Story

The seller who cried is the one who signed, out of two kitchens in a month

We get called into houses right after a wholesaler locks them up, my service team is small, and I sit in more of these kitchens than I ever meant to.

Two in the same month. First one, older man, wife had passed, house was in bad shape and he knew it. He was cheerful the whole time, walked us through the addition he built in 1988, made coffee. Shook the wholesaler's hand, said he appreciated the honesty, said he'd sign in the morning. He didn't sign. Called two days later and said he wasn't ready, and I don't think he ever will be.

Second one, woman in her fifties, inherited from an uncle she didn't like, wanted it gone yesterday. She cried at the table. Not about the house, about her uncle, and it came out sideways in the middle of talking about the closing date. Then she wiped her face and signed and asked what time the movers could come for the junk.

The wholesaler I work with told me afterward that he stopped trying to read the room years ago. He said the friendly ones and the crying ones both go either way and the only thing that predicts anything is whether they've already decided the house has to go. Everything else is weather.

I think about that a lot now. The motivation everybody talks about isn't a mood. It's a decision the person made before you showed up.

7 replies

mikeoconnell7SP2APRO6

"everything else is weather" is going in my notes. I'm building a service business around this side of the work and the thing I keep underestimating is how much of the job happens before anyone talks about money.

monica_tran3SF4CPRO6

Five years in and I've watched the same pattern. The cheerful ones are cheerful because they haven't accepted it yet, so being pleasant to you costs them nothing. Nothing has been decided so nothing hurts.

priya_n21PO1C

I just want income without a second job, and this thread is a good reminder that the active side is a lot of sitting in strangers' grief. I don't think I have that in me.

tashaford30PB2APRO7

@marlow same reaction. Though I notice nobody in the story did anything unkind. She wanted it gone and she got it gone.

renee_dubois Get yours

I bought a small building from an estate and the executor talked for two hours about a brother who wasn't even on the deed. I let him. Deal closed three weeks later. I don't think the listening changed the price, but it changed whether he answered the phone.

ryanmck27SC2C

I'm working through licensing right now and this is the part the coursework doesn't cover at all. Plenty on agency and disclosure, nothing on what to do when someone cries at the table.

diane_kowalskiPassivePRO9

The man who built the addition in 1988 was never selling. He wanted somebody to look at it. I've met that person on land three times, they always have a survey they want to show you and no intention of moving.