I hesitated to write this post at first - I like to keep these articles positive and I was worried that this one might carry some negative vibes or come across as a bit of a rant. Upon further reflection though, I decided that these thoughts needed to be brought to light...

One morning as I sat eating breakfast with my family, I heard what sounded like the mail truck pulling up to our mailbox. This was fairly unusual since our mail is normally delivered in the late afternoon. It was odd enough that my wife and I actually got up and looked out the window to see if it really was the mail truck. It was indeed, and we also noticed that it was not our usual mail delivery person, which would explain the different delivery time. The postal worker put some mail in the box and drove off. I didn't give this any further thought until later that day when I went to get the mail and found a "sorry we missed you" form in the box. I had been sent a certified letter that required a signature, and the note claimed that delivery had been attempted, but because I was unavailable, I would have to pick it up in person from the post office or re-schedule a delivery for a specific day in order to prevent the letter from being returned to the sender. This note also had the "Final Notice" box checked, despite the fact that this was the first and only notice I received. My entire family was home at the time and I literally watched the mail delivery person pull up, throw the mail in the box and drive off! Do they think we live in the mailbox? Of course they are going to "miss us" if they don't even bother to take ten seconds to walk up to the house!

When I opened the mail, one of the letters that was delivered that day was from my gas company. It was a "final disconnect" notice, letting me know that my gas was going to be shut off unless I paid the bill in full. It said that when they attempted to deduct the monthly gas payment from my checking account, my bank had declined the payment, and further, if that ever happened again, I would no longer be allowed to pay with my bank account or credit card, but would need to pay in person with cash or a money order instead. First of all, this "final disconnect" notice was the first and only communication I received from the gas company about this declined payment. Secondly, between my personal home, rentals and investment properties, I have been a customer of this particular company for more than fourteen years and have held more than twenty accounts with them, four of which are currently active. I have automatic payments set up on all of these accounts and can't remember having ever missed one previously. Despite these facts, the very first time a payment glitch occurred, their immediate reaction was to send a condescending, "final notice" nastygram; treating me as though I have a history of bouncing checks all over town! (I haven't even mentioned the fact that this happened during the COVID-19 moratorium, so they wouldn't have legally been allowed to turn off my gas even if I was purposely trying to stiff them...)

These two seemingly unrelated events sparked an epiphany: things in life are not always as they seem. There are many service industries like the post office and the gas company. We pay them to receive a certain service; we expect that they will perform that service and that they appreciate us and consider us to be a valuable customer. The unfortunate truth is that far too often, the service we receive is a thinly disguised facade - "skin deep service" which can be disrupted by the smallest ripple. Clearly, these "service providers" don't actually care about their customers or the service they are providing - they are motivated only by money or what benefits them in the transaction. The post office was paid ten times more than the usual postage rate to deliver that letter in person but the employee couldn't be bothered to get out of his vehicle - he decided that a better course of action would be to blatantly lie about having tried to deliver the letter and drive off, leaving the real work to be done by someone else. In the process, he wasted the valuable time of his fellow employees back at the post office who now have to deal with storing the letter and returning it if I do not come in to pick it up. He also wasted my time, since I now have to make a special trip to the post office to retrieve the letter that they were paid to deliver to my house. The gas company completely ignored fourteen years of loyalty and on-time payments by sending a condescending nastygram the very first time there was the slightest indication of a problem. It is abundantly clear that both of these so-called "service providers" (or at the very least, their employee representatives) view their customers as nothing more than cash cows.

This attitude is all too prevalent these days, and it is a disturbing trend. Real estate is also a service industry. I got my start in this business by working for the family real estate brokerage founded by my father. He ran the office out of his home, and one of the slogans he created for that business was a play on words - "We're at home SERVING you!", referring not only to the fact that it was a home based business and that we dealt in homes, but also that we were there to serve the client. Another slogan he used was "Our SERVICE makes the difference." It was 100% true - the brokers, agents and employees would routinely go well above and beyond what would be considered our typical responsibilities. When things would come up that might kill the deal if it were being handled by another firm, we would work to find a solution. Sometimes it involved clearing a property of junk that the seller was supposed to have already removed, getting an HVAC system repaired, winterizing a property, taking care of peeling paint in order to pass an FHA appraisal or disinfecting a water well so the county health department would sign off on the sale. We did all sorts of "not in my job description" type of tasks in order to help our clients and save a transaction.

The dedication of my father and the level of service that he brought to each and every client struck a chord with me, and I brought this same "can-do" attitude with me years later when I built my own real estate brokerage. One of our core tenets here at Brick Nest Realty is to focus on relationships rather than sales. Too many real estate agents only think about their commission check and forget about the people involved. After all, when you get down to the nitty gritty, real estate isn't really about homes and properties, it's about people! I find myself being asked questions like "Why do you have to do that?" or "Why don't you let somebody else take care of that?" The reason is I pride myself on being an "outside the box" thinker who goes above and beyond to meet and surpass the expectations of my clients. Any real estate agent can fill out a listing form, upload a property to the MLS and sit back waiting for a commission check. That is not what we are about here at Brick Nest Realty! It never ceases to amaze me how many variables there are and just how much nuance is involved in even the most basic real estate deal. No two transactions are ever the same; there will be surprises and unexpected things will happen. The true test of an agent is how well they roll with those inevitable punches, adapt and overcome. When you hire a REALTOR® to sell or buy a home, you need a tenacious problem solver who prioritizes your interests over all others while working within a tight legal and ethical framework to accomplish your overall goals. That is what you are paying for and that is what you should receive. You deserve much more than just "skin deep" service!

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About the author: Jon Steiger is a Licensed Real Estate Broker and founder of Brick Nest Realty in Fredonia, NY. For a brief bio and contact information, please check out the "meet our team" section of the Brick Nest Realty web site. For more articles like this one, please visit our blog.

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