Real estate agent Sam Joseph knows how to go the extra mile to get a client.
He showed up at the Landmore estate, a $3.7 million New Jersey home, ready to impress the owners with a lavish gift basket in the hope they would let him sell their house. He spared no expense. He brought the best champagne, caviar and pâté money could buy, as well as linens, fine china and crystal stemware.
"I spend three times the amount of most Realtors, but to make good money you've got to spend it," Joseph said. "When I go for a listing, I get the listing."
Joseph, who works at Re/Max offices in South Orange and Montclair, N.J., is one of 12 real estate agents featured in the new HGTV series "Bought and Sold," premiering April 29. (HGTV and Scripps Howard News Service are both owned by the E.W. Scripps Co.)
The idea behind the series is to show how the real estate industry operates from the agents' perspective, said Laura Sillars, HGTV's director of original programming.
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The show features a variety of agents, from a mother-son team to friends working together and young agents who have had great successes in a short time. Some of the agents' stories continue over several episodes.
"The diversity and drama are really fun," Sillars said. "Viewers will be surprised to find that the real estate agent is just as nervous as the homeowner."
Agent Vanessa Pollock struggles in the first episode when two of her clients want the same property. Each couple was ready to leave the city for a quieter suburban life, and Pollock had a listing that would be a perfect fit for both.
"It was a heart-wrenching transaction for me. I truly cared for both families I was serving, and it was hard for me to be excited that either of them would get the house when the other wouldn't," she said.
The show gives viewers the inside look at how agents price houses and how they get ready to show them, Sillars said.
"I think it will surprise viewers just how much goes into selling a house," she added.
When Joseph recently got the listing for a home that reminded him of "Gone With the Wind," he decided to put in extra effort to carry the theme in everything he did. He designed the brochures after the book, sold ads with the phrase, "don't wait for tomorrow, this will be gone," and is giving away a first-edition of Margaret Mitchell's book to the agent who sells the home.
