Welcome to another episode of Golden Nuggets, Tea and Tails
powered by Husby, served today by Taher Hussain.
Welcome to the show. Thank you.
Can I have a drum roll? What are?
You about to spill some tea or tell some tales?
That's what the show's about. We've got people that have been
in the real estate industry for many, many years or just a few
years, spilling the tea, telling the tales on what goes on behind
the scenes, deep in the trenches.
And one of the scenarios in a real estate agent's career that
causes the most drama or has the most wild stories is what
happens on a viewing or showing, as they like to call it in the
US. So what is your most memorable
showing or viewing story that you can tell us?
Spill the tea. Yeah, so I have.
I had the the seller, he's originally my my client and I
had to deal with another agent who called themselves a realtor.
Did you know everyone that's calling themselves a realtor?
Yeah, I'm surprised, except for me.
I'm not calling myself a realtor because people, they don't know
what's realtor is. That's why everybody, I'm a
realtor. Yeah, no, you're not.
You need to go through the process through NAR, Yes.
And unfortunately, I would say 98% of Dubai real estate agents
call themselves. Realtors.
Yeah, and they don't know what's the realtor is so.
Just to be clear, a realtor is first of all the the name or the
term. Realtor is a trademark term.
Yeah, and you can only call yourself a realtor if you are a
member of the National Association of Realtors.
Now it is possible to be in the UK or UAE and be a realtor if
you've sat the SIPS course, which is the certified
International Property Specialist, which I you did that
course. I was, yeah, I was one of the
first in the UAE to to do it and and then you pay for membership
to the NAR, then you are a realtor.
Of course, OK, it's like a RERA but the the longer term and
internationally, but here they're not so we.
Digress back to your story about this realtor.
So another agent with the buyer, we, it was a handover unit so
there is no DEWA, no electricity or anything.
They're coming directly from lunch so it's a nice four
bedroom villa I'm showing the client with.
Lunch or lunch? Lunch.
As food. OK, got it.
So I'm showing the house, very nice house.
The client is so lovely with his wife.
All of a sudden their agent disappeared and he got himself
locked in the powder room doing some business there.
I'm put in mind, as I mentioned, there is no diva, no
electricity. Nothing.
And I just received a WhatsApp messages like Taylor.
Please help me I need water and as you know I'm I don't drive.
I'm a very professional passenger.
I would sit, put my seat belt and I would intern you and we
are in the middle of this gated community.
Closest supermarket is like within the communities like 10
minutes. OK, so he's gone into the powder
room, done his business, Yes, not realizing that there is no
water, electricity. Yeah, which is, I mean, that's
just like he said. He said we had the spicy food.
I was like what the fuck? He said.
He needs to eat. Yeah, he's prepping you for how
bad it. Is it was really bad and and I
just told him I I don't have a car.
I'm sorry bro. You need you need to do
whatever. And he was keep thinking like,
please don't steal my client. I said, first of all, I'm a
person with integrity. And if you're going to be rude
with me, I'm just going to leave you locked there.
So I'm here to help you. So wait, was he also locked
inside? Yeah, he.
Was inside, he can't move. OK, so there's 2 problems here.
The fact that there's no flush, yes.
And he's locked inside, yes. OK, how?
Did he lock himself? He didn't.
He can't leave because he need to wash.
He need to do many things, so he's.
Not physically locked. No, not physically.
Locked. Yeah, so I had to just to take
my brutally honest bill and I would just came to the buyer.
I was like hey, we need to go to Carrefour, we need to buy water.
They were like no, we have our ads like not for you, for your
agent nasty one. We went 2 packs of water and we
just put it in front of the the powder room and and it's a kind
of the houses where you walk in the corridor and the powder room
is under the stairs. So there is no windows, there is
nothing. I couldn't do viewings for like
almost four months in that house because it stinks.
And he was one of those Realtors with the shiny suit, the short,
the socks, sweating. Here.
I was like, bro, no, no. He was like, please can we write
an offer? I was like, you destroyed it,
you destroyed it. Everything smells from the nice
smell of paint. Disappeared.
Ruined. Like this?
That would probably be the number one thing you shouldn't
do in a property. An empty property.
Yeah, exactly. It's not your house.
How how? Yeah, it's not it's not a mall.
At one point I had to take Bahur at like fam and to to be
creative to and then just put so it was.
Lingering in month after. Man is just is it was getting
worse because the humidity you could feel the walls are stings
like I was like and I'm blessing my seller.
We have a very good relationship.
He was like, but why the village is not selling?
I I was afraid to tell him like there is an agent destroyed it
and it smells like a diaper now. Like it was it was bad.
It was bad. So even Behore didn't do it.
Behore did work and I had the these heroes, the Urban Club
company, they did the deep cleaning and the lady, bless
her, she was like, Sir, what's happening with this smell?
And I was like, I don't know, it's normal because maybe there
is no air circulation. Very bad Clorox, but it was it
was too much. That's hilarious.
Anything else on that story? Yeah, but no, that's it.
The buyers were just disgusted and and I didn't want to stop a
knife behind his back. I could have easily take the
buyers, but I I work on something that is missing in in
the market here. It's credibility because the
clients found me through LinkedIn and they contact me and
they were like we want to work with you.
I even though I was pissed at the other agent, I just told him
the clients contact me and through LinkedIn and I sent him
a screenshot and I was like, you need to find a way to apologize
for what you did, even though if it's not under your control or
you can refer your manager or one of your colleagues and I
will be more than happy to do that.
And he will guess what he said, brother, go close them and share
the Commission. I said I'm not working for
charity. I left working for humanitarian
field back in the days. I'm not going to do it again.
I'm here. I'm focusing on my money.
I'm not sharing shit with you go you.
You're a type of agent that will give money to a client.
No, I'm not going to share my income with you.
Simple. And that was it.
And I'm still every time I post on LinkedIn, he like my the
client. His client like to sometimes
comment. That was like.
So how did the story end? I I have no idea.
They the guy wash He left, they left with him in the car.
I said, no, I'm going to calling myself an Uber because he was
expecting, because he was there for a good half an hour wearing
a suit. So you can imagine poor clients
had to ride with him in the car. So I was like, I'm ordering
myself a Uber. I'm not going to be associated
with this. And how how many months did it
take you to sell it after the? I think it was five months, five
months, good four months because it's it's a nice unit, A corner
unit, but it there is no air circulation where the powder
room is and it's just that powder room is made to wash your
hands. That's it.
Or do number one, that's it maximum OK or freshen up fixed
makeup. That's it, not made for number 2
at all. Even for the people who will
live in the house, they're not allowed to do that.
And it's old after after on the 5th month, four months, every
time I go pass by, it's just like a soul is buried there.
Just the the smell was getting worse and worse even though
Clorox Ditto deep cleaning everything but then it 100
laughter, the Clorox and the cleaning.
Thanks to Urban Club it's gone and I managed to sell it.
This is why I keep telling agents, yes, you can be friends
with your with your clients. You can go for drinks and food,
but you don't go for a spicy lunch where your stomach it gets
upset and then you just find the toilet and you just want to go
there and be comfortable. I don't know how you do that
right. Yeah, OK.
What are the tips or what are the things to avoid on a viewing
from Tahir Hussein? So number #2 definitely #1 is
that crossing the line if you need to go for a #1.
No, it's not, but you need to do it in a public place, not a
private home because now clients are educating themselves,
especially the sellers. They're doing a staging.
Before it was just you go on a dusty empty house.
Now they doing a staging and of course they the bills that they
need everything to be neat and clean.
So if you want to do something, there are petrol, petrol
stations everywhere, Mohammed bin Zayed, every street there is
a petrol station and there is a public toilet there.
So you need to control your things.
Like before you go in on a viewing or in a meeting, yes you
need to check your hygiene, smell, you need to be in a
comfortable clothes where the client will be comfortable with
you. You don't need to be in a suit,
three piece suit with a tie and it's so hot you will be melting
and you're doing viewing so you come up.
All right, we want to know from you what is the worst thing you
could do as a real estate agent on a viewing?
Drop it below in the comments. Thank you, Tahir.
You're welcome.