Over the phone, the older man said to the young real estate agent, "If you help me then I'll help you."
"What kind of help?" the young real estate agent asked.
"Well... You know" the man didn't elaborate further but he repeated, "if you help me then I must help you back." He continued, "Let me know by 7pm otherwise you are out, bye bye" then he hung up.
Rewind to 5pm earlier that day
It was a sunny Friday afternoon, a young real estate agent went to visit a potential client who expressed his interest in selling his house. The house was located in the suburb a quiet residential area, build in the 70s with barred windows. You don't see homes like this in her area anymore.
Standing in front of the house, she noticed there wasn't a door bell, so she knocked. Knock. Knock. She heard rustle and footsteps, an older gentleman open the door.
He greeted her with a big hug
It was one of those hugs that feel a bit too personal for a first-time acquaintance. "I must reminded him of her daughter," the young agent thought to herself. The gentleman gave her a house tour showing her the various things he improved over the years. Then, they sat down at the dining table; that is where the business is done.
"Why are you selling your home?" The young agent asked.
"Well" the man paused and grabbed her left hand "I'm tired of living here."
"Why are you tired of living here?" She followed up with another question.
"I being living by myself too long" he still hadn't let go of her hand "I want to leave this country"
"Where would you like to go to then?" She was a little bit curious.
"I want to take you to travel around the world with me"
"ME?" She chuckled, she thought he was joking
"Let's talk about selling your home so you can go travel" she tried to move along the conversation.
They talked about the selling plan and some of the logistics details.
"Do you still have any mortgage?" she asked.
"Mortgage," he said "I have paid off this house 4 times already but yes, I still have a mortgage"
"How does that happen?" she followed up.
"I have 2 terrible addictions" he explained.
"What are your addictions?" she regretted immediately after she said it.
"I have a gambling problem and I love young pussies"
Curiosity can kill cats and can certainly bring out things you'd wish you never learn about other people. The situation just got really weird.
He wanted to tell her more about his addictions but she'd really prefer not to know more.
"The last real estate lady who came by she was really sexy "
He pointed to a business card that was left on his dining table. There were many business cards and all of them feature beautiful real estate agents. "She sat down with me real close to explain me things" he pulled his chair closer to her to demonstrate it. "I can barely pay attention to what she said" he put his hand around her shoulder while dreaming about the other agent, "It was a lot of temptation"
Personal bubble red alert. She tried the divergent tactic again, it wasn't quite successful but at least they stop talking about other women and their figure.
"Is it safe for you to meet a male client alone?" he asked her.
"Yeah," she responded without a second thought "all my clients had been great"
"Have you heard about other women real estate agent who was hurt on the job?" he asked.
"Yeah, but I have 2 safety partners who know I'm here meeting with you" she smiled, so naive " and they are waiting for me to call them right when I leave."
"Oh" He didn't say much more after that.
Fast forward
At 6pm, she left the house. She didn't get the deal because he refused to pay her the commission rate she demanded.
"I'm very good at what I do and I'm worth the full commission" she said "call me when you changed your mind, you have my number."
6:25PM he called
She thought he changed his mind but little did she know, he wanted to exchange "help".
Over the phone, the older man said to the young real estate agent, "If you help me then I'll help you."
"What kind of help?" the young real estate agent asked.
"Well... You know" the man didn't elaborate further but he repeated, "if you help me then I must help you back." He continued, "Let me know by 7pm otherwise you are out, bye bye" then he hung up.
No. She didn't call him back.
This is one of those client you write off your list immediately.
The humanity lesson
Most strangers are nice people but you never know when you'd meet that one stranger who is extra friendly with alternative intention. Once upon a time, someone told me that we should always use the most respectful interpretation when judging other people's actions. Most people in the world deserve the most respectful interpretation; I told her, "don't let this one person change how you see the rest of humanity".
About the Story of Humanity
A lot of things happened in my personal life, professional life, digital life lately. I felt like I all a sudden see, hear, and experienced all these different aspects of humanity at once. That spark the idea of the series. All the story that under the Story of Humanity series are based on real life event that happened to me or someone I'm close with. After all, I still want to believe people are good, at least most people are.
XOXO