogether. When I returned to the duplex after about a two hour chase, the dog was there, waiting to get in!!”
—Fred Cattar,
Cattar Realty
“Real estate agents go to great lengths when we work with buyers. I was working with customers from Miami who had already sold their house. They purchased a $60,000 lot through me in a lovely community, but they needed a rental house while their new home was being built.
“So, there I was on a Sunday showing them eight or nine rentals. Nothing was large enough or cheap enough. As we approached one home, walking up the driveway, my foot slipped between the raised driveway and the grass, snapping two bones in my right foot. I was carried into the house by the buyer and we looked for some ice. There was none to be found, there was only a frozen Cornish game hen. So we put it in a towel and put it by the now-swollen foot. I was thoroughly embarrassed, shed a tear or two through the pain, then laughed at how stupid this was going to sound.
“The buyer drove my car to the Watson office while my husband met us at the hospital. The foot was in a cast for five weeks. But, I did make friends for life. They love to tell the story.”
—Pat Smith
Watson Realty St. Augustine
“The most embarrassing or probably funniest thing [looking back] that happened to me was while showing homes to two ladies. After leaving the home we had most recently viewed and returning to my vehicle which I had locked, I realized that I had left my car keys along with lockbox in the vacant home. Of course, the house was locked up tight, and was not near any other neighbors or public places.
“Somewhere underneath the chassis of my SUV was a hidden key box that was hidden so long ago [by my husband] that I had no idea of where it was. All three of us ladies were on our backs and on our knees under the vehicle and finally located the hidden key to get in my car.
“I then found a fellow real estate agent with a lockbox and was able to get in the house and retrieve my lockbox and car keys and finish out the day. I always wondered if that’s why I never heard from them again!”
—Nancy Taylor
All Pro Realty Specialists, Inc.