If you have read my Blog, then you know, that I work alone. I'm an independent Broker and I work from my home. I have done business this way for almost 10 years and I love it! It gives me lots of freedom and the money I save on overhead, can be spent on advertising. For a one man office, I spend a lot of money on marketing, and because of this, business comes to me. I don't have to cold call or put much effort into getting business. In fact I turn business down because I have so much. That's a good position to be in.
One of the other advantages is that all the money is mine. No splits, no transaction fees and desk rents to pay. This puts me in a good position, when it comes to getting deals done, due to the fact that I have the freedom to "chip" in, if needed, to make a deal work or get a deal closed. In my opinion, this gives me a distinct advantage over my competitors. I also charge a better than average commission for my services and I let my Sellers know, that if necessary, I will reduce my fee to make a deal work. This gives me a little leverage when meeting with potential Sellers. They appreciate the fact that I am flexible and will do what I need to do to help them achieve their goals.
Yesterday was a perfect example of my willingness to help. I had a closing late yesterday afternoon. It was a pretty good deal for me. A vacant lot, selling for $240,000 cash, with me being on both sides of the transaction. For me, that's a pretty good pay check. And of course being that it was vacant land, and a cash deal, there was very little work involved.
Anyway, when I wrote the deal, the buyer had placed a $10,000 deposit and said he would bring $230,000 to closing and not a dime more. No problem, I wrote the deal stating that the Buyer would incur no closing costs, so the only difference in his $230,000 would be tax pro-rations which would be in his favor anyway. The closing was scheduled for 4:00 yesterday and my Seller, who is a long time customer of mine, decided to go in in the morning to sign his side of the deal and we would let the Buyer go in at 4:00 to take care of his side. I decided not to go since it was a pretty straight forward cash deal and I couldn't see driving for an 1 ½ hours for a 10 minute closing. Both parties knew this and had no issue with it. They are both seasoned Buyers and Sellers.
I never did see a HUD1. As usual in Florida it is very, very difficult to get a HUD statement prior to closing. But no big deal, I spoke to my Seller after he had signed and he confirmed everything was OK on the HUD. I asked him to fax it to me when he got back to his office later that day and he did.
While reviewing the HUD, I noticed that the Title Company was charging the Buyer some costs and his figure was now higher than the $230,000 he was counting on. So , I called the closer and after several E-mails she agreed to just deduct the charges from my commission and bring the Buyer back down to an even $230,000. I called the Buyer and informed him of this and he was pleased and was set to go in at 4:00 and sign. Unfortunately, he got stuck in traffic and didn't arrive until just about 5:00. The closer I had been dealing with had already left and had not made the changes on the HUD as we had discussed. Well, when the fill in closer whipped out the HUD for the Buyer to sign, he refused!! In fact, he refused to close and picked up his check and headed for the front door. The closer in a panic tried to reach me but couldn't so ran out into the parking lot and called the Buyer back in and got authorization from the owner to remove the charges. Folks, this deal almost fell apart at the table because the closer did not initiate the HUD change we had agreed upon and because I was not there to solve the problem.
However, the good part was, they ate the charges and the Buyer signed and the deal closed. It was a close call but it closed.
The amount in dispute..................$4.36!!!!!!! Yep, that's right, four dollars and thirty six cents!! Go figure.
Comments(57)