Where’d ya go?
There seems to be a trend emerging (or maybe it’s been there forever) that I don’t quite understand. It’s the trend whereby a client, a real client, one who has signed every kind of agreement possible, just disappears…..
For example,
- The renter for a great rental listing I have…. She signed every document, dotted every “i” and crossed every “t”. She was a customer, not a client, but she was real. I wasn’t exactly sure my landlord client would approve the application, but he did. A copy of the lease went out asap. And then she just stopped responding. No call back. No email returned. No text answered. Nothing. Where did she go? I don’t know.
- Then there was the buyer who I took out to see about 40-50 houses over a year period. He signed all the paperwork. He made an offer on a property, but it didn’t work out. He’s still “friends” on Facebook and I’ve found a few properties that screamed “him” but he hasn’t responded at all in any way. Where did he go? I don’t know.
- And what about the couple who I took to see about 25 homes over a 6 month period. They also made an offer on something, but then they disappeared. They had signed all the forms. Where did they go? I don’t know.
Having clients sign agreements doesn’t guarantee they will stick around.
- I think the renter was having some financial issues and she didn’t want to disclose them, so she opted to just disappear. My landlord client wants to fire me – he must think I could have done more to get this client to stick around, but there isn’t anything I could have done better. She was vetted. Financially she could pay. She indicated she was available. She provided references. They checked out. Her credit score was fine. There was no way to know she would go “poof.”
- I think the buyer who I took to see 40 houses may have decided he didn’t want to move into his own place after all but wanted to stay with his family. I don’t know; maybe he didn’t want to come clean about his change of heart, but he’s another one that went “poof.”
- The couple has been gone for over a year. I’ve looked them up from time to time but they haven’t bought anything in my area. Did something happen to them? Did one of them lose their job and they didn’t want to fess up? I just don’t know, but they also went “poof.”
Sometimes, “real” clients, who have signed agreements and are truly working with us, just disappear. We call them. We text them. We email them. We send them more listings. But they never respond. They’ve gone into the real estate ghostland, never to be heard from again.
It’s really a shame. It would be great if they just took the minute or two it would take to explain. Then we wouldn’t keep trying. We wouldn’t keep looking. We wouldn’t think of them everytime we saw a perfect home that was just “them.” And we’d fully give up on the hope that we might someday be able to recoup our costs as we turn them into a completed transaction.
All we can say is, Where’d ya go? “