The Case of the Missing Buyers

The Case of the Missing Buyers

I sat there in the cold hard chair, taking in the room..the sound of the flickering fluorescents overhead, the sound of the door opening bringing me back to why I was here. The soft smile on the woman entering the room with a cup of much needed coffee for me in one hand didn't fool me. I've seen enough Law and Order shows to know she was the good cop..and the smile never did reach her eyes.

"Ok Ms. Westfall, you do know why your here right?" she asked. I nodded, pausing to take a sip of black coffee. "We know you were seen with the buyers in a vacant house three weeks ago" she went on. "Now they've been reported missing". My voice croaked out "I know, I was the one to make the call to report them missing...remember?"

Just as she was about to say something a man slipped in the room, his cold eyes boring into me as he slammed a blue file down on the table in front of me " Ok..back it up Ms. Westfall, when did you first meet your buyers?".."How did you get there info" ..When was the last time you spoke to them?" he fired off harshly.

I took a deep breath and started from the beginning. "My day started like any other, until I noticed an e-mail saying I had a referral..buyers looking in the Portland Metro area. I came highly recommended as I had closed several of the referrals before for this agent." I looked up to see the four eyes looking at me interested..so I went on.

"I first spoke with the buyers 6 months ago..there abouts and tried to get them into my office to meet. Oh..they were busy with work and could I just show them this one house. I figured that this would be a good time to chat and go over what they're looking for in a home beyond our conversation and it would also give me a idea on how realistic they were. After showing the house we chatted like old friends. I asked if they were pre-approved yet and they said no".

"Of course I stressed that this is the next step they need to do before we look at any other homes. After all, they might be not be approved for that sales amount and would be disappointed if they found the right home and lost it because it was out of their price range. I kept in touch, set them up on a my Homefinder search, but then hadn't heard back from them in a while".

The female looked at me kindly (maybe she had a job in sales before hand) so I went on."I called the referring agent letting him know how we were..or weren't progressing and he assured me they were viable strong buyers. The buyer finally called me back and wanted to look at another home. Again, I went against my better judgement and took off to show them this home figuring it's been months since I've seen them (his job halted the search for a bit...so I was told) and once again at the home, we talked about short sales and bank owned properties, and again I asked if they've gotten pre-approved. "Nope..not yet" they said. I was prepared with a form with the contact info of several mortgage lenders and once again reminded them that this was a very important step as they nodded in agreement and took my form"

I looked up to see the man looking at me with discust in his eyes. "I bet your Mama would have gotten a pre-approval before hopping in the car twice to show property" he said..his face so close that I could feel the spittle from his mouth.

This is when I jerked..opened my eyes and lay there in bed. "I must have been dreaming, I thought"..but as lay there looking up at the ceiling, I thought that I really hate when buyers go missing. I've called now twice to touch base with no response. My gut is telling me that maybe they've moved on to work with another agent. Sigh, sometimes you just can't work with them all. Today I'll call the referring agent...God I hate this part.