Last week's show on NBC's hilarious Community was about Abed taking a class that analyzed the question of who was the boss in that old TV show with Tony Danza and Judith Light. You know, Who's the Boss? I'll give you a clue, it's not Tony Danza. Community is perhaps one of the best 22-minute sitcoms on TV today. It messes with your mind and makes you laugh at the same time.
When it comes to my business in real estate, of being a Sacramento short sale agent, I sometimes have to remind myself that the boss is not me. Much as I love running my own business and being my own boss, the boss in any real estate transaction is the client.
Last night a seller emailed a lengthy list of items she wanted included in the paperwork for a counter offer. She overlooked an item, which I inserted into the addendum and uploaded the document to DocuSign. The seller asked me to insert something else into the document before signing. That small change would affect the purchase contract in a negative manner. The seller insisted I do it.
One of life's handy lessons is you have to choose the hill on which you want to die. This one wasn't it. It wasn't even close. I could argue or I could make the change. I made the change. I informed the seller how it would affect her and sent the counter to the buyer's agent. My job was done.
Yesterday, a seller had asked that I send him a copy of my listing agreement before I made an appointment to list his short sale in Elk Grove. That was a very odd request, but I sent it to him. He's been talking to a bunch of Sacramento short sale agents. He called me with questions, one of which centered on paragraph 4-A-2, the holdover clause. I explained how that worked and why it wasn't really pertinent to a short sale listing. He asked me to remove it then from the listing. He said other agents had not included it in their listing agreements. What could I say? They're stupid. Do you want to hire a stupid agent?
This is a clause that protects my brokerage and the commission. Plus, the bank pays the commission in a short sale. I suggested that if he was the type of seller who had not made up his mind to hire me as his Sacramento short sale agent and was not ready to put his trust in me, that perhaps he should not sign the listing agreement at all. Maybe he should hire another agent. Because I don't want to work with people who have no faith in me. He laughed, but my point made perfect sense. He's now my client.
Last year, a seller hired me to list and sell her short sale in Sacramento. A week or so later, I put her into escrow. Shortly after entering escrow, the seller totally flipped out. I'm talking about off-the-wall insanity. It was bizarre. I immediately withdrew myself from the escrow; I unilaterally canceled the listing. Life is short and then you die. No amount of money is worth that kind of disruption. If a client would be happier with somebody else, I cut the strings. No questions asked.
Yesterday, I received an email from this seller. A year later.
It was an apology.
You want to know who's the boss?
Angela Bower.
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