At the end of last year I was working on a particularly challenging transaction, the kind that will stay with you for the rest of your career. The kind that becomes a cautionary tale and may have caused a few gray hairs to appear. The kind that makes you question (once again) if our industry standards are too low and what ever happened to broker supervision?
At this point, I could go on a rant and tell you all about this particular listing agent's conduct, before, during, and after the transaction, the hours I spent hunting down documents, answers, responses, and the many, many calls with my buyers, my broker, our fabulous loan officer*, and the title attorney. But I choose not to.
Instead, I want to share with you what popped up in my inbox just as we were in the thick of it, at the very moment I questioned (for just a second) my career choice and what else I could possibly do to salvage the transaction. I got a notification from Peer Review with the following words:
Tizita was the coop agent on a transaction I had closed a couple of months earlier. Her review rendered me speechless for a moment, as it came in unexpectantly, and at just the right time. Just like that Tizita reminded me that there's a new generation of agents following in our footsteps and they do take notice. My cooperative nature got our deal to the closing table with happy clients on both ends. Listing agents and buyer's agents from different brokerages are not adversaries but cooperating agents, collectively driving the transaction forward to reach one common goal.
We ought to remember that always, but especially when the market is hot, competition is fierce, and transactions become emotionally charged.
Tizita reminded me that I was doing all I could do, and then some, and while there may be a super challenge on occasion, there are many, many more that I will remember for all the right reasons. Her words reminded me that I am the professional and as such I will resist the urge to fire back, and will go for a run instead to be able to respond calmly and armed with facts.
Her words inspired me to continue to drive my challenging transaction forward, despite a lack of cooperation from the listing side, and to turn it into a success story.
We did just that.
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