I’m pretty sure most of us need a pretty good dose of positive self-talk before we begin an afternoon of door knocking. Gawd, I remember my first door-knocking session at the seaside properties along Wall Street in Vancouver. One guy was nice. About 15 weren’t. Nobody was home at all the other houses so that was a relief.

I didn’t door knock again until I went into brokerage management. What a laugh. I was the world’s worst door knocker, and now I was told to take new licensees out to show them how it was done. At the time, I was working as an assistant manager – a quaint term, at a big brokerage office on Scott Road in Surrey, making me a FVREB member at the time.

I took Suzanne, who was so new I think the ink on her licence wasn’t dry yet, out for an afternoon of door knocking in the Bear Creek Park area of Surrey. At this time, you could buy a house there for about $150,000. I prepped her by saying something along the lines of, “This is the most fun you’re ever gonna have.” Inwardly, I was shaking like a leaf. So, at the beginning of a very long street, populated with a daunting number of freshly built homes, we walked up the first path. My plan was to create a script to briefly introduce Suzanne to all and sundry, give her the encouragement to accept the expected abuse when door knocking, and then quickly escape back to the office. 

We knocked on the first door. I am not kidding you, this is what happened next: Standing well back, we heard footsteps inside. Nervously looking at each other, we waited for the door to open. It did. While sizing up the youngish homeowner, who asked what we wanted, I said, “Oh, hi. My name is Kim Spencer, assistant manager at the Block Brothers office down the road. I wanted to stop by and introduce Suzanne to you. She’d be thrilled to death if you’d give her a ring if you ever want to talk about real estate.” Or similar.

I was expecting the big brush-off. You could have knocked me over with a feather when the homeowner said, “Oh, great, c’mon in. We have to sell this place as soon as possible. The 18 per cent mortgage rates are killing us.” We followed the homeowner into the house, and I casually looked at Suzanne as if this happened all the time. No big deal, Suzanne; it’s easy peasy. We listed the place, too. Suzanne had her first deal a few weeks later.

I guess you could say that was a pretty pleasant encounter with a great outcome for all concerned, including yours truly, a VERY green manager. But I have another door-knocking story that was not so pleasant and resulted in a not-so-great outcome and reputational harm to all of us.

One of our staffers, who rents a home in an area of Vancouver that’s ripe for redevelopment, has people knocking on her door all the time. She was absolutely appalled at the way her sister was treated by two members who knocked on their front door:

Two real estate agents showed up at our door today, telling my sister they had a buyer and investors for our house and asking if we want to sell? She said no. They continued to try and convince her to sell until she said she was renting. Then they demanded to know who the owner was and asked if she’d tell the owner about their visit? Irritated with them, she replied that she wouldn’t. Besides, she didn’t know the owner who lives elsewhere. Her now unwelcome visitors persisted, becoming pushier and pushier by the minute, continuing to ask for the owner’s name. 

Our staffer added, “Not sure that this is allowed, but it definitely gave my sister a negative attitude about REALTORS®.”

Oh dear. This is just one incident, but there have been others.

Here are some key things to help ensure everyone feels respected when you are door knocking.

It’s not illegal to knock on someone’s door. Mind you, I’d think twice if there are “no agents” or “no trespassing” signs. If there’s a for sale sign on the lawn, don’t even think about knocking. But, if there’s no signage, go ahead. Take business cards with you and put on your very best smile. A well-practised script wouldn’t hurt either. Oh, and maybe print a blank listing contract, just in case (because, you never know).

When you’re prepared, knock at the door, stand back, and wait. Who’s on the other side? Hopefully, it’ll be the property owner. But the place could be rented and you could be greeted by a tenant who may not be all that pleased at the prospect of having to move homes and a series of inconvenient showings in between. I mean, would you be happy in that situation? Who needs a lot of potential grief without any reward?

Hopefully your conversation goes well. You could ask the tenant if they’ve ever considered buying a place. Not a likely prospect, I’m thinking, but it’s still worth asking because you never know. A good goal would be to leave the front doorstep with the tenant not wanting to murder you. A good way of helping things go well would be to be respectful of their situation.

Script it out. You’ll want to be sympathetic, polite and not pushy. Demanding to know the owner’s name and contact information from a tenant is a non-starter. No one enjoys being pushed around or being treated like they don’t matter.

Pretty obvious stuff, don’t you think?

If you think I’m talking about the proposed change to Rule 4.04, Multiple Offers, nope. This one is a teensy little form that will take you very little time to deal with. If approved, all that’s required is a seller’s signature on a form listing the buyer agents whose buyers had their offers presented and a total of all the offers presented – with the form being sent to all buyer agents, who submitted offers on behalf of their clients, within 24 hours of the seller accepting an offer.

Talk about getting bang for one’s buck: a small investment of time rewarded by a big measure of comfort given to buyers and their agents, lifting the veil on the opaque multiple offer process politicians and regulators are pointing their fingers at. I’d suggest that’s a pretty good investment when one considers the alternative, which could be, you guessed it, the heavy hand of the government.