Business & Friendship: where do you draw the line?...

Business & Friendship: where do you draw the line?

I am in escrow on a house in Culver City, CA. for those of you who missed it I did a very aggressive Marketing Campaign. I sent out to the nearest 500 neighbors a Just Listed post card. Then to boot I did not show the property for about a week and a half to anyone.  I did a virtual tour with floor plans, then I could go on and on. We did a full blown marketing campaign.Then we had a Brokers Open House on Tuesday followed with a Public Brokers Open house on Sunday. Not surprisingly we had two offers come in.

Shortly after it, the seller said to me, "... my friend wants to buy the house for her daughter, please write up the offer...." Needless to say that is the last thing I expected. When I took the listing I mentioned to the sellers that in the unlikely event in this hot seller’s market I end up with my own buyer, I will then give one per cent back from my commission.

Well long and behold here I was representing the buyer and the seller. They both understood that I will be walking the fine line. Clearly I did not tell the buyers what the other two offers were. One was above asking and one was below asking. I told both parties that they need to give the best and final. Ironically the one that was below asking did not participate.

They did not believe there were two other offers on the table. Now my client's  friends of the sellers submitted a full price offer.

Needless to say that was not the best offer. I asked them is this the best they can do and I was assured that yes this was the best they were willing to do. Not being disrespectful they thought the property was not worth more.

I had a great conversation with the sellers, they told me that their friendship goes back 36 years they will not jeopardize that relationship for $10,000 plus dollars.

Now the hard part began for me to notify both agents that their offer was not accepted and really they were competing with two other parties.

As it turns out both were gracious in accepting the information and I had to explain to the one that had  a better offer that I really presented their offer to the sellers but their Friendship was more important than Business.

Since over the past 20+ years I have missed out on many offers and when I looked at the closing amount I was always annoyed and felt that the Listing Agent did not present my offer. Now with that said I felt extra lousy and felt I needed to explain to the other agents the situation. Hopefully they will understand. Personally I have a new perspective of the concept that Looks Can Be Deceiving. Therefore, I needed the extra explanation that sometimes Friendship Overrides Business.

Hopefully you do not have to be in this position, but if you are I urge you to give a detailed explanation to the other parties, so they do not feel getting deceived.

If you are considering buying or selling a home, a luxury home, luxury investment real estate, luxury vacation homes, or luxury beach properties in Southern California, Los Angeles, Century City, Westwood, West Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Marina Del Rey, Venice or Malibu, feel free to contact me at310.486.1002 (m) or homes@endrebarath.com or visit one of my websites at  http://www.endrebarath.com.  I am a Pet Friendly Realtor and I contribute a portion of my commission to local animal rescue organizations