Friend or Not, Get the Paperwork Signed. My friend of 30 plus years called me over a year ago. She has started a brand new business that is growing like gangbusters. I am so happy and excited for her. They needed more space to grow and we started a year in advance to find the business a suitable location. Since the business involved food preparation there were specific hurdles in terms of the health department and OSHA to consider. It was necessary to check in with each of the towns building departments to understand the various health code requirements. While this is not difficult work it is time consuming and demands certain finesse with town officials and bureaucracies.
The search was not easy because of the parameters and needs. There was little choice on the market. We got lucky through our due diligence and found a property that would have been perfect. Since we were a year ahead of the end of their existing lease we began negotiating with the owner of the property. We offered less than the lease amount to move in earlier with a promise to pay full amount for 5 years once the lease was in full force. The negotiations went back and forth on paper just twice. From there is was verbal discussions and was left that my clients were to sit down again and see if we could find a middle ground that would work.
The landlord was open to the negotiations, and my client kept saying that the offer was too far apart. He refused to understand that there was room. As we moved into their busy season of the year we had a phone conversation about the issues and the possibilities for getting it done. Over the holidays there was radio silence and my client did not want to sit down with the landlord to further discuss the options.
Right after the holidays I called to congratulate my friend of 30 years on a new business relationship created for their business. I let them know I was looking forward to getting the job done for them and be a small part of their growth. I asked again about sitting down with the landlord of this perfect spot for their business. All along the way the husband and business partner of my friend kept professing the desire to get things done right and I was the person to help them. Did I mention that my friend had in one of her incarnations been an agent herself? She was.
I got a call several days after my congratulations call to them saying that over the holiday they had met someone at a party who had a property that they thought would be perfect for them. He had gone ahead and negotiated his own lease and felt no embarrassment in saying he did not intend to include me in their process. I was dumbfounded; he was righteous in his actions. In my years in the business I have always done all the paperwork and in this one I let it go because the client was such a long time friend. Well, as we know, no good deeds go unpunished. I am out all the work; I am out the single month’s rent commission, which amounts to pennies of their multi million dollar business. I remain shocked that this “friend” would screw a friend of such a long time for such short money. The lesson here is Friend or Not, Get the Paperwork Signed.
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