Skip to main content

My Client From Hell


Full disclosure: that’s as salty as the language is going to get in this week’s edition, I promise.  Further, I apologize if I shocked you with that title, but I believe you’ll see my reasoning in just a moment. 

Social media is ubiquitous.  (That’s a fancy word meaning “found everywhere”, and I chose to use it instead of “found everywhere” because it sounds cool – try using it at your next cocktail party to impress your friends.)  Whether we’re at work, school, place of worship, coffee shop, etc., we’re touched by some avenue of social media.  It’s sort of made us a “transparent” society, and there are many good things about that.  However, that transparency often leads to oversharing and the insistence that being rude should be accepted because someone’s “just being honest.”  Let me be honest here: that’s hooey!  (I told you I wouldn’t get salty.)

Fire up Instagram or Facebook, and you’ll see people posting, for example, how they feel about a particular public figure and using language that would raise the blood pressure of their second-grade teacher.  When it’s a private individual exercising their right to free speech, I’m all for that right.  However, when a person uses the same social media outlet/application for both personal and professional purposes, and they don’t employ a “filter”, we should all be wary. 

You might be saying at this point, “I couldn’t disagree more.  I would rather have a person be the same in both a professional and casual setting – that way I know they’re ‘real’.”  I’m not here to pitch a big argument with you, but I’ll pose this question to you along those same lines: if that person is being “real” and saying not-so-nice things about someone else, are you sure they have the restraint to NOT say not-so-nice things about you to other people? 

If you’re a potential buyer or seller of a home, and you came across an Instagram feed for a particular real estate agent who had some great photos and interesting tidbits but found one of their posts complaining about having just dealt with their “client from Hell”, are you really sure they’re going to have the patience and perspective you might need to have a happy and successful transaction?  I’ve heard it said (and a quick Google search isn’t bringing up who actually said it) that, just because you have the right to say something doesn’t mean it’s right to say.  Discretion and good judgment are sort of frowned upon and thought of as “not cool” in today’s social media world – and that’s a shame. 

Further, I’m not here to decry social media.  I think they’re great for a lot of reasons.  (Heck, without Facebook, I wouldn’t remember half my friends’ birthdays.)  Social media are GREAT tools for business, too!  And like any tool, when it’s used properly, we see great results.  If used improperly – like buying a $1000 mountain bike to ride around the block (twice a year) – it’s a waste of resources.  For example, if you’re an agent using social media for business and you fill your Instagram feed with JUST pretty pictures of houses interspersed with a shot of your dog/cat and your latest vacation, you’re sending the wrong message: that you sit around loading photos on Instagram all day.  Instead, you want to tell people what makes you stand out and why you’re better equipped to handle their transaction than the gajillion other agents out there.  But don’t get too serious – use good judgment.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Numbers Don't Lie, But Wherein Lies the Truth? (Posted November 21, 2016)

Said with enough conviction, you can make almost anything sound true.   Preface the fabrication with “according to a recent bi-partisan government study,” and you’re three quarters of the way to selling the lie to a lot of people.   Seriously, try this. The next time you’re at a dinner party or having coffee with friends, pepper this little tidbit into the conversation: “I read something really interesting the other day.   According to a recent bi-partisan government study – I think it took them three years to get it all done – middle-aged men who drive either a Toyota Camry or a Honda Odyssey have more testosterone than younger men who drive either a Ford F150 or a Dodge Charger.”   You’ll get some raised eyebrows and looks of mild disbelief, but don’t let that deter you.   Just lift up your hands, palms outward, and say, “I just think it’s interesting, and it makes sense when you think about it” – and then change the subject to something completely u...
Post a Comment
Read more

Dumb as (or Smart as) a Box of Rocks (Posted June 27, 2016)

Obviously, you all want to know what Brexit means to the economy and the housing market specifically.   So do I!   But since my crystal ball is at the cleaner’s, let’s give the Brits and the European Union a little time to work out the terms of their separation and look at something else.   What’s a “fad ”?   With the help of Google, this is what I got as a definition: “an intense and widely shared enthusiasm for something, especially one that is short-lived and without basis in the object's qualities; a craze.” In April 1975, an advertising executive by the name of Gary Dahl invented the Pet Rock.   The idea came from his sitting in a bar with some friends who were complaining about the cost and time required to take care of various types of pets.   He marketed his “pets” by placing a rock in a box cut and shaped like one you would get at the pet store to carry home a puppy or a kitten.   Along with the box and the rock, a booklet was included...
Post a Comment
Read more

Left Behind (Posted April 4, 2016)

It’s highly likely that almost every single one of you already read the Yahoo! Finance article about the survey that Chase recently completed.   For the seven people who decided to take a nap under a rock last week, I’m going to share some of the major talking points here – the rest of you can step away and have an ice cream or paint your cat’s toenails.   First off, the survey shows that an ALARMING 68% of Americans are starting the home search on their own (gasp!) with 45% using a computer or laptop (as opposed to some other type of technologically advanced processor like a microwave oven) as the first step in this search and 13% using their mobile devices.   (In other related news from the Department of the Obvious, scientists have found that fish still have no use of a bicycle and looking directly at the sun is inadvisable.)   With numbers like these, we should just throw in the towel and join the circus, right?   Here’s the weird thing: in the ...
Post a Comment
Read more