It's happened to me before, but I guess I'm so naive that I never thought that this would happen again. Like everyone gets one token one and then you have paid your due...not true. I was just hoping that it would happen AFTER escrow. I know it's going to happen to all of us at some point in time. So, maybe I need to get a grip now.
My Seller had two other Realtors try to sell her house before I showed up. Oh, the stories she told me! They were unbelievable stories of sloppy work, drunkeness and total disregard for the situation. So, when I showed up she had already been through the wringer with trying to sell the house! Let's just say she wasn't the most thrilled seller that I was talking to that week.
She eyed me over, asked me tons of questions, and even asked how she could "fire" me if she wasn't happy with my services. We talked about my suggestions for what needed to be done to the property and I made a list of items that needed to be addressed. She was shocked that I was making these requests in order to take the listing (as her previous Realtors had just put the sign in the yard!). At that point I wasn't sure if this particular Seller and I were going to be doing business together.
So, I checked in on her over the next couple of weeks and then she asked me to return to see what she had done and to sign the listing agreement. We sat down at the kitchen table and while I was explaining the listing agreement (which I'm pretty sure she was VERY familiar with) she looked me in the eye, paused and said, "You are the Agent that is going to sell my house"....my immediate reply was "Yes"... well, talk about pressure.
A week later her daughter called me. She mentioned that her Mom hadn't been feeling very well and had been to the Doctor and had discovered that she had stage 4 cancer and wasn't expected to live 6 months. Daughter's last comment to me on the phone was "we need to sell this house"....now I realize that I'm right smack inside of the pressure cooker!
Every day I thought of different ways that I needed to enhance this listing to make it stand out from the rest. Her neighborhood was saturated with homes that had the exact floor plan. But, in the end it was some of the special features that she had that the rest didn't that made it sell. We had 3 offers submitted within days of each other and within 22 days of taking that listing we had it in escrow! So, you think I can rest easy now? No pressure just increase, got to get it to closing.
In escrow we are, rocking and rolling along...until seven days before closing I get the phone call that I didn't want to hear. Not only was my deal very quickly going south, but a lot of special people lost a mother, sister and friend that day. It was a sad day.
These instances have made me notice that a business transaction like this takes a different turn when someone passes. It's a fine line between consoling them and accomplishing my Owners goals all at the same time. We are busy picking up the pieces. Her adult children and I are working together to accomplish the one last task that she was hoping to be done. It helps me tremendously that she has some very resilient children.
It's times like this that I'm thankful I have a great Agent on the sales side of the transaction that is professional and understanding.
It's also times like this that make me remember that it's just real estate. That you can be doing business one day and gone the next.
So, if your running off to your next listing appointment take a breath and pause just a second to enjoy the moment and the place that your in right now.
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