Stories from 'A Country Agent'

When doing this job it can often be all too easy to forget you are dealing with someone’s most prized possession. Their home, which they have entrusted you to sell, is usually one of the largest assets they have.   It is a core part of their life, it reflects their personality and the way they live and as such it should be treated with respect. During a viewing where a vendor might be in the house it is only appropriate ensure that fair warning is given to the viewer. The reason for this is to avoid the toe-curling embarrassment that immediately follows someone saying: " What an awful carpet !” or, " What on earth possessed them to buy those curtains ."  Viewers frequently have to be reminded that they are not buying the current vendors lifestyle, but a property that they may wish to choose to make their own home one day.  If they do not like how it is presented now, that is fine, but the current owner should most certainly not be made aware.   The best way to

  Our client, Mr Hull, sat in his Defender, door ajar, feet through the open window and a huge grin on his face chomping on a banana, I turned to look at the city slickers, and they looked horrified.   What lay before them was a scene from Jurassic Park; huge fences and thirty or so 8ft tall two legged creatures, some charging around & flapping their enormous useless wings, but most stood staring at us through the fence.  It was clear our friends were not particularly enthusiastic about entering the field. You see, I don’t just sell houses, sometimes I have to deal with what can only be described as the “stuff that the clients don’t want to do themselves”. On this particular occasion my longstanding clients had been approached by a telecommunications company to install a Mobile Phone Tower in one of their fields. The offer was simple, a 10mx10m parcel of land and they would pay an annual rent plus a sizeable up front payment as an incentive.  The client wasn’t adverse to the id