Sometimes you work patiently and steadily on something before seeing any results. Sometimes you don’t have to. On Saturday Brad surprised me with my first professional massage post-Nolan. Suffering from a condition known as Not-doing-any-exercise-except-for-walking-
and-carrying-a-30-pound-toddler-awkwardly, my lower back was extremely thankful for this serendipity. For a leisurely hour I let my mind rest and my body be somewhat restored to its long-ago splendour of ache-free existence. I left with the scent of lavender oil radiating from my skin and returned home to trade the car for a napping Nolan as Brad had an appointment to head out to. I picked up my current knitting project and turned on a girly movie. Then the phone rang. “My mom wants to buy one of those condos Brad was talking about. Can you be there in 20 minutes”? These clients are good friends and were able to pick me up on the way to the presentation centre and we arranged to have Nolan looked after.
These condos just went on sale last week (pre-construction) and are slated for completion in 2015. They are already 40% sold and many of the most desirable units have been spoke for – thus time was of the essence. Clearly the staff at the centre had been spoiled this past week with work-free sales and hadn’t had to answer many questions. I deduced this as our salesperson met each of my questions with “I dunno”. To be honest, having been in sales as a Financial Planner for so many years, I am so often dumbstruck by salespeople. When purchasing a pair of $50 shoes, I can understand that a salesperson may not feel the need to find an answer for the customer (still, not admirable). When purchasing real estate, how is this acceptable? This salesperson was the same one that presented the 40 page purchase document to my client and told her to sign by the x without so much as flipping through the document. “It’s all standard” was the explanation. Really? So many people do not know that they can use an agent to handle their purchase of pre-construction properties with no cost to them. Our job in these situations is not so much to negotiate price (although there sometimes is wiggle room), but to negotiate individual clauses that can save thousands at closing, and to guide clients through this often poorly-explained process. In this instance, I was able to ensure that a clause outlining yet-to-be-determined development fees etc. would have a fixed capped amount so financial surprises upon occupancy would be avoided. This only happens if you know to ask, and how to ask.
At the end of the afternoon, my client left feeling like she understood the process, had had many questions answered and had made a good purchase. I didn’t spend hours researching, driving around and showing properties. Brad did the legwork by attending the grand opening last week, knowing the area like the back of his hand, and speaking to our clients about the opportunity. All I had to do was answer my phone, know what I was doing, and be willing to smell like lavender. 🙂
teamlounsbury 