BY HEINO MOLLS – I immigrated to Canada in 1953. Soon after my arrival, when I was five-years-old and started school, I quickly learned to speak English. I came to believe that English was a language just for children. I believed in my heart that only kids spoke English.
Most psychologists will tell you that the fastest way to learn another language is total immersion at a young age. That is just what happened to me. I spent most of my time at that age playing outside with kids on my street and I learned English faster than anybody in my family.
My neighbourhood in downtown Toronto was chock full of immigrants. There were people from Italy, Poland, Germany, The Ukraine and lots of other countries. So every time I went over to a friend’s place, all the adults in the house spoke in different languages. Except English.
It just made sense to me that if the only people in the world who spoke English were kids, this must be a language for children only. I thought it was all arranged by God that as you got older, you would start speaking in a different tongue. I had proof of that right in my own house. I had an older sister who was able to speak both languages, the kids’ English and the adult language. She was obviously going through the change.
As far as people on the radio (we didn’t have a TV) and teachers at school were concerned, well, they went to a special school in order to learn to speak the children’s language because it was important for some adults to be able to speak to children. I had it all figured out.
When I realized how wrong I was, I was shocked. And as things turned out, it sure wouldn’t be the last time I would be so wrong about something that was so true in my heart.
It seems to me that sometimes when people get into a real estate transaction, they speak in a different language too. This must be true because, time after time, I have personally heard the most
conciliatory and logical people start speaking in the most unreasonable and outrageous language imaginable when it comes to buying or selling their home.
Who do you hire to deal with those folks who cannot seem to accept what is real and what is illusion about real estate? A psychologist? A life councilor? An interpreter? The truth is, you call a Realtor and you get all of the above.
When it comes to business, there isn’t a professional group other than Realtors who understand better that sometimes a person’s heart can speak a language that is completely different from the one used by their brain. How many times have I heard about real estate professionals who stretch the language of diplomacy to the limit in order to help a vendor understand the real value of their home?
No one doubts that the heart and soul that exists in a home is invaluable to the person who owns it. But if they want to sell it, they must come to terms with the fact that at end of the day, that heart and that soul are not counted along with real things like location and mechanics when it comes to the value of their home.
How often must a Realtor face the wrath and anger of a buyer who is convinced that the price of a house they want has been inflated by a conspiracy of the vendor, the selling agent and their own Realtor? And of course, the reality of the situation is that their Realtor has worked long hours to craft an opportunity that the buyer will benefit from immensely. What a person thinks in their heart can so often be very unjust when real truth is taken into account.
What an extraordinary business real estate can be. There is no other business transaction I can think of, where the illusion in a person’s heart can play such a real and enormous role, than the purchase and sale of a person’s home.
We all grumble about the price of groceries or gas or insurance and everything in between. But we acknowledge it and we pay the price. At the end of the day, we understand it is the market that drives the price of all goods and services. Everybody knows that it is really not a conspiracy run by the person selling the product.
So why is it, when it comes to the most important purchase anyone makes in their life, reality, facts and logic go right out the window?
Honesty is the best way to deal with people, and yet it is the hardest thing to give anyone. Maybe truth is something people just have to come upon by themselves because the more you point it out to them, the less they believe it. Even when it comes to the fundamental language we speak, we have all been guilty of not believing the words that we hear.
Believe me, I’ve known that since I was a little kid.
Heino Molls is publisher of REM. Email [email protected].
By: Heino Molls
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