Maybe that assistant is youngish and maybe the younger generations think everyone should talk to everyone else all the time because that's where social media and the internet seem to be leading humanity. No privacy, we are just one big communal brain like a beehive.
We see that in IT vendors now... since sales jobs are often handled by young-uns until you demand your usual discount plus more. LOL.
They tell us all about their weekends, their day, how their hair didn't work out right this morning...
It's kinda funny. I try not to grump at them and say IDGAF.
The other one is the pitch that they've "been using the product for years and think it will be a great fit for your company"...
I again, have to refrain from saying things like:
"Gosh, that's funny... I've been using that **** for twenty years, kid... and I avoid it like the plague except for ONE specific job it can do, and we don't need it for that, here. I don't want to tell you this, but nobody I know would buy that crap, either... that's why the company is always hiring new salespeople. But I do wish you well. Get out of there as soon as you can."
My niece dropped a new one on me yesterday. She and her boyfriend (yeah I know) are buying a house together and she said "in the letter I wrote the seller when we made the offer...". Wait, wait, WHAT letter? You are going through two real estate agents right? Since when do you write a personal letter to go with an offer on a house? She said, "Oh it's all the rage. The internet says you should write a nice letter introducing yourself and telling them something about yourself and telling them how much you like their house."
That's a new one on me. Unless I've been doing it wrong my whole life. Revealing personal information about yourself during real estate negotiations might be appropriate sometimes, like FSBO, but not when you go through agents. Telling the seller how perfect their house is and how much you want it and that you are a naive 24 year old just seems like a bad, bad idea. Sure enough the seller stood firm on the asking price and would not negotiate down one dollar.
I understand you can Facebook a seller these days but I thought buyers were normally still anonymous through the negotiations. Maybe the world is changing with Zillow and all.
Oh, if that crap works, I'm SOOOOOO creating a fake family online complete with multiple special-needs kids and a gofundme just to link to on the "letter" so they'll sell me my next house cheaper! LOL...
You think ANY of the sellers who fall for that crap VERIFY any of it?!
Visiting some friends in LA right now, that is apparently a thing in this market. The sellers have often several full price offers and it is common to beg for the house using pictures of your kids as bait. One of the most bizarre things I have ever heard of when it comes to real estate. All I ever cared about while selling a home was the bottom line price in the offer (after concessions), the proposed closing date and whether the buyer had a real mortgage company to back the offer.
Same here. "Tell whoever has real money and their loan company isn't going to cause me a freaking multi-month headache, they win. If they have cash, even better. If they have cash and try to low-ball, make them come up to at least X." No kidding, I had that exact sentence in a conversation with my broker during our last house sale. He found the kids who's mom was a real-estate agent who KNEW the market was tough, and made SURE there were letters from the lender and everyone on the planet that their money was good to spend.
And... I don't think the whole "letter" thing had started yet, but one buyer DID demand that my broker be told they were ex-military, single-mom, all sorts of stuff... and made a high-ball offer that the broker said it was VERY unlikely to happen because of valuation by their lender... I get being "desperate" and needing a little help, but if you're high-balling with a number that can't be attained... you're done... bye. Not happening, and sorry about the life problems, but I'm not getting caught up in that person fighting with a lender for months...
Exactly my reaction! Well in this case the seller was getting no offers, only 3 people had even looked at the property in 90 days. Nobody is competing for it so if that's why they do that my niece and her BF probably hurt rather than helped their cause.
Man, definitely a bad idea. This is why we pay professionals to do this stuff... beat... head... here. My broker, once he had multiple offers, started the bidding war himself... I didn't mind. He knows the Denver market and has been doing that crap for at least as long as I've been in IT, if not 10 years longer. If he thinks a bidding war is a good idea, it probably is... and was... and he gets his cut and knows when it's gone too high, too... so his cut is at risk at both ends of the pricing range...
I can't believe the whole "letter" thing, though... but keeping it in the back of my head for making that fake family website if needed someday! ROFLMAO!
