Grab a helping hand when you see it
Right in mid-sentence, a customer abruptly hung up on one of my colleagues at the office. Dejected, my colleague turned to me and asked why people are so mean when all she’s trying to do is help them find a house. It’s the dog-days of summer and everyone’s on vacation. Business gets a little slow. My colleague said that she’s not worried because, “God will provide.”
This reminded me of a little joke my late Daddy, Al, told me. It’s really a story of how we sometimes don’t recognize a helping hand when it’s being extended to us.
There was a raging flood one year and the water was VERY high. The water was rising over the rooftops of all the houses in town. On one such rooftop stood a man, waist-deep in water. Looking up at the sky, he was praying, “Oh, God, oh, God, please save me from this terrible flood!”
He stopped praying, blinked, and looked around in anticipation. Nothing happened!
It was still raining buckets and the water was rising fast when a man in a rowboat pulled up and said, “Mister, this is some kind of flood. You better get in this boat quick! I’ll row you to dry land.”
The man on the roof said, “No thank you. You row on and save someone else. I’ve prayed very hard and know that God will save me.”
As you can imagine, the rain kept coming and coming and soon, the water was CHEST-HIGH! The man on the roof was getting a little worried. At just about this time, a man in a motorboat speeding around the neighborhood stopped and said, “Sir, this rain isn’t going to stop soon. You better climb aboard before things get real bad.”
The man on the roof shouted over the storm and said, “Thank you, thank you. You’re very kind but God will save me. I’m sure of this because I’ve prayed very hard. Please go and save other less fortunate people.”
The motorboat sped off and the storm continued to rage.
It wasn’t too long before the man on the roof was up to his NECK and barely able to keep his head above water. It was so bad that a Coast Guard helicopter was sent to rescue the man. As he hovered overhead, a Guardsman shouted down, “Sir, this is your last chance! Climb up the rope ladder and save yourself! We’ll bring you to shore high and dry!”
The man on the roof shouted back, “I’m going to be OK! Thank you! God will save me very soon!”
The helicopter buzzed away, the water washed over the man, and he drowned.
He was angry when he came to the Pearly Gates of Heaven. Meeting God, he asked, “Why didn’t You save me? I prayed and prayed and You did nothing for me! Where were You when I needed you most?!?”
Puzzled, God looked at the soggy man and said, “Son, what more could I do? I sent you TWO boats and a helicopter!”
That’s how it is in real estate sometimes. Realtors® try very hard to help people find the homes of their dreams but often their efforts fall on deaf ears. I think it’s a failure of the Realtor®. It’s not the customer’s fault.
The customer is always right.
A good Realtor® will take the time to explain the value and services they’ll provide. Only God can get away with skipping the explaining part.
