The funniest visits

In 26 years as a property agent, I've experienced a lot, so nothing can upset me so easily.

For meticulous and fussy people, this is certainly unimaginable. When they make an appointment with a real estate agent, they endeavour to ensure that the property is in a neat condition - usually it is.

Tidy is relative

On the other hand, there are customers who couldn't care less what their home looks like. This was the case with a mother of three who visited a house with me and raved about her current house, which had become too small in the meantime. She asked me to view and evaluate her current house. She postponed the appointment once because the children still wanted to tidy up.

But it wasn't the children's rooms that horrified me. Despite my best efforts, they were covered with mountains of clothes scattered all over the floor. The parents' bedroom was apparently a junk room, as there were boxes by the bed and everywhere else. The kitchen looked like it had been hit by a bomb. Everything was full of dirty crockery and during the inspection the lady of the house said I was welcome to go round and have a look at everything, she was clearing out the dishwasher in the meantime.

In the end, no purchase was made with this customer as they wanted to stay in their beloved house. It was just fine with me, because I wouldn't have wanted to sell this house. It is very difficult to explain to such customers that everything has to be tidied up and cleaned accordingly when selling.

The unexpected often happens and also occurs during viewings

Another time, my salesman forgot about our agreed appointment. I had a key to the flat for sale, which was still occupied. It was agreed that I would always send a text message before viewings so that he would know when I was coming round with clients. But on one occasion this didn't work because the owner forgot to inform his flatmate of the appointment.

In the morning, I was standing in front of the door of the penthouse flat with my prospective tenant. When I couldn't open the door, I rang the bell several times. Drowsy and dressed only in shorts, the door was opened. The flatmate was surprised that I wanted to view the flat because he didn't know about any appointments. Nevertheless, he let me into the flat, which he quickly regretted. It must have been party time that night. There were playing cards for adult men lying around and the flat was in a slightly desolate state. My client and I took it in good humour, inspected the otherwise very nice flat and said goodbye to the baffled flatmate. Outside the door, we both couldn't help but smile.

Understanding is the key

Divorce cases can also be quite exciting. When selling a house, the male owner contacted me first and we arranged an appointment on site so that I could have a look at the house. This turned out to be difficult because the female owner didn't want to let me into the house. She insulted her husband. Thanks to my mediator training, I managed to get the ex-wife to calm down and I was able to take photos after all. When I got the assignment, I had more to do with the ex-wife as she was still living in the house with their daughter. As I had many long conversations with her, I also understood from her point of view why she was so upset - the husband was now living elsewhere with his new girlfriend and she felt left alone and overwhelmed with the problem of selling the house. I supported her wherever I could, helped her to set up the condominium and ultimately the house was sold very quickly at a very good price.

My last experience was when a customer asked me to view his house in Klosterneuburg for the purpose of valuing it for sale. When I rang the bell, a man in a bathrobe opened the door. Even I was a bit confused!