Murphy’s Law is familiar to anyone in business: “If anything can go wrong, it will.”
Murphy’s Law (“If anything can go wrong, it will”) was named after Capt. Edward A. Murphy, an engineer working on an Air Force project designed to see how much sudden deceleration a person can stand in a crash.
One day, after finding that a transducer was wired wrong, he cursed the technician responsible and said, “If there is any way to do it wrong, he’ll find it.”
Kelly Wright is an agent in the Century 21 Discover Realty in Orange Park (see page 21) and has some Murphy’s Laws which relate to our profession.
Good stuff:
• Real Estate is not a team sport.
• If you show someone enough property, he will get his own license.
• The new real estate law you have memorized has been revoked.
• You will never like a client better than the first day you meet him.
• Creative Financing is followed by creative litigation.
• If you show enough property, you may not make a sale, but you will need a new car.
• Your next prospect will be a family with four children: one with a ballpoint pen, one with a sharp instrument, one prone to car sickness, the fourth will be an infant overdue for a change.
• The fussiest buyers have the least money.
• If there are signposts on the road to success, the sign room will be empty.
• If the house has an alarm, you will set it off.
• “Will cooperate” on a FSBO will mean the owner will cooperate with your buyer, not you.
• Everyone wants the house that sold yesterday, the one that was on the market for two years.
• The cat that escaped has a pedigree and is in heat.
• It always rains on moving day.
• There is no “as is “ and never was.
• The house they left on the East Coast is always bigger, better and cheaper. The weather is never mentioned. The house they left on the West Coast is always bigger, better and cheaper. The weather is always mentioned.
• Just when you get the ends together, someone moves the other end.
• No matter how well you know the property you’re showing, they will ask you something you cannot answer.
• If the house sells quickly, the owner will believe the price was to low.
• The friendly dog in the yard bites.
• You will either have a run in your stocking, a spot on your tie, or lipstick on your teeth or collar when you prospect arrives.
• Helping new agents is training your enemy.
• The house down the street sold for more than you can get for the house up the street.
• Your own family will list with another agent or buy from a FSBO. Probably both.
• Whatever you learn in this escrow will not apply in the next.
• If you say you are busy, they think you are making too much money. If you say that you’re not, they think you are unsuccessful.
— Fred Seely is the editor of Realty/Builder Connection and editorial director of Bailey Publishing & Communications In. He can be reached at [email protected].