Property Point

Younger readers won’t know about this but there was a time, in the years before we so warmly and thankfully embraced political correctness, when people would unashamedly crack jokes about certain groups in society.
They were dark, shameful days in human history and not at all funny.
There were jokes about Scotsmen, Kiwis (particularly in relation to sheep), old people, young people, blondes, sporting teams, various religious groups, all sorts of professions … the disgraceful list goes on.
And one of the worst aspects of those ugly days was that the jokes would perpetuate certain stereotypes about particular groups. If there was an Aussie, an American and an Irishmen at a bar, the punchline would always suggest that the Irishman was stupid. Cruel and unwarranted.
In these more modern times we don’t get to laugh much but, thankfully, we don’t have to hear jokes and stories that reinforce unfair stereotypes.
Which is why I am so reluctant to raise this story about car salesmen and reinforce the “myth” that they are dodgy. Some might think that, as a real estate agent, I am kicking the one group I can get away with picking on. But that’s not true ... I could also pick on politicians.
Anyway, I’ve got a good mate who’s a car salesman and he once told me about the tried and true strategy for forcing a sale when a male buyer has a look at a car but hasn’t brought his wife to the car yard.
It goes like this. The bloke looks at a car and takes it for a drive and loves it. The salesman knows he wants it.
But then the bloke says: “Yeah, well it’s a nice car and I’m pretty interested. I’ll just talk to the missus and get back to you.”
Salesman: “What if she says no?”  Buyer: “Well, she won’t say no … it’s up to me, it’ll be my car.”  Salesman: “Okay, it sounds like you don’t need to wait for permission. You can have it today. Let’s do the deal.”
The scenario would certainly be a lot easier for a car salesman than a real estate agent. It would be a bit of a stretch to apply the same tactic to a house.
But the truth is that the last thing I want is to have a buyer who is not 100 per cent committed to the property. And I want the partner, whether that’s a husband or wife, to also be on side because that is the best recipe for a smooth transition to the new owner.
After a property has gone under contract there is a five-day cooling-off period when the buyer can change their mind (in fairness to car salesmen I think they have a similar clause in their contracts).
There is usually a building and pest report that needs to be accepted by the buyer and a finance clause to be satisfied. Sometimes there are other clauses in relation to council approvals or rental appraisals that are included in the contract.
What that all means is that you certainly don’t want someone to be unsure about the property they have just put under contract. You want everyone involved to be fully on board so that if a few obstacles appear along the way they can be overcome.
A real estate agent’s job is to ensure they do everything they can to get the best price for a property and that is about creating competition among buyers. It does not involve conjuring up a sale in a way that will ultimately jeopardise the contract going through.
Speaking of cars, I recently bought a new car but I haven’t sold my old Toyota Aurion yet.
Look, I like your face, I like your face. Tell ya what I’m gonna do …

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