The Mystery of the Disappearing Client

Every real estate agent has a litany of stories about magically disappearing clients. Some clients run you around for days or months. You show them everything on the market, but they manage to find the one "by owner" listing out there and cut you out of the loop. All of a sudden, they won't call you nor will they return your phone calls.

People do weird things when money's at stake, and since real estate is such a personal decision for pretty much anybody, you get even more weirdness. The personal, the financial, important life decisions--any one of these is a big deal, but put them all together and you have a perfect breeding ground for irrationality. Granted, sometimes we realtors can make money off of this manic irrationality. But just as often, maybe even more often than not, this irrationality is at the root of us getting screwed. Which I'm sure is poetic justice to many--apparently realtors are now ranked below used cars salespeople on the list of "most hated professions."

I've learned in this business that people who will actually own up to being shits are few and far between. Most people just hope you'll forget about them, which is often kinda hard to do when you've gotten so friendly with them AND your next pay day was hinging on the deal you were putting together for them. A very small subset of clients in my time working in real estate have had the decency to call and say "Thanks for your work and all your guidance, but we're buying something else." Or "We've decided not to move now." Fine, fair enough. As annoyed and yes, hurt as I might have been, I appreciated the honesty.

Clients acting badly. Hmmmm. This is precisely why I've pushed my career more in the direction of representing the landlord and/or owner. There is enough bullshit to go around in this line of work--I'd rather know I have the listings, because quite frankly, people looking for real estate in this city are a dime a dozen. Actual inventory is the hot commodity, IMHO.

Recently I had a deal going on a retail space. The main person on the deal called me daily, often multiple times, even when specifically asked NOT to. Seriously, if I say I'll call you when there's news, please take me at my word. At any rate, it seemed the deal was going to close pending a few pieces of paperwork. Until . . .

I haven't heard from them since last week, and finally told the owner as much. The owner knows how these things go, and we both know they may well turn up yet. In the meantime, I continue to show the space, and we already have another offer in. If the first set of people lose out on it because they chose to disappear without a word as to why, then it's their loss.