I have a really hard time trusting people.
I know it isn’t an attractive quality to have, per se, but it does save me from a lot of nonsense in the long run to be immediately suspicious of most folks.
That was exactly my experience last year when I was on the market for a new house. I had been connected up with a local realtor based on the recommendation of a family member, but I immediately got a strange vibe from her. She kept taking me out to properties that sort of matched my needs, but largely missed the mark. Even worse, it seemed like every single house had a failing HVAC system. Even the places that I was instantly impressed by soon were crossed off the list because of the installed heating and cooling equipment. We would get so far as to view the house and communicate with the selling realtor, but upon gathering more details from them I was disappointed time and time again when the HVAC system was well over 15 years old. Each time I withdrew from the conversation and asked for new properties to consider. I simply couldn’t understand how so many houses in this area were equipped with outdated and poorly maintained air temperature control systems. I began to wonder if it was a regional problem, and no one in this area cared about their indoor air comfort! That’s just about the time when I happened to see a billboard for local HVAC company… and realized my realtor was married to the owner.