I had an internal dilemma that morning: give into my Monday blues or to stick to my routine. I decided to stick with my routine, which involves me going to the gym, eating a balanced breakfast, followed by a cold shower. Though the gym added a little more stress on time, it also relived some of my other stress. After the gym, I had my breakfast and coffee. The coffee was effective in waking me up, but it also stirred some anxiety into my head. The cold shower I took, cooled my thoughts. I was ready to go.
With a past of being a private investigator, I have often engaged in stressful situations. Stress is relative to a time and place, but I managed to see passed it. I was feeling myself and took away 3 valuable points that I will use for my future showings.
Point 1: Be early
Tom Coughlin, Super Bowl wining coach for New York Giants, believed if you were not five minutes early you were late. Coughlin’s mindset transformed the Giants organization into world champions. “Coughlin time” is relative in what I am striving for myself. As I mentioned earlier, the gym added time to my morning. However, I still ended up 10 minutes early to the showing. It gave me enough time to inspect the property in person and allowed me to collect my thoughts before engaging with the property manager and tenant. Additionally, it showed promptness on my part, which put my best foot forward. Sometimes life gets in the way, but punctuality is a rule to help ensure I stand firm with my commitments as often as possible.
Point 2: Dress for success
According to psychological studies, people make their first impressions in as quickly as seven seconds. One of the first things people will see is how you are dressed. Therefore, dressing properly should be a must in your path to success. It only takes a little more effort to put on a button down, instead of a polo. It only takes a few minutes to iron your shirt, rather than showing up in a wrinkled one. Dress to impress, show your clients that you care.
Point 3: If you do not know something DEFER
During my showing, the tenant asked me some questions I did not know the answer to. As nice as it is to have all the answers, I will always choose to defer the questions I do not know. In this case, I deferred the questions to the property manager. Misrepresentation is something you should avoid at all costs. You do not want to give out false or wrong information to your client. That could make your client loss trust in your abilities. If you don’t know something, defer to someone who knows. Just tell the client you have to get back to them on their questions.
These three points are going to be the standards to my property showings: being early, dressing properly, and deferring questions I do not know. My biggest suggestion would be sticking to your routine, but give yourself enough time to arrive early. These points that I took away will help build my path to success.