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Beacon Hill condo buyer
The internet is a powerful tool for those interested in real estate aside from providing useful information to buyers and sellers. It may start to change the way we do business and this is a good thing. Today I got a call from a Beacon Hill condo buyer. It was a telephone interview as this buyer was not just asking me about properties he had seen online. He questioned me on references, recent sales, etc.
This buyer figured out that for him, he did not want to be involved in a dual-agency situation when he finds a property he wants to buy. He wants his own agent and he wants access to information about the Boston condo market and the comparables and all the things he needs to know, he wants a buyers agent to represent him not the seller.
Numerous states across the country have now outlawed dual agency but this is still permitted in the great state of Massachusetts. I know I’m going to get a lot slack for stating this but I do not believe it’s in the best interests of either the buyer or seller when an agent works as a dual agent, and I would like to see it outlawed. The agent is in a tug of war between the buyer and seller and walks a very narrow line of what they can say and to who. How does this benefit anybody? What do you think? Am I off base on this one?
Here are two stories I want to share with you
A committed atheist (that’s someone who steadfastly does not believe in a god of any sort) was on a trekking holiday when he became lost in some dense woods.
A large angry bear, with ten starving cubs back home and claws like kitchen knives, suddenly emerged from the undergrowth.
The atheist screamed in terror, turned, and ran. The bear was quicker, however, and after a long and desperate chase eventually cornered the atheist in a gully.
The exhausted atheist sank to his knees, shaking.
The bear, seeing that its prey was trapped, moved slowly towards the petrified man, drooling. The bear was drooling too.
The atheist lifted his head, with tears in his eyes, and uttered the words he thought he would never say in all his life: “God help me…”
With these simple three words, a blinding flash of lightning lit up the sky. There was a deafening crash of thunder. The clouds parted. A brilliant light shone down. The forest fell silent. The bear froze still, in a trance. The atheist stood gaping, transfixed.
A voice came loud from above. Louder than twenty AC/DC concerts all happening at the same time. We can safely assume this voice to have been the voice of a god of some sort.
“You atheists make me seriously mad,” boomed the god, “You deny me all your life. You tell others to deny me too. You put your faith in all that bloody Darwinian airy-fairy scientific nonsense, and then what a surprise – you get lost because you can’t read your stupid map, and now you’re about to get eaten by an angry bear all of a sudden you’re on your knees sniveling and begging for my help?……… You must be joking…”
The atheist looked down, realizing that he was not arguing from a position of strength.
“Okay, I take your point,” said the atheist, thinking on his feet, while he still had them, “I can see it’s a bit late for me to convert, but what about the bear?… Maybe you could convert the bear instead?”
“Hmmn… the interesting idea…” said the god, thinking hard, “…Okay. It shall be done.” At which the brilliant light dimmed and vanished; the clouds closed; and the noises of the forest resumed.
The bear awoke and shook its head, a completely different expression on its face. Calm, at peace.
The bear closed its eyes, bowed its head, and said, “For what we are about to receive, may the Lord make us truly thankful, Amen..”
The Bottom Line of the Story
I apologize therefore to bears everywhere.
A much shorter and simpler version of this story:
The Atheist and the Bear II
An atheist was trekking in the woods when he came across an angry bear. Startled at the disturbance the bear gave chase.
After a minute or so the bear said, “Hey, atheist, why are you running?”
The atheist replied, “I don’t believe in talking bears.”
The bear replied: “Well, I don’t believe in atheists.”
“Thank God, I’m safe,” said the atheist, and stopped running,
at which the bear bit off his head.
