Rate this article:
Average rating:
Total votes: 0
Laurie, a rookie real estate rep, had an uncomfortably close encounter with a repeat client. I interviewed other female real estate professionals and found her story was unfortunately more common than you might imagine. Here's Laurie's story:
When I first started out in real estate, I was very gung ho. I used all my previous sales and marketing techniques, and even in a down economy, they worked. I had a customer, Mr. Francis, come into the office while I was on floor duty. He wanted a nice little piece of land to build a nice little house on. I knew exactly what to show him and was delighted when he immediately made an offer.
The offer was accepted, and we met again when he came to the office suffering from a huge case of buyer's remorse. Using all my charm and skills, I had him feeling great when he walked out 20 minutes later. The bank approved his loan that afternoon.
The next day, Mr. Francis came back to the office and asked me to get a soda with him, as he wanted to discuss another land purchase. We were only going a couple of blocks, so I hopped into his car as he suggested (this is common in the real estate business).
We ordered from the car at the burger joint, as I had to get back to meet another customer. Then the tension seemed to build. I thought it might be his excitement over getting the loan approved. I honestly didn't suspect anything until Mr. Francis took a few sips of his drink, chucked it out the window, turned to me and said, "You've been so good to me! I love your full lips and desperately want to kiss you.
He lunged for me, and I bashed my head on the window of the car door as I reeled back. I jerked on the handle and stumbled out of the car. As I walked back to the agency, my body was shaking, and I cursed myself for being a fool. See, I realized that this situation could have been far, far worse, especially since -- only the week before -- we were looking at raw land out in the country.
Upset and scared, I walked into my office and shared what had occurred. All nine of my female colleagues told me they'd been accosted at some point in their real estate career. This isn't something that was ever mentioned in real estate school or at the agency!
Postmortem
Laurie pointed out that the better a real estate rep a woman is, the more at risk she is for this kind of harassment. Sometimes the money is not worth experiencing the dark side of the business.
Laurie handled buyer's remorse by turning the client around when he was mentally backing out of the deal. But perhaps she didn't realize there was a way to do so without getting too close for comfort.
It's important to understand the ways new clients might choose to change their minds. Discuss these concerns up front before they sign on the dotted line. You might save yourself from some unwelcome surprises.
