Yesterday, I wrote a post about a closing scenario and a request for solutions. As promised, here's what happened. By the way, if you haven't read my post from yesterday this one will make no sense. I'll wait.......OK, so here we go. First, my biggest problem was that it was late on Friday and I couldn't reach the other agent or the LO. They had both disappeared. Redoing the contract or the closing docs was not an option (remember the dual closing). My Sellers were in another State, sitting at a closing table, waiting on funds from this closing. My Sellers, so far, were not aware of any issue and were waiting to hear from me, that the deal was done.

The Buyer, the agent and the LO had been fighting for days. Who was at fault? Don't know. Don't care. All I knew is, it was ugly and none of them were speaking to the other ones anymore. I won't get in to how unprofessional that was.

Anyway, as Lenn Harley, stated, it was a "no brainer", I paid. My only goal was to get the house closed for my Sellers. I ended up contributing $1,800 of my commission and the title co. reduced the costs by $400. The deal closed.

The Buyer said he would give me a note for the money, as Bill Leider had suggested, but I declined, for two reasons. One, I was not sure if that would be legal or not (probably not) since it basically would be a loan outside of closing. And secondly, chances of me getting paid back were probably slim anyway, so why put myself through the stress. Chip in and be done.

The title co. contacted the lender direct and they said they would allow the Seller to pay the property insurance in the amount of $1,800. The insurance was switched to Seller's side of the HUD and I reduced my commission accordingly. The Seller was informed of all of this when I called them and faxed over a new HUD for signatures. They were very pleased that I solved the problem without getting them involved in it. This entire process took about 15 minutes, from the time I was made aware of the problem, until it was solved.

The Buyer got his house and my Sellers got their money and their new house. Instead of making $7,500, I made $5,700. I never heard back from the other agent or LO. They got paid all of their commissions and fees.

Why would I do this? Why not make a stink? Well, my Sellers had hired me to get the job done. They were counting on me. We had also become friends and there was no way I was going to leave them hanging with their other closing. I needed to get this deal closed as painlessly and as quickly as possible and I did. I didn't "lose" anything. I made $5,800.

Three weeks later, I got a call from my Seller's old neighbor wanting to list his home. He was given my number by my Sellers. I listed his house and sold it in a couple of weeks for full commission. It was a very easy transaction and I made $6,800 from it. Moral of the story is: Don't get caught up on dollars, solve the problem and move forward. It WILL come back to you. Was that fun?

Almost forgot, the Buyer called me last month to list the house. He closed on it in June and is already in foreclosure. Unfortunately, since values have dropped, he owes way more than the house is worth so I turned him down. Made me kind of sad actually. He was raped by the LO and the REALTOR®. No one looked out for the Buyer. It was all about the dollars. Please don't conduct your business that way. Broker Bryant says, "Real Estate is about people(relationships) not money." What say you?

***FOR THOSE TOO YOUNG TO KNOW. THE PICTURE IS OF DR. STRANGELOVE RIDING "THE BOMB"