We all know the saying that “if something could go wrong, it would go wrong”, right?
This transaction started off with a landlord who had been trying to sell their investment property for the past 2 years with no success. They had 5 contracts on the property that all fell apart when they found out the home was in a flood zone. Finally, they found a tenant who wanted to purchase the property regardless of the flood insurance. The client was referred to me by the listing agent. I tried every which way to pre-qualify this family….mother and father, mother and daughter, father and son. We were finally able to get the son of the family and the daughter’s Fiance pre-qualified together, as they were all committed to living in the home. The catch was that we had to find a way to get rid of the flood insurance requirement because their debt to income ratio was too high with it included. The seller spent almost $4000 investing in a company that helps home owner’s in flood areas determine and challenge the flood zone determination on their home. He was 99.9% sure that this specific home was going to be able to be removed from FEMA’s list. Sure enough 3 months later, after waiting and doubting, it was removed and we were clear to close!
For this closing, I chose to use a new settlement agent to represent the lender. This settlement agent had been referring a lot of business to one of my up-and-coming loan officers and I only thought it was right to give his firm a try at closing a loan for me. Closing was scheduled for 5 days out on a Monday at 1pm. Friday at 6pm I received an email that the settlement agent had not received the closing documents yet, which was too late to do anything about as all banks were closed at that time. Monday morning there were still no docs so the closing got pushed back to 4:30 pm. 10 minutes to 4:30 I received a call that the closing wasn’t going to happen because there was no wire or docs still. This was a matter of miscommunication between the lender and settlement agent. The sellers and their attorney left empty handed at 5:15pm after waiting for an hour. The buyer waited until the docs finally came and finished their document signing at 7:30pm. Part 2 of the closing will be completed today at 12pm.
Some background: This was all causing a lot of anxiety for me since the seller contacted me just a couple days ago to get them pre-qualified and the realtors were both having their first experience with our company. The entire loan process went very smooth, up until this closing. Regardless of whose fault it was, the challenging part of all of this was that I felt responsible as the loan officer for selecting this new settlement agent.
How I handled it: I picked up the phone and called the realtors, attorneys, and future clients (AKA the sellers) apologizing for the chaos of this closing and filling them in on the course of events. Sometimes these things just happen and not being afraid to talk about it is the best course of action. The seller was extremely grateful for my phone call and said that other people wouldn’t have called and that she was impressed and “WOW’d” by the call.
Sometimes things happen that you can’t control. If others choose to think the worst, then that is their prerogative. Keep your head up and know we all have challenging things happen. If you gave it your all and made the best decision with the information you had then you can hold your head high. We’re always learning and growing from our mistakes.
I know I am…
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