You probably think that opening up a house for sale is easy… I must admit it’s the most fun part of the job, showing people around their potential new home, but it can get quite tricky when there’s someone inside the house that the agent isn’t expecting to be there! This was one of those occasions….
During the late 80’s early 90’s viewing appointments were very different to how they are today. Getting in touch with homeowners wasn’t easy because not everyone had mobile phones. On this one particular occasion, Lyn took English clients out to show them a couple of villas for sale here in Ciudad Quesada, when she phoned me in the office, “Please call the owners of the newly listed villa and tell them I’m on my way. I should be there in about ten minutes,” Lyn informed me quickly. The owners were retired Doctors that lived here permanently but due to them having a busy social life, they’d given us a key to access their home if ever they were out and to “help ourselves”. This is the ideal scenario for any agent, as being unable to locate the owner for a viewing appointment at short notice can be quite frustrating. So I phoned the house… no answer, the owners were obviously out enjoying themselves… perfect! Well so I thought! They’d told us to use the key and go right in, so that’s exactly what we would do. Didn’t I say, this is the perfect scenario? Well maybe perfect wasn’t the right word this time!
Lyn arrived at the house and rang the doorbell just in case anyone was home… we always do. She took out the key, unlocked the door and walked inside with the buyers following closely behind. All was quiet in the house… the owners were definitely out… well so Lyn thought! She showed the lounge, dining room, kitchen and then next was the master bedroom. Upon opening the bedroom door, there … in all his glory, was the male homeowner lying on top of the bed….. ASLEEP! After a large intake of air and rapidly putting her hand to her mouth, Lyn quickly tiptoed out of the room and hastily encouraged the buyers that they needed to come back to see the rest of the villa on a different day. It turned out that the owner had been ill and the wife was out running errands! So you see, having mobile phones now makes our life so much easier…. Less interesting ha! ha! But so much easier! We can truly say that we really have seen it all… in more ways than one! I can conclude that the buyers did purchase that villa… maybe they really did like the view! And to this day, the homeowners never knew Lyn had been there!
Just to finish this weeks’ blog with a market update. What an amazing week it’s been. Incredibly busy! Our international buyers certainly know where the best place to purchase is… right here! May is always a very popular month for buying but 2016 proved to be record breaking! The housing inventory is extremely low right now so If you seriously want to sell your home or wish to know what it could be worth in today’s market, contact us….you know you want to! What’s holding you back? Price? Estate Agent’s commission? If you think its expensive hiring a professional to sell your home, try hiring an amateur!