Ethical Homes

An emergency, as its name implies, is simply an emergent situation—one that is currently unfolding. Emergencies don’t have to be unexpected, they don’t have to be urgent (that is, requiring immediate attention), and they are often not extremely important; most people assume that all emergencies are all three of those things, however, which results in a lot of wasted effort trying to cope with them. An offer coming in on a house is an emergency, for example, but depending on the circumstances it might not be urgent—if there is no expiration on the offer, and the seller who has received it has other viable offers already in, then it might be acceptable to them to wait to act on the offer.

Contrast that with a crisis, which comes from a Greek word meaning “decision”; like an emergency, a crisis doesn’t have to be unexpected, but it does require an immediate decision of some sort—it is an urgent situation, and usually an important one. That same offer with no expiration, then, could become a crisis if the seller does not have any other offers in and the buyer has become antsy after waiting for a response.

Understanding this difference is very important when managing a real estate transaction, for both real estate agents and their clients; when everyone involved is on the same page as to what is important and urgent as opposed to just emergent, everything goes much more smoothly. As much as possible, then, I try to be explicit about how I view a particular situation in terms of those traits; if you’re ever unclear about what I think of a situation, please don’t hesitate to ask.