Show and Tell

It is any surprise that people don’t take our word for things that we know to be true?

What happened to trust and faith in our fellow-man?

The great shift occurred when we were all younger or not yet born. Truthfully most of were not yet born. Watergate for all its over analyzed, over investigated and over vilification was the point when we as a country finally lost whatever trust we had in our leaders. When people don’t trust in their leaders they are left to their own fears of the unknown and the skepticism and paranoia that follows. To compound the lack of trust, many who might have been trustworthy and faithful to their followers are given a pass because of the constant comparisons that are made to minimize their own deceitful actions.

“Well the other guy did it worse than me”

There have been countless financial criminals, scoundrels and confidence men that have used the defense that they are nothing compared to Bernie Madoff?  These people have made it harder for all of us to do our jobs because the people that we are trying to help are not willing or are unable to trust because of the sins that have been committed against them by people that they have never met. This can be an uphill battle with some battles not being winnable at all.

The best way to get over the hurdle of trust and building lasting trusting relationships is to show the questioning party the results in person. An email, text of phone call is not nearly as convincing as showing someone who the home they fell in love with online is not for sale is to take them to the property with the print out in hand that reads “under contract”.

Without this sense of reality they will go online to as many sites as is required until they find one that has old listing information and shows that the house in still on the market. At that point there is little anyone can do to convince the client that the site is not accurate. It would have been better to stand in front of the property with the print out in hand and get the whole matter settled once and for all. The added benefit is that the world of the real estate professional that does this will be less likely to be doubted in the future.