Earl and I are both licensed Realtors® in Michigan; and, while I don’t practice real estate, I’m always interested in what’s happening in the profession. Especially now, for these are difficult times.
So it was with great shock that I read an email sent to everyone in the Michigan Association of Realtors® this afternoon. Thirty-three year old Troy VanderStelt, a Realtor® with Nexes Realty in Muskegon (a community maybe two hundred miles up the road), was fatally wounded two days ago by a “former client allegedly disgruntled over a real estate transaction.”
I never met Mr. VanderStelt, and I don’t know if he was a reputable Realtor® or not. Regardless, this is the ultimate transaction gone awry; and it makes me recall other situations where the Realtor’s® life was in danger. The one that comes to mind most readily was the situation where an agent holding an open house was assaulted and eventually found dead in the back yard of the home.
You wouldn’t think real estate would be a lethal profession; but the truth is emotions run high when people are selling their homes. To them, the house in question holds great memories; and there’s a dollar value attached to them. At the same time, the prospective buyer sees only a piece of real estate; and this is really as it should be. The trick is to help the seller realize that memories are in the eye of the beholder.
I don’t know if Mr. VanderStelt’s killer was a residential or commercial client. Not that it mitigates guilt either way. What I do know is that, in these troubled economic times, real estate is suffering; not only from the outside with media analysis of how dire the situation is but also from the inside with clients who feel ill served. I only hope other clients won’t go as far as Mr. VanderStelt’s assailant did.
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