Does Your Realtor Go The Extra Mile or 235?

I just completed a deal that required me to actually drive 235 miles each way to Cherry Hill, New Jersey toget mortgage papers signed to close a sale on behalf of my buyers.  I know you are thinking that I'm about as dumb as a rock since Realtors don't do those kinds of things bit I don't see it that way.

The short version of the story is that my buyers wanted to buy an REO property in Penns Valley and they were the third group of buyers.  The first two groups of buyers walked away from the deal because the bank would not respond to our offers.  The bank would go weeks and months without responding and they would not answer our e-mails or phone messages.  I wondered if they really wanted to solve their inventory problem but I believe people do the best they can in the situations that preent themselves.

Finally, on the third set of buyers I was able to locate a woman at the bank that actually got us to the point where we were ready to close the loan.  The buyers bank had funded their loan but we couldn't get the REO bank to sign the final documents. 

The dilemma provided me with two possible choices and two very different outcomes.  I could wait for an answer from the REO bank which would have resulted in my buyers walking when their funding was pulled by their bank, or I could drive 235 miles one way from my little office in the "sticks" to noisy Cherry Hill, New Jersey.

Since I'm always a man of action I chose to get in my car Sunday evening, drive to Cherry Hill and find a hotel.  I waltzed in to the bank's offices unannounced Monday morning at 8:15 a.m. with the requisite documents.  I asked for the Vice President of loss mitigation.  Much to his surprise, I handed him the documents for signature and told him my little story of woe.  Just how many buyers do you want to lose before you actually get this property off your books anyway?  Seemed like a fair question.  I explained that I would close this loan four hours from the time he signed the documents and he would have his check tomorrow morning and one less property on his books.  That would reduce his load to about 599 houses to liquidate.

After waiting for about thirty minutes the stunned Vice President handed me the executed documents and off I went streaking back to Pennsylvania.

One more satisfied buyer for TEAM 1 ONE and Tim Rogers at Keller Williams.  Don't know if the V.P. was happy or not but it was one less headache for him.

Tim Rogers, man of action, going the extra mile....or 235 miles for his clients.  Oh, by the way, the final sales price was $75,000.