By Victor Calleja – Some people are born smilers: they don’t just smile but make others smile. They carry around this flashing magic that is contagious. Mark Farrugia is one of these people who give out a feeling of being positive.
Thankfully people like Mark do not just exist, they also love contact with people. It would be sad for a man like him to sit in an office all day who just meets a few workmates while staring at a blank wall in between chores and jobs. Mind you, if Mark looked at a wall long enough, I wouldn’t be surprised if the wall sighed a great sigh of relief and broke into a smile.
Mark is easy and looks at everything positively. He works in his parents’ family business which deals in beauty products line and is involved in anything from sales to deliveries and organisational duties. But before he joined the family team his jobs were all connected to customer-care and sales.
He has sold anything from professional construction power tools to drinks and worked in a top hotel in customer care. Success came naturally to him and whenever he moved on from one job to another it was the employers who chased him. He’s a man who knows what it takes to close a sale while appreciating how difficult it is to nurture and retain a client’s trust.
However, Mark knows that even if difficult, this is possible. By way of example he mentions that one company that surpasses all the rest for him is RE/MAX. Not only has he been satisfied by their service but they have also managed to change his perception of estate agencies. He tells me he turned to RE/MAX out of frustration, having concluded they were not that helpful. He had been trying to buy a family home but, after trying to do it alone and after using a few other agents, he was close to giving up.
Mark cannot stop emphasising what a complete surprise and revelation RE/MAX were.
The RE/MAX team quizzed Mark and his wife, understood what they wanted and proceeded to start showing them some select places. Select in that they were chosen perfectly according to their desires. Previously, they had seen probably a hundred properties and maybe liked half of one. Now it was see four and you practically like them all. They all fitted. That is service; that is excellence. And it’s done with a smile.
“An agent like RE/MAX,” Mark says, “saves you time, bother and money. I hated the idea of paying a commission or anyone having to pay a commission. I thought if I did it my way, on my own, I’d save money. However, alone, and especially with some other agencies, the money I spent in time, petrol and annoyance was unbelievable. RE/MAX get to know you and give you what you are looking for or better still give you more than what you are looking for but within your budget. Their eye for detail and needs is superb. When I recommend I make sure I am doing the right thing because I always feel that if my recommendation is shaky my own reputation suffers. I recommend RE/MAX with no worries at all. ”
Mark found his perfect home in Pembroke through RE/MAX in San Gwann. Even when it came to negotiating the right price for the right property Mark tells me that RE/MAX were spot-on. To them the purchaser is as important as the seller. What also impressed Mark very positively is the RE/MAX employees’ loyalty towards their brand. Mark thinks they are not just well-trained but made to feel part of a group, a group that believes in all it does and does not base its selling on useless words or promises.
Married with two children Mark wanted a house the children could enjoy without it being too big to cope with. Both Mark and his wife work and both think it is great to invest in property which will appreciate. Here again Mark points out the advantage of RE/MAX showing the client just what the chances of appreciation are. They give you plain, down-to-earth facts without embellishment.
Some people who are confident and positive can come over as cocky and superior. Mark is nothing of the sort, he is easy to get on with and it is easy to believe that every word he says about the RE/MAX team is true.