1596 They Call it a Sales Force for a Reason

1596 They Call it a Sales Force for a Reason

A friend has moved to a far off state and gone into the real estate business.  She is a small woman supporting her daughter. She is a single mom.  And when we first met her she was selling costume jewelry.

Small, yes. But aggressive in a quiet borderline submissive kind of way. A quiet pest.  We bought some earrings or a necklace or a ring from her, and soon after, she vanished.

But now she’s back and selling houses the same way she sold dimestore gemstones.  Only she’s pulled back from the border of poor waif land.

From time to time, we hint we’re ready to move back to a coast, either coast.  And that was the opening she was looking for.

We exchanged emails.  We explained what we owned and what we expected to own or rent in the future.  And she immediately went to overwork.

We received a series of emails and phonecalls and forms to fill out. “Please, Cathy (not her real name) we’re just starting to look at your area.  We need to visit.  Not until spring at the earliest.”

Oh, okay.  But sign up for our newsletter.

How often does your newsletter come out?

Every time we get a new listing.

We’ve removed our name from the mailing list.  Or tried to. So far when we check the “unsubscribe” box, the computer plays canned laughter less convincing than what you used to hear on “I Love Lucy.” Then a Siri-like voice intones:  “You have been unsubscribed” followed by a sound effect that you could interpret as Siri saying “sucker” in an electronic stage whisper.

And then we get yet another “new listing.”  This time, it’s a 6,000 square foot “Spanish Colonial” with eight bedrooms, seven baths set in a palm-treed five acre plot on a quiet residential street. Priced to sell. At 8.2 million dollars, recently reduced from $8,705,242.

A steal.

Maybe we’ll pass it along to folks at Passages at Malibu which will get the neighbors in an uproar because a drug addict with a lot of money is still a drug addict.

These days it may be necessary to high pressure sell high priced items like houses, cars, boats, furs, 300 year old violins and original Jack Pumphrey paintings of post war automobiles.

But when a known customer was hesitant to buy a silver plated Moissanite bracelet for 35 bucks, maybe it’s time to slow the pace of multimillion dollar mansion emails.

Shrapnel:

--We’ve threatened to move from Cutsie Condos for all of the ten years we’ve been there.  The desire fades because moving is a pain.  But when the pain moves to the knee or the back and becomes real, it’s revival time every time we look at the staircase.

Quote of the day:

It was “A legitimate attempt… to discover the boundaries of Roe v. Wade.” -- Governor Jack Dalrymple (R-ND) describing a state law now rejected by the US Supreme Court and which would have banned most abortions after the sixth week of pregnancy when many women don’t yet know they’re pregnant.

I’m Wes Richards. My opinions are my own but you’re welcome to them. ®

Please address comments to wesrichards@gmail.com

© WJR 2016