When selecting a settlement agent of course you want to make sure that your clients are not overpaying. But.....you also want to make sure that the company can handle difficult transactions and/or difficult people.
A shout out this morning to MBH in Arlington, Va. Originally, the buyer agent (not me) had scheduled the settlement for 11:00 AM. Unfortunately, no one told me or my client before they had scheduled the movers for that morning. This is not a huge house and the packing was done the day before and my clients assured me that they had been assured by the moving company who I will leave nameless, (big company that begins with an "A"), that they would be finished by 3:00 at the latest. So, MBH graciously allowed us to reschedule for 5:00. Well, I have never seen movers move so deliberately slow, plus they had come two hours late. Yikes. And nothing was going to motivate them to go any quicker.
The buyers came for the walk through at 4:00 and the big stuff was still not out and were very gracious and said they would return later. The buyer agent on the other hand mustered up as much "attitude" as he could. He apparently has not learned that sometimes things happen and our goal is to keep our clients on an even keel and help them get through the process. He made no effort to get the settlement time rescheduled and tried to stir up as much discontent as possible. Meanwhile, I called the settlement company and they told me they would stay as late as we needed them to. My clients have young children and plane tickets for the next morning so they had to settle yesterday. Here I will name the awesome William Heyer of MBH. Also thank you to the processor Lorena Saavenda. Well, the buyer came back and the moving went on. He stayed with us until it was completed while his wife stayed in the car with sleeping children. He had a nice chat with my sellers about the house and neighborhood and was extremely gracious. Meanwhile, I vacuumed behind the ever so slow movers. The movers were finally done inside the house shortly after 7:00 PM and the buyer did his walk through and we headed for settlement. The buyer agent showed up about 10 minutes after settlement started and did not acknowledge me or my clients and looked extremely put out by the whole episode. William from MBH in Arlington was awesome and never once gave any indication that this was anything but business as usual. My clients did their best to get through a difficult transition (she was very sad to leave the house, and of course the movers made it reeeaaally difficult) and the buyers were awesome too.
Thank you to the awesome people and a reminder to the attitude people that it's our job to help our clients stay positive and not our job to express our personal attitudes in a difficult situation. Please.
Got an "awesome" or "attitude" story? Love to hear it.
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