Oldies are Goodies

My birthday is next weekend.
Like happens with many people, this prompted me to think of some of the positives about getting older.

One that came to mind immediately was: "People take you seriously."
More specifically, business associates, clients, and especially potential vendors.

I want to focus on the last of these.

I'm currently in the process of buying an empty lot, selling my home, moving in with family for a few months, and building a new house. More about this in another post, I suspect.

The incredible thing is that this whole idea and process kicked off with a single visit to an open house. On a lark, we decided to check out a beautiful show home in an area we love, just to see what it was like. Amazingly, the real estate agent showing the home didn't ignore us. She actually spoke to us as if we might buy the place (or one like it). Just as importantly, she didn't seem to be just humouring us -- she really believed that we might actually be capable of buying the place. We continued down the street to a second show home that was having an open house. Considering the good experience at the first one, we decided to check the second one out as well.

Same thing happened. The agent was friendly, helpful, and genuinely seemed interested in taking some time with us. Even when another family arrived to look around, he continued to pay attention to us, answer our questions, etc.

Interestingly, a couple of rooms in this show home were being used as the office for the home's builder. When we were in that part of the house, he greeted us, introduced himself, and said that he'd be happy to answer our questions if we're considering building a house any time in the future. (We hired him, and the second agent, by the way).

I compare this experience to even just a few years ago. The last time I was house-hunting, I was virtually ignored by the agents showing the homes. Same thing with other "grown-up"' products and services.

I remember going into a BMW dealership, just to have a closer look at the current models, and not being approached by a single employee, while others around us were being accosted left and right.

Needless to say, although we were totally capable of affording one of their cars and were actually quite interested in considering one, we didn't hang around. We haven't been back since.

I wonder: If the slightly-younger me was given the same respect as the getting-older me, would I have been much more likely to buy back then? Probably.

Obviously, it might not just be an age thing. But it's the only obvious difference I can think of.