Me: Sir, I'm trying to find out about showing your listing in Cocoa Beach. At least, it appears to be yours. Your name was posted as the listing agent on Zillow.
Agent: Best to Text and I will let you know when it is available. What day is your client available?
Me: They are not in Cocoa Beach and will want me to preview without them. My office is a few blocks away so I am flexible on when. Let me confirm with them that they are interested enough for me to check it out. I'll let you know. Thanks.
Agent: I wished there was some honesty in this business. You lie to me about having a buyer. It is realtors/brokers like you that make this a difficult mean business that wastes a lot of time. You are the type of person that gives real estate agents a bad name!!!
It got worse after I pointed out that I contacted him specifically because my client had asked me to but he was committed to being angry and there was no turning back. He went on to accuse me of trying to insert myself into the middle of a deal, called me greedy and asked if I thought everyone but myself was stupid. He finished up with "The only time I want to hear from another Realtor is when they have a buyer!!!!!!!!" Turns out after all this that he is the owner of the unit and has been solicited for the listing by Cocoa Beach agents in the past which, I'm guessing, was his reason for unloading on me. He did not apologize when he eventually realized that he had jumped to the wrong conclusion. It's hard not to take something like this personally and I'm left wondering if I could have worded my inquiry in a manner that wouldn't have triggered such a response but I have to assume that there were other issues going on with him and I happened to pass through the crosshairs at the wrong moment. He did not allow me to see the unit because he thought my initial inquiry was an agent trick trying to get the listing by making up a phantom buyer. If I'm to see the unit for my client, it appears I'm going to have to be willing to endure more abuse in the attempt to convince him that the client is indeed real. No donut for me on this one. I've heard real estate sales described as an easy job. At times that is accurate. Other times...
The huge leatherback sea turtle nest behind my house hatched last week along with several other loggerhead and green turtle nests nearby. According to the turtle people who monitor nesting activity, there are over 300 turtle nests so far in a two mile stretch in south Cocoa Beach. With an average of a little over 100 hatchlings per nest we're talking about over 30,000 baby turtles beginning their lives this year in south Cocoa Beach alone.
As of yesterday's report, Cocoa Beach has the highest number of confirmed virus cases of any beachside community in our county with 117 cases. Cape Canaveral has 53. Indoor mask use is now mandated in Cocoa Beach and appears to be accepted by the majority of people based on casual observation. The Country Club golf course has reopened with distancing and masks required in the pro shop.
On a related note, three weeks after opening their borders to foreign visitors the Bahamas are closing again to American visitors after an outbreak of Covid following the reopen. I'm hearing that the Bahamas strict mask mandate is not being enforced in businesses on the outer islands in Abaco where tourist dollars are desperately needed after last year's devastation from Hurricane Dorian and the earlier border closure this year. This is an especially crippling development for the special place that is Abaco and the people who call it home as we approach the active months of hurricane season in 2020.
"What we've got here is failure to communicate. Some men, you just can't reach. So you get what we had here last week -- which is the way he wants it. Well, he gets it. And I don't like it anymore than you men." __"Captain" - Cool Hand Luke
