I live so many lives at times it becomes unclear whether I am even a real person anymore. My main focus in my private non-work life is the pursuit of baseball. This hobby has taken me to many interesting and wonderful places, but the greatest journeys it is taken me on are the ones within my own mind.
Yesterday while driving to a friend's house to record an episode of our Nats based podcast I got a call off of some handouts I had given out earlier in the day. It is the same type of info that I put out on here with market analysis and a few interesting items about the area. I had them out in a few neighborhoods and haven't really gotten any feedback positive or negative about them.
Yesterday was different though. I got a phone call and I have to say I was a bit surprised that someone was even calling me at all, but then when I answered the phone I actually became rather shocked with their over the top angry tone. It was very clear that they didn't like the package that I had put together, and it was also clear they didn't bother to examine it much either.
He first asked me how he was selected to receive this trying to imply that I was breaking some sort of Fair Housing law. I told him it was all due to geography and he just happened to live in a neighborhood I would like to market in. He then proceeded to say that that wasn't allowed in his neighborhood which couldn't be further from the truth. I actually won't leave a handout on a door that is covered in other advertising as I don't want to draw anymore attention to the fact that someone hasn't been home in awhile, and no one is going to be home in awhile to read it.
After those two lines of reasoning feel short for the angry caller he then tried to explain to me I was trespassing and he would call the police if he received something again. When I told him I didn't think the police could help him with that he asked if that was a challenge. I told him no, but as I wasn't breaking any laws it would be hard for the police to arrest me. I also at this point started to wonder why trying to educate someone was so bad to try and ruin their business and their life.
I wanted to ask him if he had also given this same call to Paisanos or China King but before I could he had hung up the phone. I wanted to call him back and try to explain to him that I am a human being but it would more than likely fall on def ears. It is funny, before I became a Realtor I had no idea so much of the population of the United States viewed my profession so worth of scorn.
Back to my other life now. I continued to drive to my friend's house thinking about this guy and wonder what was so wrong that would cause this type of reaction. I soon realized all I had to do was look at sites like Yelp or Amazon and read the one star reviews to see that there are just people in this world who get joy out of complaining and overreacting.
Shortly after arriving at my friend's house it was time to pre-record an interview with New York Times best selling author and baseball player Dirk Hayhurst. I read Hayurst's first book The Bullpen Gospels and am in the process of reading his second book Out of my League. Hayhurst is a gifted writer and his stories about his life on and off the field are easy to relate to.
I now find them even easier to relate to as I am now also in a profession where apparently people now longer view me as a fellow human being. That makes it extra tough in dealings with people because now not only do I have to break the standard level of ice I have to break an extra level to let them know that guess what I bleed just like you.
I have seen the dynamic in action for baseball players. One of the more common sights at a ballpark is kids asking for a ball from the pitchers whose duty it is to shag them during batting practice. The kids that end up with a ball are either the silent extra cute ones or the ones that bother to learn the player's name. "Hey you 52. Throw me a ball," Doesn't work too well.
Of course the perceptions of a baseball player and a Realtor are much different. People view baseball players as larger than life figures that are living the dream no matter what level they are at. I really don't know what the world views Realtors as because before I became one I always thought they were just pleasant people that would help you in the search for a home when the time was right. It turns out there is a segment of the population who view Realtors as monsters who need to be destroyed with fire.
If I can take any less out of this it is the age old marketing truism that any reaction is better than no reaction at all, and even an angry phone call let's me know that perhaps I am doing what I need to to get my name out their. We can't all be Coke.
I learn something new in real estate everyday
so you don't have to
David Huzzard
www.SuperNoVaRealty.com
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