Mariposa ((butterfly))

Butterfly's are beautiful creatures !  They are among our favorite back yard critters.  While observing one the other day my mind drifted to a less than pleasant experience while working in Colorado.  It was on a road named Maraposa

The story started on a typical afternoon when I was on property duty.

An older couple walked in and told us that they were looking for a few acres to build their dream house.  They shared all their dreams with us.

Goody,  we had shown a beautiful tract just a few days prior and it fit each of their criteria.

We checked to be sure it was still available.  It was and we went right out to show it to these prospects.

They loved the tract but said they needed to see more to compare it to 

Perfectly fine!  We knew all the similar sized tracts and spent the afternoon showing all those which made sense.  It was a fun afternoon filled with lots of natural beauty.

The next morning the folks came in and said they were ready to make an offer.

Because they were offering cash these buyers felt they should be able to steal the lot.  They also wanted to add a lot of verbiage to the promulgated contract.  

We tried to reason with these people but they were determined to do things their way.  The offer was convoluted and low.  We wrote it as we were told to.   We collected the earnest money and submitted the offer.

The land owner was a fellow agent.  He was totally unimpressed with the offer and told us nicely to just forget it!  Well..... not really nicely but that's another story....

When we shared the owners response, the buyers got a little huffy and came by and picked up their EM check.

They then walked directly down the street and walked in to the next Real Estate office they came to.  

They wrote a full price offer for the same property with the agent on phone duty.  It was accepted and closed a short time later.

The next time we had a land customer we checked on Marsposa.  Finding it closed, I did a little research.  

When I found that the buyers we had shown it to and had written the offer that was rejected bought it....   We registered a complaint.

We felt that the seller should have recognized these buyers and said something to the agent bringing the acceptable offer one day after ours.

Having arbitration through the Board of Realtors brought to light facts like the agent who had gotten paid for the sale, never showed the property.  The buyers had walked in and told her they wanted to buy that tract for full price and close in two weeks.  The offer was submitted just two hours after the earnest money check was picked up from us.

When the office manager in the selling office heard the story she took the agent aside.  A few minutes later we were given an apology and a promise to pay us the commission that had been paid to the agent.

She clearly was not pleased and in a few months left the area.

It was difficult to stand up for what was right.  In a small town we were ready for backlash.  There was not any!  In fact we were treated with great respect from that day on.

The seller who could have stood up for us being procuring cause did not say much.  Nothing was done about his actions.

Real Estate is a group cooperative effort.  When we play as a team, it promotes winning for everyone.  

In that case the commission was as elusive as a butterfly.  We happily did net it in the end.