It’s uncomfortable inside the Paoli PA bagel shop this morning. The air conditioning seems to be running at full blast, despite the fact that the temperature outside is in the low-60s. Last night’s rain here – a downpour at times and just a drizzle at others – has saturated and dampened the morning air beyond the shop door. It feels not only chilly, but thick.

A handful of customers have taken refuge at available tables. At one there's a woman of about age 60, maybe older. She wears a cap of pink woolen or fleece material that covers her entire head, from the neck to the eyebrows. She's dressed in a pale yellow warm-up suit, also made of fleece, and over it she wears a shoulder-to-floor-length chocolate brown sweater. The woman doesn't look like a professional in this garb, yet she's busily poring over two 6-inch-thick stacks of loose computer-printed pages bound by rubber bands. Titles on the covers of reports in one stack indicate they contain details of meetings by internal committees at a local hospital, located only a few miles from the bagel shop. She's engrossed in studying them.

A pair of contractors, identified by patches on their uniform shirts, prepare to leave the shop and begin their work day. Both exit with coffee cups in their hands. This particular shop offers customers unlimited coffee refills during a visit, and the men fill their cups before they go out. They are talking about local homes for sale, and projects in development. One of the two swears that needed blueprints will be ready by today. "Shu-u-u-re they will," scoffs the second man.

Another table, another woman … but this one’s about 10 years younger. She’s dressed in faded jeans, dirty but not dingy sneakers, and a striped pullover top. She’s devouring the local newspaper, section by section. Once she's finished with each, she carefully folds it and places it on a table at her right. The same table holds her cup of coffee and a plate with remaining bites of her bagel with cream cheese. The woman is a deliberate reader, examining every headline on every page, trying to determine if she should explore any single story in greater depth. She eats her bagel in almost the same way, bite by small bite, savoring it in time with her reading.

Let’s suppose these four different individuals represent some agents’ four potential prospects for future real estate business. It might be possible to guess what they’re like, how they’d handle themselves in a transaction, and maybe even their financial status based solely on the first and very superficial impressions presented in the bagel shop’s casual atmosphere. Such guesses certainly wouldn’t be fair. They probably wouldn’t be accurate, either.

Unfortunately, too many agents rely on first impressions alone in determining whether a client will be worth their time. Worth their time, of course, translates to “profitable.” Do these people look like ones who will do business – who will buy or sell a property, or sign a lease agreement – and do it quickly? That’s the question some agents ask themselves of anyone they meet, and they often assume the answer based on what their eyes report.

Such calculations are part of human nature, and certainly agents are justified in trying to ensure they don’t fritter away productive time with people who are perpetual “lookers,” ones who tour property after property without an intention to buy. But they also risk missing valuable business because they fail to initiate or build relationships with those they wrongly assume, from appearance, won’t pay off.

Remember, everyone lives somewhere. Everyone must pay for the roof over their heads. As an agent, you have the opportunity to sell them that roof. But first, you must know them, and they must be comfortable with you. Neither will happen in a first impression.