Tuesday, October 3, 2017

Agent a scapegoat?

Q.
“Perhaps the principal role of an estate agent is not to find us a house so much as to be a scapegoat if the house we buy proves to be terrible”

What do you have to say to that?

A.
What it means is

"May be the purpose of an agent is not to find us a house but to be a scapegoat when things did not turn out our way".

Scapegoat means:

"a person who is blamed for the wrongdoings, mistakes, or faults of others, especially for reasons of expediency."
Cambridge English Dictionary

... for reasons of expediency means ... for reasons of convenience.

Basically, agent becomes the target of failure when you find lousy property.

This is understandable. For example, we blame our teacher for not teaching us well when we fail the exam. We blame the doctor not skillful when we succumb to prolonged illnesses. We blame the policeman not doing their job when crime rate shoots up! We blame...

Why it is so...?
  • Agent has bad image.
  • Logic of unsatisfied customer. "Customer is always right"
  • Perfectionist mentality.
  • We believe in bad luck.

Agent has bad image
Needless to say, there were bad experiences with bogus agents. People got cheated money, stressed over agents who promised the sun and the moon, and delivered nothing.

Customer is always right
In most of the instances, he who pays the money is always right. The world has come to accept that the end justifies the means. This is really sad the world has become. Cash is king.

Perfectionist
Nothing is good enough. This is especially true with some Chinese clients. May be it is due to their high expectation in life, for better survival and standard of living. Moreover, property is undisputed the most expensive investment in a life time. It cannot be 'tidak apa' - or having a never mind attitude.

Bad luck
Asian by default blame unpleasant encounter to the random happening - luck. So, they tend to related the setback to the person who brings bad luck. In this case, the agent. However, when the outcome is good, it is their own good luck.

Having said that, "the principal role of agent is not to find us a house" is a misnomer. I would put it as the original good intention to find us a house, but it turn out that a good house is a rare commodity!

The result of that is everything defective is to be blamed onto the agent. That is it!

Case closed!

Well... if a good property is so hard to find, it is irrefutable that a good agent is hard to find as well. Only through his experience and familiarity of the local market that a difficult task can ever be completed. It is like delicious food with good chef. Find me delicious food from a lousy chef?!

It is like when you have a difficult examination, you need a good teacher. When you have a tough disease, you need a good doctor. When you have terrible crime rate, you need a good detective!

Yet, people do not want to accept that. They say it is luck or assume it is their birth right!

So, you can vent your anger with this agent. After all, you are paying him for the service! Sometimes you might even suffer a lost for purchasing the property he sourced for you! He just get paid, walked away, irrespective of how much unsightly the property may be! This is called professionalism!

Who is a professional?

From the film by Jack Neo, "Just Follow Law - 2007" on who is a professional?

A professional is one who
- get paid for a job; (工照做) or (工照常做)
- does the job in his best capability; (尽量做)
- be paid a handsome fee whatsoever he claims to be worthy of the job; and (钱照收) or (钱照常收)
- yet, he does not guarantee the job is well done! (没包好!) or (没确定好!)

Think about it... Isn't it the same for teachers, doctors and policemen?

-END-

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