Client of Houston Realtor proclaims, "You've got a Rat in my corner!"

Another True Story of this Houston Realtor and Business Owner

I'd like to think that I was a fiction writer, like Stephen King, who had such an imagination that I could come up with a story like this in my mind!  I could make a fortune, much like he certainly does, using this "gift-of-the-pen."  But I'm not....I don't....and I didn't make this up.  This is just one of eight such issues I've had to deal with this week . . . I hope the moon changes soon!

The telephone caller insisted on speaking directly with me, so I took the call.  "Your agent is very unprofessional," the caller yelled, "our daycare center has been listed for two months with no buyer!"  "I demand that you release us from this contract so that we can sell this property to a buyer we've discovered," she continued to yell.

Now I believe that any inexperienced agent or broker could figure this one out . . . a buyer has surfaced through our efforts who has contacted this owner directly.  She wants to terminate the listing agreement and sell the property directly to this buyer and circumvent the paying of the real estate fee for service.  So, I posed the point, (in my sweetest dialect), "ma'am, it sounds to me as our agent has done his job.  We've located a buyer for your daycare!"

"You don't understand," she screamed, "your agent has a bad attitude and is unprofessional."

"Excuse me, ma'am," I interjected, "but you and I have never met and all you've done is yell at me and accuse our associate of a 'bad attitude.'  Can you please settle down?"

"Well," she continued, "his pictures are completely unprofessional . . . have you seen them?"

At this point, I do not even know to which listing she is referring, only that it's a daycare in Houston, Texas.

"In one of the pictures, the floor is filthy!  In another, there is a dead rat in the corner!  Your agent is completely unprofessional."

This is one of those rare moments where I am left completely without words.  Usually, I'm quick with a retort.  But my eyes are wide open, and my head is shaking from side-to-side with disbelief.  I quickly reassess the facts in my head . . . this is a daycare . . . there are filthy floors . . . there's a dead rat . . . I've been yelled at . . . we've produced a buyer in two months . . . and she doesn't want to pay us for our unprofessionalism and bad attitude.  Wow.  Really?

What would you say to her?