We had a listing on Hűvösvölgyi Road, in a building consisting of just two apartments. The other apartment was being marketed by another real estate agency.
Our buyer was interested in that apartment as well, so we got to know the other agent, who warned us right from the start:
– The owner is an interesting elderly lady. She doesn’t sign anything.
They didn’t even have a signed listing agreement with her.
There was one other minor problem:
every time they brought her an offer, she raised the price…
I said to the agent:
– Set up a meeting for me with her.
Over the years, I’ve learned that I can find common ground with almost anyone.
You just have to find the right “button” to press. With some people it’s travel. Others love animals. All I knew about this lady from the other agent was that she was diabetic.
So I turned up to meet her with a homemade cake free from all the ingredients she needed to avoid.
She made us coffee.
And we started talking.
It turned out that she was 89 years old and sharp as a razor. She could calculate VAT in her head faster than I had ever seen anyone do it.
It also became clear that she wasn’t particularly motivated to sell the apartment. She had no relatives and no urgent reason to sell. She simply needed to pay the fees for the care home where she lived — and that seemed to be rather more important to the care home than it was to her.
I told her about some of my clients in their eighties who had found plenty to enjoy at that stage of life. Including my mother, who at 86 plays Scrabble every day and regularly wipes the floor with everyone.
The rather stern and not particularly friendly expression she had when we first met gradually began to change.
First, she softened.
Then she started to smile.
By the end, we were laughing together.
An hour and a half after I walked through the door, the lady who “doesn’t sign anything” signed a listing agreement specifically for our buyer.
And our buyer bought the apartment.
The lady was HUF 150 million richer.
The cake was gone.
The apartment was sold.
And in the end, everyone was happy. 😊
A real estate agent doesn’t need to find the key to the property. They need to find the key
to the person.
Thinking of selling your property?
Let’s talk. +36-30-940-0839
