As a real estate professional, we are in the business of first impressions. We know our first contact with a potential client can make or break our opportunity to represent them. When we list a home, how the home is presented can have buyers knocking down the door or running for the hills. Our first interaction with a mortgage lender, title company, or competing broker can be what sets our reputation in the industry.
First impressions, unfortunately, can set the tone for our future. Think about your own life, how many times has someone decided they did not like you just from that initial interaction you had? How many times did you also make that snap decision? Do you regret how you came across in that first interaction or reacting so negatively to that person you met one time?
Although some of us live on that first impression, many of us are more open to giving people a chance. We recognize they may have had an off day, or we ourselves were just in a mood that may have clouded our judgement. Subsequent interactions help us learn more about them, understand their perspective, or recognize if our biases are affecting our relationship. We try.
Our attempts to salvage a relationship may work or may falter. We may find that our first impression remains as our second impression, and we need to move on. In either case, we at the very least tried not to go with our first opinion.
Time moves on and next thing you know, weeks, months, or years from now, this person has reappeared in your circle. Maybe they are dating a friend or are the parents of your daughter’s boyfriend. What now? Do you immediately have your guard up and want to tell everyone exactly how you feel about this person or does time truly heal old wounds?
The door to the second chance is now open.
Do you let them enter? You have moved away, you have grown and changed, have they done the same? Are they worth that effort? You may find common ground and see how silly your differences were in the past, or you may just end up right back where you started. You won’t know if you don’t try.
Our lives are filled with relationships. Some of which may be formed by those first impressions and some that may not form until many chances later. Regardless of how these relationships started, they all took each of us trying. Next time the opportunity to create a new relationship and make or receive a first impression remember:
- Be authentic, so your first impression is the always impression.
- If you see it is not working, that is okay. Be honest about how you are feeling and keep the conversation amicable, you never know when this person could turn up in your life again.
- Sometimes, we need a second chance to make the best first impression.