I admit it...I had dug in my heels. The other agent had too. We were locked in fierce combat for our clients. My buyers were frustrated and the sellers were being very unreasonable. At least that's what WE thought.
I have buyers who were buying a very nice home and using FHA financing. The price was right, the location was right. Everything in the home passed the FHA appraiser except one small problem......
There was a small section of graffiti on a bedroom closet door.
It needed to be repainted for the home to pass FHA standards. Don't ask me why FHA cares what is on a wall as long as the home in livable (that's the standard) but it was a requirement. THE ONLY ONE!
I assured my buyers this wouldn't be a problem, and then it became one. The sellers refused to consider it. WHAT? You're moving and you won't repaint a closet door?
They wouldn't.
They were using a new agent and all she did was continue to tell us it was being sold "as-is". I tried and tried to explain this was a simple thing, that we would pay for it.....do it. She just said the sellers were refusing. This deal was going down fast! And I just couldn't figure it out. What was the big deal.
My buyers began to assume the sellers were just jerks. I guess I assumed the same thing. We were at the end, we couldn't get a waiver for financing and they had to use FHA. I was banging my head against the wall.
Then last Saturday morning the buyers went out to the home. They were just sitting in their car looking at the home they wanted so badly. The sellers recognized them and invited them in. And they all started talking. The buyers explained that they just didn't know what to do....and that they loved this home, but couldn't get the loan. The sellers did not know this! Then they explained their position.....and it blew us all away.
Turns out the sellers had been foster parents for many years. Children that came and went....until one who stayed. Tough kid, tough life. And his first weekend at "home" he drew the graffiti on the closet door. Over time this couple adopted this kid, but no one ever removed the graffiti. She said it was a benchmark of how far this kid went from where he started. He was 13 when they got him, and he graduated high school, and then 2 years of a Junior College, became a Marine.....and died in combat.
The sellers could not paint over the door....they understood that someone would....but they couldn't do it.
The buyers were touched, and offered a solution!
The buyers left with the door. They spent the weekend with a friend who is an artist/painter. Yesterday they returned with a framed piece of art for the sellers. The artist had taken the door, trimmed it to size, thinned out the wood it was on, and framed it. The sellers could now take the memory with them....needless-to-say they were happy to replace the closet door.
I certainly learned a lesson! Sometimes we all get so stuck in our position that we don't remember that we are all people, and most are pretty reasonable.
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