You Can't Please All the People All the Time

Recently, I received a call from a dissatisfied customer.  He felt that our promotion of the Delacorte Estate (q. v.) included "puffery" bordering on misrepresentation.  Helping a client sell a home, we do try to emphasize the positive aspects of any property.  Did we overstep the bounds of appropriate hyperbole in this instance?  Below is the letter from our customer following our conversation, and my reply.

21 January 1998

Parties looking to view the following property will be interested in the following comments by someone who has seen the property.  The "Delacorte Estate" is a property which was purchased out of foreclosure by Mark Delacorte, who is listed on "Introducing Teran Realty", as of January 21, 1998, as a "Team Member" responsible for "Auction Research."  If one were expecting that "Estate" implied "privacy," as in "eight private, landscaped acres...," one should be aware that there is a mobile home at the foot of the driveway in full view of the house, the guest cottage sits on the road by the mobile home, and the main house does look over the East Branch of The Neversink, but one has to first look over the other road that runs along the property.  The pond was not in evidence when we were there.  The real estate agent choose not to go with us to visit the property, which is approximately a 45-60 minute drive from her office in Woodstock, since she said that they could not reach the owner or tenant to gain access.  Since the property has a standard real estate lock box and Teran is the listing agent, I'm unclear as to why the agent believed that they could not gain admittance and would not want to accompany us on the long drive to this "opportunity of a lifetime."   (The Delacorte web page was inserted here)
 

Steve McGrath wrote:

Parties looking to viewing the following property will be interested in the following comments by someone who has seen the property:

The "Delacorte Estate" is a property which was purchased out of foreclosure by Mark Delacorte,

Broker's reply:  This is correct.

who is listed on Introducing Teran Realty", as of January 21, 1998, as a "Team Member" responsible for "Auction Research."

This is incorrect, he is listed as a "Special agent,"  (He does property tax research).

If one were expecting that "Estate" implied "privacy"  as in "eight private, landscaped acres...", one should be aware that there is a mobile home at the foot of the driveway in full view of the house,

There is a mobile home across the street from the property, which we do advise customers of before they go there. It is a fair distance from the house, I believe more than 500 feet.  The house is sufficiently shielded by distance,  trees and vegetation that there is plenty of  lawn and deck  to be able to sunbathe "au natural" without fear of exposure.

the guest cottage sits on the road by the mobile home,

While, yes, the guest cottage is in view of the mobile because some of the property is open field and meadow, it is hardly "on" the road, it is  set back, nor "by" the mobile home, which implies it is quite near, if not next to it.

and the main house does look over the East Branch of The Neversink, but one has to first look over the other road that runs along the property.

This is correct, but let me say that the road is a small country road that dead ends a short way past the Delacorte property, with but a few homes and few passers-by.

The pond was not in evidence when we were there.

The photo doesn't lie -- there is a pond, year-round, which the deck of the guest cottage overlooks.  In mid January, the pond would be frozen over, of course, and the ice covered with snow.  I guess that's what "not in evidence" means, but as  written in context, it seems to imply that there is no pond.

The real estate agent choose not to go with us to visit the property, which is approximately a 45-60 minute drive from their offices in Woodstock, since she said that they could not reach the owner or tenant to gain access.  Since the property has a standard real estate lock box and Teran is the listing agent, I'm unclear as to why the agent believed that they could not gain admittance.

We indeed could not reach the tenant to make an appointment to see the property, and as a courtesy avoid when possible arriving unannounced requesting to show a home to customers.  Since you are unclear as to why the agent believed she could not gain access, I will explain:  there is no lockbox on the property accessible to Ulster County Realtors; the property is very close to the Ulster County / Sullivan County border, and had until recently been listed with a Sullivan County Broker, who
apparently had not yet removed his/her lockbox.  We have no access key to other Counties'  lockboxes.

and would not want to accompany us on the long drive to this "opportunity of a lifetime."

With a good probability of not getting in, it would only be reasonable for my agent not to wish to drive an hour and forty five minute round trip to accompany customers to do a "drive by" look at the home, which they could as well do on their own.

Final note:  This vignette has a "happy ending," Mr. McGrath came back to work with Margo Obourn, the agent in the story, and she is at this writing (February 1998) negotiating for him the purchase of a country home near Woodstock.

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