In this market, I feel like I have to be ready to do just about anything to keep a deal together.
Recently, while participating in a difficult set of transactions, that I thought were almost complete, I was called by the title company to advise me that the buyer had not shown up for closing. It was late in the day and I was pretty reticent about calling the sellers and letting them know that one more thing had gone wrong and that they would not be moving over the weekend after all.
While speaking with the buyer's agent, I learned that the buyer had gotten lost on the way to closing and was no where near the title company. When he realized where he was, he began speeding and was stopped by the local Police Department.
Although an upstanding young man, he had a delinquent traffic ticket on his record, and the police officer gave him a ride to the police station instead of the title company. The buyer's agent had to take the buyer's 5 year old twins home with her because the buyer's wife also had an outstanding ticket.
I called the police lieutenant and asked if we could close him at their location, since he was just sitting in an interview room, waiting to pay his tickets and be released. At first, they hesitated, but after much discussion and persuasion on my part, they agreed to let us come and have him sign his closing papers.
The title company escrow officer met me at the police department, had him sign the documents and we left a new buyer who was just a little red-faced over his situation. He was grateful, however, that he and his family would be moving after all and was quite surprised that we could accomplish this closing in such a non-traditional setting.
He told us that he had just vacated the apartment they were living in and they had no other place to go, if we did not close.
With just minutes to spare, the documents were faxed in and the transaction was complete, including funding of several loans that were dependent on this particular closing.
While I don't think we did anything extraordinary, we were able to help a bunch of anxious buyers and sellers.
Our new "mantra" is We will "Close you Wherever You Are and Will Do Whatever It Takes..."
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