Pony Express – Sort of……

SELLER HAD NO POA WITH HER AT CLOSING

The Usual Suspects:  Buyer, Seller, Closing Agent, Realtors and 

The Unusual Suspect:  Biker Mike

After a lengthy estate battle and an even longer time on the market, my seller’s family home was finally closing. The seller I was working with, a young woman who had patiently jumped through every hoop and followed directions to a “T” sat beside me at the closing table, ready to finally move on with her life and put the memories and property behind her.  The title company had been a bear to work with and I could not wait to see their office building in my rear view mirror and the buyer’s lenders had been equally difficult, requesting the same paperwork over and over and over….. but, we were finally closing at 10:00 AM and the home would be changing hands. Nothing else could possibly be in our way.  OOPS!  Did I say that? 

When the time came for the seller to produce her power of attorney authorizing her to sell the home, her face went white as she dug through her files looking  for the original copy.  It was not there.  Did I mention that she lived in Daytona Beach and had driven three hours over to Sarasota this morning?  She closed her eyes and visualized the file, sitting on her dining room table.  Without going into great detail, suffice it to say that the closing had to happen today, the movers for the buyers were already on their way to the home and this was going to be a very ugly Friday if we had to wait until Monday to close.  There was no time for a round trip drive to Daytona   so we quickly realized that the POA was  going to have to get here with some help.  The seller had no one who could do this for her and could not afford to pay a taxi to drive the 200 plus miles but I realized that Bike Week was just winding down and there had to be a biker heading west.  Now I will speed up the story or it could take pages and pages. I phoned our local Harley dealer and they put us in touch with one of their employees who was attending Bike Week and was returning to Sarasota in the early afternoon.  The seller called her best friend who had a key to her condo and arranged for the friend to meet “Mike” the biker, transfer the POA to him and we patiently awaited his arrival almost four hours later.  The buyers were so relieved to know that it was on the way that we all went out and had a very long lunch, came back and got the deal closed once a 6’2 burly guy, resplendent in chaps, beard and tattoos came striding into the closing room!  The look on the closer’s face was priceless and we now refer to it as the Harley Express Closing!