Some call it The Google, others the Interweb and in some older circles the Internets. Whatever you call it, Nauset Management is on it and in turn and at long last, international.
Whether you’re checking out my background having taken a break from actually running with the bulls, showing a friend my exhaustive relative background while backpacking in the Himalayas or checking out that perfect waterfront listing while sharing an Earl Grey and a scone with your significant other outside Nira Caledonia in Edinburgh, Nauset Management and all her offerings are all exposed and a click away wherever an internet connection exists internationally.
International satire aside, for the moment, there are real estate or loosely related to real estate brands that use international on their masthead when renting their name to dozens if not hundreds of individually owned franchises around the world. The inference of course is that rather than housing dozens of competing independent contractors under roof spread out among multiple franchises, these are individual happy families and will greet you at the door like Disney cast members meeting you at the airport shuttle.
This one has been in the hopper for some time and three years ago I was certain it was a one off and simply shook my head in stunned disbelief. One of my favorite management customers had decided to sell his house. To his credit and as a testament to his exquisite taste, he requested a proposal from yours truly. It would be two weeks later when, in spite of beating the competition in every possible metric with a exceedingly greater wealth of relative experience, I would learn from my almost apologetic customer that his daughter had convinced him that he would get more exposure on an international stage. Fortunately, and in spite of the more than 1000 franchises around the globe in this case, they couldn’t sell it and the listing mercifully expired as my old timer had just about reached his wits end with his daughter’s anointed agent. I would list it and sell it three months later saving him more than $26,000 having done so.
Two weeks ago I received a text from customers that I’ve been taking care of for over a decade. The text confirmed that they were leaving the following day, they had turned the heat back to 52 and that they were putting the house on the market and that they’d give the agent my information. Exposure part 2.
Still stinging from being on the short end of perception being reality for a second time, it would be a week ago when I listed one of my management customer’s home for an aggressive number and the first and only offer to come after a dozen showings was from a lovely couple out of Belgum. Who knew Belgum had the Internets? Third time being the proverbial charm, this exposure sentiment sitting idle in the hopper for years is finally coming to life.
Back when the earth was cooling and the wife was home doing the domestic thing, it wasn’t uncommon for the man of the house to don his overcoat, grab his best Sunday fedora and of course the classifieds with a half dozen or so listings circled. Meeting at his local ACME Franchise office, he’d then hop in the Desoto and do the loop with his agent before making a unilateral decision on behalf of his family. Shortly thereafter, real estate franchises would then operate no differently than travel agencies where your local office in Wabasha may have splashy movie poster sized glossys of seaside getaways or majestic ski cabins from lands far away pressed up against the front window. With a landline, or for higher end big city franchises with a facsimile machine, offices would communicate with one another and orchestrate interstate transactions.
Today, when a listing is uploaded to MLS, within literal seconds it is then broadcast around the world and back through third party software which pushes the listing to every corner of the globe through the likes of Zillow, Realtor, Redfin, etc. In spite of the level international playing field offered by the Internets in terms of exposure, the international mirage persists and still does its level best to convince the consumer that there is a magic portal that reaches beyond the Google, after all, the amazing costs associated with franchise fees, brick and mortar satellite offices, legions of attorneys, accountants, local and regional managers and IT to name a few of the exhaustive expenses that are passed through the consumer demands volume. Volume is created through perception with an edge.
Under the international premise, when combined with reality, that edge may be a scenario where a young agent riding a desk in Lima Peru decides to procure a cup of pedestrian coffee from the break room on a slow day and while passing the facsimile bank he spies a curious rolled up correspondence on the floor from Chatham Massachusetts in the United States. Unfurling the international transmission and revealing the seaside manse that almost emanates a salty breeze, the young upstart’s mind immediately goes to a villager in Palotoa-Teparo with whom he had a brief
encounter with just months before at a cultural event on the outskirts of the Amazon. A perfect fit for this buyer, who had passionately romanticized over owning a home on the mysterious Cape of Cod, the agent swiftly procures a company issued Toyota Hilux, snatches a sack of toasted plantains and a bottle of Acme International branded bottled well water from supply and begins his 19 hour and 54-minute journey to the village with no Google…
Having purchased a building from a gentleman who was a rockstar in real estate when I was still complaining about waking up early for high school, he would become a brief yet late in life mentor and we would meet weekly as he took a shine to my unconventional methods and having flipped several offices in his day, he never missed the opportunity to wind my top over the international angle before taking great delight in my resulting dialogue while belly laughing and nodding vigorously in agreement acknowledging the absurdity of it all. We would come to call it drinking the Kool-Aid and many still do. As I have always said, I will never begrudge anyone knowingly spending far more than they need to so long as they are fully read in on and understanding of reality.
