Well I was going to lead off the week with blog post about the importance of 2nd bathrooms in condos, but then something happened during my Sunday afternoon.

This is the kind of post where you say, “Okay, really Dave – how much of this is exaggerated?”

What can I say?  The world is full of crazy people, and when I have an experience with one of them, I write 1200 words about it…

In every society, in every country, and likely on every planet – there are people that “just don’t get it.”

These people hold down full-time jobs, raise families, and interact with the rest of society without giving themselves away, but on occasion, they do something that just makes so little sense that you have to wonder just how they got this far in life.

Case in point; my listing at 230 King Street and the invisible open house that shed so many tears.

In fair Verona where we live, I put a 2-bedroom condo on the market this past Tuesday and I felt the price was fair and reasonable.

My clients know me from the building (actually our parking spaces are next to eachother!) and from reading my blog for the last year.  I haven’t yet told them this story as I didn’t want to ruin their Sunday, so what better way to inform them than for them to read this….right….NOW!

Their condo was absolutely gorgeous.  Sure, it had pet rabbits when I first went to meet them, but they took all of my suggestions and listened to every comment that my stager made when I brought him in for a consultation, and in the end, their condo showed like a model suite.

So it should come as no surprise that we received three offers within 24 hours of the property hitting the market, and it sold for well over the asking price.

I was so happy for these guys; they’re such a great couple, very nice and fun to work with, and I just felt that they “deserved” it.

I found it kind of funny that they had emailed me on Wednesday and said, “Are we still doing an agent’s open house on Thursday?”  Little did they know, their property would be sold that night, and they could forego everything on our schedule past the second day of the listing!

Not only would we skip the agent’s open house for a condo that had sold, but clearly they could have their weekend back as we wouldn’t be doing a public open house on Saturday and Sunday afternoon!

I joked with them that I’d have “a lot of angry buyers” who wanted to see the condo on the weekend, as I had sent out 4500 “JUST LISTED” cards advertising their newly-listed property, but I never expected what was about to take place…

On Saturday afternoon, the concierge in my building told me that there had been a couple people clamouring at the front desk asking why there was no open house for the condo.  I told our “head” concierge in advance that we sold the condo and we might get the odd straggler coming in and asking about it, but I guess he never relayed the message to the other concierges in our building.

Normally you just get foot-traffic as people see your “OPEN HOUSE” signs littered throughout the area, and your notice on the door of the building.  And if somebody did plan on seeing the property a few days in advance and they came to the building only to find that there was no signs anywhere, just how far would they go to try and see the property?

That’s a question to which I never expected to find such an outrageous answer.

On Saturday evening, I received an email from a guy we’ll just call “Bob.”  Bob wrote the following:

“Hello David, I was in the building today to take a look at Unit XXX as per your invitation through Canada Post this week but I was told the open house was abruptly cancelled.  Can you please shed some light on this unfortunate event?”

First of all, who calls it “Canada Post?”  Isn’t it just called “the mail?”  I should have known he was a nut just based on this alone.  He’s the kind of guy that has hundreds of movies on VHS and he’ll argue with anybody that “they’re just better.”

Secondly, what a fantastic use of the word “abruptly.”  Who determined that the cancellation was “abrupt?”  I wouldn’t really call it an “abrupt cancellation” as much as I’d suggest that the sale of the very condo we were trying to sell rendered the open house somewhat unnecessary and redundant.

I wrote Bob back and told him that the condo was sold and if he’d like me to keep him in the loop with new listings in the building, I would be more than happy to do so.

To my absolute amazement, Bob wrote back:

“So will there be an open house on Sunday, as originally scheduled?”

I swear, it’s like arguing with my friend Ryan that in a UFC pool, he can’t pick six winners for the five fights, no matter how much he feels entitled to do so…

I’ll be brutally honest – I ignored Bob.  What would I have written back to him?  At first I didn’t know if he was joking or not!  I mean, who would take that seriously?

But by Sunday afternoon, I realized that he was not joking!  And I also realized that I should start locking my patio door…

On Sunday afternoon, my phone rang from “Unknown Number” which is usually one of three friends who disguises his or her cell phone number.

I picked up my phone, “David Fleming?”

And the voice on the other end said, “Hi David, it’s Bob Smith calling.”

There must have been a five second gap between his greeting and my first “uhhhh.”  I honestly thought it was a joke, except nobody knew about the Saturday emails which he and I had exchanged.

I slowly and unsurely said, “Hi…..Bob…..how are you?”

What else do you say?  Nobody really cares how anybody else is doing, but we always find ourselves asking people this question, and 99% of the time the answer is “fine.”

But on this day, Bob wasn’t fine.  In fact, Bob was upset.

“Well, David,” he began, in his monotone voice with perfect unnounciation, “I wanted to speak with you and voice my displeasure about your cancellation of the open house at 230 King Street.  I had been looking forward to this for quite some time and I had scheduled my weekend around it.”

He said “shed-du-ule” like the British say, just so you know.

And I feel bad that his entire weekend was scheduled around a fifteen minute viewing of a condo.  I guess his cribbage game, bird-calls, and sidewalk-art would have to take a backseat. 

I fumbled for words and said, “Sorry Bob, but um, well, the condo was sold last Wednesday.”

Now ready for anything, but truly not ready for this, Bob replied, “Yes, you mentioned that in your email, but I would have assumed that after sending out invitations in the mail and advertising the property as ‘open’ on the MLS system, you would honour both the invitation and your commitment.”

I have this way of dealing with people: I’ll be as polite as possible for as long as I can, until I just can’t take it anymore.  Then, I’ll let loose.

I wasn’t at that point yet, so I said to Bob, “Well Bob, my clients have a young child and listing the property was a huge inconvenience for them.  We sold the property much quicker than anticipated, and, well, I guess after the firm sale of their condo we realized that there was nothing to gain from having an open house and I wanted them to celebrate and enjoy their weekend.”

Bob wasn’t moved at all.

“But it still says there’s an open house on MLS!”

I told Bob, “Yes, I’m aware, and I apologize.  The MLS system runs off our own broker-version and it takes 24 hours to update once we make changes.”

That’s when Bob got a little frisky.  He told me quite frankly, “You know false advertising is illegal in every industry, even real estate!”  I guess Bob was insinuating that we make our own rules, and my suspicions were confirmed when he said, “You people wonder why sellers want the right to sell their own properties and then you go and pull stunts like this!”

What did one thing have to do with the other?  It was like that hippie I wrote about in the spring who yelled at me in the middle of Sobeys for using a plastic bag and said, “You know people are dying in Haiti and you’re using three plastic bags!!!”

Surprisingly, I kept my cool.  I said, “Thanks for being considerate, Bob,” and I hung up.

To be honest, I felt a little violated that this guy knew where I lived and worked, and somehow tracked down my cell phone number (he likely just called my office and asked for it), as he was probably the kind of guy who wants to eliminate all cars from the roads, legislate forced vegetarianism, designate jai-alai the official sport of Canada, and make this guy Prime Minister:

There are a lot of interesting people in our society.

Some people simply know how the world should work, and they’ll never back down no matter how ridiculous they sound.

In my job, I deal with what my mother affectionately calls “The Great Unwashed.”

I’m a in service industry where I deal with the general public, and you learn very quickly that not all people are created equal.

Honestly, I’m just glad Bob didn’t sneak into the building and knock on my clients’ door!

Some people have the belief that when a house is listed for sale or advertised for an open house, it’s their “right” to gain access to the property.  I did an open house in Leaside a few years ago where a man came inside and started talking to other people about how over-priced the house was and how the staging job was “smoke and mirrors.”  I politely asked him to leave, and he said, “Yeah right, buddy.  If you don’t like it – then don’t put your OPEN HOUSE signs out front!”

You aren’t entitled to enter somebody’s private property just because the property is for sale, and/or because a Realtor is performing an open house.  I wish people would remember that this is somebody’s home where they eat, sleep, and raise a family.  This is their private, personal space, and if an invitation is extended for you to visit their space, it’s a privilege, and in no way can it ever be considered a right.

This “Bob” guy was truly one-in-a-million, but next time you go to an open house just try and remember to be considerate…