A conversation with an unhappy buyer a few days ago gave me an opportunity to consider how different situations can appear to others from their point of view. He was most definitely an unhappy camper.

Our conversation started off via email, with me getting more and more formal with him as time went by. I tend to do this whenever it looks like the temperature is rising. In these situations, I’ve found it’s best to become very polite and very formal. At least, this mostly works for me. Email, text and letters are often a lousy way of communicating with anyone who is upset. This is because written communication doesn’t often do a great job of conveying emotion and context, so it’s easy to get the wrong impression. And wrong impressions can lead to difficult conversations.

Back to the unhappy buyer. He was getting madder and madder, saying that the BC Financial Services Authority and the Board weren’t interested in his issue (more on this below). He suggested we and the regulator were deflecting to each other and that he’d next be going to the media. The ultimate threat, I suppose. It’s like playing the lawyer card. “Oh yeah? How about if I call my lawyer and sue you? Would that get your attention?”

It did get me thinking about the divide between standards and perception. This buyer’s perception of what had happened is important, even when no rule has been broken or standard breached. What then?

This kind of thing keeps us up at night, especially now with government intervention looming. It wouldn’t be good to see another article in the media saying, “their system is all wrong”.

So, after a few email messages, we had a conversation on the phone. The jist of it was that he’d spotted an interesting property on realtor.ca. He may have been sitting next to a pool at the time, in a resort south of the border. A resident of Metro Vancouver in the summer, he spends his time in warmer climes in the winter. He’d spotted the listing and it interested him, and he’d noticed it was a delayed offer situation. He talked to his REALTOR® but didn’t say he wanted to write an offer—just that he was just interested in the place. Then, a day or two later, he checked the listing again, as one does when there’s something of interest posted, discovering that the place sold early. “What the heck,” he had said to himself. “The listing had said offers on a particular day. Now it’s sold early. I missed my chance and I’m mad as hell.”

Our phone call went well after we figured out that we’re both grumpy old men. He softened somewhat when I explained what our protocol is; namely, our rules focus on member actions, while keeping client’s wishes in mind.

I asked, “Did you tell your Realtor you wanted to write an offer? Because if you had, he could have advised the seller’s agent in writing that he wanted to be kept informed, which would have required the seller’s agent to let your agent know when the early offer came in.” He understood. But he felt that once said, the seller’s original offer date should have been set in concrete. Why was it up to him to jump through hoops?

He’s probably less unhappy now, but he’s still annoyed and thinks our system isn’t right. Think about this when you’re dealing with buyers. Explain the protocols to them. And, if you’re a seller’s agent, do you really have to delay offers? I mean, it’s not like it’s a requirement.

It’s all fine until it’s not, as they say. So the next time you’re approached by someone offering to build you a fancy four-colour flyer showing recent market activity, stop and think about the REALTOR® Code’s Article 14 and Rules of Cooperation, Section 8 – Advertising, before you pony up and pay them to create and mail the flyer to homeowners.

Specifically, please remember that the advertising of listings is generally restricted to the seller’s brokerage. Publicly advertising a sale price before closing is a problem. Also, all solicitation materials must show your brokerage’s name and must include a disclaimer: “This is not intended to induce a breach of an existing agency agreement.” All information must be accurate, not misleading, and all claims must be supported, with any exceptions to offers being noted in the copy. To be fair, a third-party flyer builder may not know what our standards are, so it’s up to you to keep these rules in mind when you look at the draft copy. The PDP course Advertising Do's and Don’ts is available if you need to brush up on this information.

Congratulations, Tony Zandberger, PREC, Re/Max Treeland Realty, Langley! Margaret Wong, PREC, Dexter Realty, Vancouver is sending you a bouquet. Here’s why:

“I was working with one of my best long-time clients in finding a property. After losing out on four offers, the buyer exhaustion set in.  I saw this beautiful one bedroom in the West End that Tony Z and his team had listed.  I sent the listing to my buyer right away and he said, ‘Let’s go see it.’

“We booked an appointment with Tony Z and his team (the listing agent).  The experience from the first encounter has been exceptional.  Response has always been prompt, pleasant, professional, and courteous from anyone on the team.

“They had all the documents ready to go, and the showing REALTOR® was early and had the place all ready to show (lights on, blinds up, and fireplace roaring). They had comparables available on the table; all was very prepared.

“On offer day, the lead listing agent kept us all updated through consistent Touchbase messages and, again, all correspondence was responded to promptly. As you can imagine, the last 30 minutes prior to the offer submission time can get pretty intense. Throughout the entire process, the listing agent kept us informed, including when they would meet with sellers and when we should expect an answer. We did win this property.

“It was a tremendous pleasure working with Tony Z, Clint, and everyone on their team. I would hope to have more opportunities to collaborate with them in future transactions.”

Congratulations, Margaret Wong! Here’s what Melissa Carr from Tony Z had to say about you!

“Margaret was wonderful as well! I, too, noticed she was very prepared for the showing. Asked lots of questions but was also prepared with the docs she needed when viewing the unit as well. Never pushy, super complimentary, and very professional for her buyer. She, too, went the extra step.”