The Katelayna Insider

An Unbelievable Day in the Life of an Agent

There are days in real estate when you spend hours answering emails, scheduling showings and working through paperwork. Then there are days when you look at your phone and wonder how all of this possibly happened in the span of 24 hours. This was one of those days.

The property itself was never going to be an easy sale. It needed significant work, and there were unanswered questions about some of its systems, including the septic. The available information was limited, and that was reflected in the listing and the information provided to prospective buyers. Sometimes that is simply the reality of selling an older property. You disclose what is known, provide the information that is available and make it clear when something isn't known.

An interested buyer called, and we talked about the condition of the property and the unknowns. I made it clear that this was not a property where someone should walk in expecting everything to be neat, updated and documented. They understood what they were considering, decided they were interested enough to make an offer and planned a walkthrough.

Then things took a turn. The buyer went to the property a day before the scheduled appointment without authorization. A property being listed for sale does not make it open to the public, and buyers cannot simply decide to visit whenever they want, even when they have an offer in place. While there, the buyer spoke with a neighbor.

Whatever was said during that conversation dramatically changed the buyer's view of the property. Concerns were raised about its condition and whether the listing accurately represented it. Those concerns eventually led to a conversation with the brokerage and, ultimately, the buyer deciding not to move forward.

At that point, you would think the story was over. It wasn't. The next morning, an offer arrived from the neighbor.

There are moments in this business when all you can really do is stare at your screen for a second. But an agent's job isn't to decide what the coincidence means. It isn't to fill in the blanks or create a story about someone's intentions. An offer is an offer, and our responsibility is to present it to the seller and let the seller decide what they want to do.

Then another offer came in. Suddenly, a property that had been difficult to sell and had just lost a buyer had two interested parties. Both offers were presented to the seller for consideration.

And then the phone rang again.

The seller had experienced a serious medical emergency and was no longer able to review or respond to the offers. Everything about the transaction changed in an instant. The people who had submitted offers needed an answer, but there wasn't one to give them. They could be told that the seller was temporarily unable to review offers, but the reason belonged to the seller. A medical emergency doesn't become public information simply because there is a real estate transaction happening around it.

That is one of the parts of this job people rarely see. Real estate is often presented as houses, negotiations, contracts and closing days. In reality, it is filled with people, and people are unpredictable. Neighbors get involved. Buyers change their minds. Information surfaces at unexpected times. Offers arrive when you thought interest had disappeared. And sometimes something happens that is far more important than the transaction itself.

When that happens, the job changes. You protect confidentiality. You communicate what can be communicated. You don't speculate about what you don't know. You make sure everyone who needs information receives the information they are entitled to receive without giving them information that isn't theirs to have. Sometimes, despite everyone's desire for an immediate answer, the correct answer is simply that there isn't one yet.

All of this happened within roughly a day. So when someone asks what a day in the life of a real estate agent looks like, the answer is difficult to explain. Sometimes it's showings, phone calls and paperwork. Other times it's a buyer, a neighbor, two offers, a phone call that changes everything and a reminder that no matter how carefully a transaction is planned, real estate still revolves around real life.



And real life doesn't follow a transaction timeline.