In September of 2011 we got an email from a woman in Florida telling me that she had a commercial property (a closed gas statation with environmental issues) that she wanted to sell. We exchanged a dozen or so emails and after we answered all her questions she asked us to MAIL the listing documents to her to sign them. We hadn't even spoken on the phone.
So we got the listing. At the seller's request we listed it higher than we wanted to, and there was not a lot of interest. After a few months (and even a couple of phone calls) the seller agreed to reduce the price by more than $100,000. Suddenly the commercial agents started calling with questions. That was good and a couple of offers came in, but the seller rejected them all for one reason or another.
A few days after reducing the price, Wayne got a phone call, while driving to the office, from a buyer who wanted to open a gas station on the site. Wayne asked him when he'd like to preview the property and he said he didn't need to. He wanted us to write a letter of intent. So we did. Again, all we did was speak on the phone and email each other.
After the buyer signed the letter (which was emailed to him) we presented to the seller, via email and a phone call. The seller accepted the offer!
If you've never dealt with a commercial property with environmental issues, you haven't had lived! In truth we did a lot of research and had a lot of contact with City Hall, but the attorneys handled most of the major "issues". It took 6 months but we finally got to the closing table.
We're happy to report that less than 6 months after the closing there was a fully functional gas station with a convenience store and 3 garage bays operating on the site. It's quite a busy place.
Double-ending deals always makes for a great pay day, but there can be headaches. However as this was a commercial deal there was very little emotion involved.
It was to date the largest commission check we've gotten for a single transaction. But the fun part for us was that we never actually met the buyer or the seller. They were both very happy with the job we did and both even wrote testimonials for us.
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