Every Agent Has a Story: Jess Kindt

Our next story comes from regular contributor Jess Kindt who shares the two key lessons she took away from a potential listing that almost became a very dangerous situation.

• Research the client and the property before you ‘jump’
• If you even have a ‘whiff’ of something being up – always trust your gut, and get out!

Transcript

Hi. My name is Jess Kindt.

I certainly have my fair share of horror stories and confessions, but I have picked one that does stick with me that I haven’t really spoken to anyone about. I was a business development manager for a little agency in New Farm many moons ago. I was really desperate to build a portfolio as quickly as possible. It’s a quite a tight marketing, New Farm, and it certainly was at that point.

Anyway, I get this call out of the blue which rarely happened, saying, “My name is such-and-such. I own this property at such-and-such place. Can you meet me there in 10 minutes?” I get really excited, and I’m like, “Yup, absolutely.” Oh my gosh. It’s a really a first listing presentation so I rush, rush, rush. I walked up to this property on my own and find … It looked like it had been abandoned for a good 20 years. It had graffiti all over it, had no front steps. You pretty much had to hitch yourself up into the property.

When I initially got the phone call, he sounded a little unusual. I had sort of almost like an inkling at that stage, but this cemented that choice for me. I decided not to go into the property. I tried calling this gentleman, couldn’t get a hold of him. Went back to the office, told my director all about it.

About 20 minutes, half an hour later, I hear this huge screaming, like this ranting and raving coming from the door right up into our reception area. We had this young receptionist who was absolutely petrified.

I had no problem. I walked straight up to him. I’m like, “I’m so sorry.” “Are you the girl that …” I mean, he was calling me every name under the sun and I won’t repeat it. I said, “Yes, I am. I’m so sorry. I’ve been trying to call you.”

He goes to grab me around the neck. He was huge. This guy was like six-four maybe 120, 130 kilo. I was absolutely terrified. The Adrenalin took over. He’s actually trying to grab me to take me out the front of our office. I started just panicking. Luckily for me, my director who could probably hold his own in a fight let’s just say, rushed out to the front and actually physically removed this guy.

I just couldn’t believe what had just happened. I had a little bit of a moment where I thought, “God, imagine if I had gotten out of the car at that point to meet this guy.” No one really knew where I was.

I guess what I’ve learned from that experience moving forward, make sure just qualify. Qualify that property, qualify that client. Don’t ever just drop everything for a client either. Give yourself enough time to put yourself together, think rationally, think calmly, and then go and win that business. Thank you very much.