"How are You?" for Realtors

"Selling Any Homes?"

As almost everyone knows, "How are you?" is seldom a sincere inquiry into your well-being.

Even if you've just been diagnosed with a terminal disease, the correct, Minnesota-nice answer is always, "Good, thanks."

In real estate, the equivalent is, "selling any homes?"

Fortunately, most of the time I can enthusiastically answer "yes."

However, even if things are temporarily slow, my answer -- and I'm guessing most Realtors' -- is still pretty much the same.

It's not that anyone's necessarily trying to deceive.

Rather, it's just recognizing that, when asked socially, the question is more of a social reflex (vs. say, coming from my office manager).

P.S.: once upon a time, I ran -- unsuccessfully -- for the state legislature. People who just knew me casually would run into me months later and ask, "So, how'd you do?" Tiring of confessing that I'd been steamrollered, more than once I was tempted to blurt out, "Great! I won!" (I'm confident that not 2 in 100 would have known otherwise).