Coeur d'Alene Idaho Real Estate Adventures - You can't make this stuff up!
I had a WEIRD encounter with a buyer recently. I received a call from a guy I had spoken with on the phone a couple of times in the past few months. He has had his eye on one of my vacant listings. A retiree, recently married, looking for a new nest.
So about 1:00 I got a call from my guy. Could I meet him out at the house for another look? He wanted to make a cash offer. My mind raced through everything on my plate. I told him I could meet him at 3:45. He responded that I had better make it 3:00 because I was going to need to write up a cash offer and it was going to take more time.
Huh? Whether we start at 3:00 or 3:45, it will take the exact amount of time to write up an offer! I quickly decided that biting my tongue and going along with him was in the best interest of my Seller client. Just so happens that is the litmus test I use when faced with the quandary of what should I do?
He brought his new wife along and together they went through the house with a fine tooth comb. He announced that he wanted to make a ridiculously low offer (his words) but it was cash and he would close quickly. He wrote out an earnest money check for $1000.
Now my first thought is that although his offer was certainly low, it wasn't RIDICULOUSLY low as are so many offers that we receive these days. He wanted a response by 5:00 the next day. I talked him into 7:00 since my Seller was out of town on business. He reluctantly agreed.
I called him the next day to say that I had presented his offer and she was considering it. She was on the road and wouldn't be home until after 6:00 so it would probably be close to that 7:00 deadline before he received a response. He barked that he needed to know AS SOON AS POSSIBLE and hung up abruptly.
Here is our conversation, verbatim, when I called him at 6:45 to present the counter:
Me: Hi Larry, it's Janna. We have a counter of $XXX,XXX.
Larry: We're gonna pass.
Me: (I opened my mouth to start to speak and he cut me off)
Larry: Tear up my check.
Me: Um, I would be happy to put your check in the...
Larry: Tear up my check.
Me: Okay, as soon as I get in the office in the morning I will put your check through the shredder.
Larry: No, JUST TEAR UP MY CHECK! (Click)
What bad behavior. I thought to myself that if I had ever caught any of my children behaving so rudely to anyone, they would have been corrected and compelled to apologize. And although it WOULDN'T be in the best interest of my client, I would have liked to give Larry a spanking for his bad behavior.
When I called my Seller to give her the news, she laughed out loud and put it all into perspective. She said, "Good luck to his new wife!"
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