As any good real estate agent will probably tell you, timing is king. Sure “Location, Location, Location” is their mantra, but there’s not a lot you can alter about location, whereas timing is all down to you.

When you put your property on the market, when you look to buy, when you place a bid and when you stop bidding – it’s all about timing. As such, it’s only natural that we look to real estate agents for advice on the subject. They are, after all, professionals.

Which is why one well-established, navy blue and white real estate agent has me very confused.

Way back in March, the week after the Formula One Grand Prix, I was letterbox dropped a postcard with a picture of a generic looking race car on it and the headline “Our team can give you the winning formula!” Formula, Geddit?

My first thought though wasn’t “hey that’s a shit headline”, (even though it is). It was “but the Grand Prix was last week” (because it was).

Then, the week after Easter they dropped another postcard with a picture of some cute yellow chicks breaking out of their egg shells and the line “Need to find a new home this Easter?”

The writing wasn’t getting better, and neither was the timing.

Finally, the week after Mother’s Day, another postcard. Care to guess at the content? Yep, a picture of a mum and a baby rubbing noses and a line about this particular agent wishing all mums a happy Mothers Day.

So what? Is it really a big deal if they deliver postcards a few days late?

Well, yeah. Maybe not to you personally, but what is it actually saying about them as an organisation? What it tells me is they don’t know a damn thing about timing. They’re a national company, probably have hundreds of competent staff, they might even know everything there is to know about market fluctuations, the latest buying trends and what colour house sells best.

But I’d not use them – because now I don’t trust them.

This is not the market in which to screw things up. There are at least half a dozen different agents that letterbox drop me every month, so it’s not like I don’t have a choice. Yet because of the actions of either the marketing team, or the approvals team, or the agency, or the printer, or the mailhouse, or the letterbox droppers, the reputation of the whole company suffers.

It’s not about the terrible writing and the crap stock shots. It’s about the constant disregard for hitting some quite obvious timings. Personally I don’t want to be with the agent who doesn’t even know when Mother’s Day is – I assume real estate agents have mothers yeah?

And this boys and girls, cats and kittens, is why we should all bust a hump to not miss deadlines.

Whether you’re a client and you aren’t thinking far enough ahead, an agency and you’re making promises you can’t possibly deliver on or a printer or mailhouse saying yes when you should have said no. Regardless of where you are on the food chain, if you blow your timings you’re doing more than just missing a date in a diary – you’re potentially ruining a business.

Too dramatic? Maybe I am being too harsh, maybe I’m over reacting a bit, ranting before it’s called for, but you see my point.

As for the real estate agent in question, I’m tempted to write to them, but I’ve decided I’d rather wait until November and see if they’ll wish all the dads a happy Father’s Day first.

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Tags: real estate