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10 Minutes To Run To Canadian Border

By
Real Estate Broker/Owner with Daytona Condo Realty, 386-405-4408

We all get this. Very frustrating. And very time consuming.

You work with clients, build the rapport, and then 'bang', something happens, and they are running in panic. This is simple: someone told them something. A cautious friend, a bartender, a taxi driver...  They say something and one minute later they forget it, but it scares your clients and 10 minutes later they are crossing the Canadian border...

A long time aquaintance of mine had commerical land in one nice FLorida city. Terrific 1.47 acres. Needed to do something with it. The place is one of the fastest growing in the nation, location couldn't be more convenient, the need was obvious - Let's do a day care. My wife spent all her life in education, she started working on that, going to seminars, taking needed credits in college. This was supposed to be the best daycare you could only imagine.

Getting the plans, setting with the State, going for certifications, preparing business plans, tons of ideas, and then, one lucky day in WalMart he runs into a lady, who worked all her life in North or South Carolina in the daycare. He tells her about the plans, mentions that the weekly fee was going to be $95 and she is stunned. - "Oh, this is too much. Nobody would go". 15 minutes later the plans were scrapped, no daycare is coming and the land has to be sold immediately. Wait a second, what relevance has the weekly rate in Carolina to Florida? Yes, they charged $45 but the houses there were for $45K... Doesn't matter, trust is lost in a blink. Now he thinks that everyone is up to something.

Sell the land! Hey, wait a little bit, there is Home Depot trying to get right across. OK, and he waits... one month. "Home Depot will never come. I am wasting my time". He panics. I am telling him that the land would be very expensive, when this happens, but he goes to Watson realty and asks their opinion. They tell him it is only worth $150K.

We close a month later for $232K and 2 weeks later Home Depot announces that they have reached the agreement and the store is coming. I still had my sign on the property, and I was bombarded by agents and developers. I even tried to buy it back for another buyer for $550K, and the guys refused. Within a few months the land goes to $750K an acre.

2 ladies, who were working on opening a daycare center at the same time as us but in a different location, did open. Do you know how much they charged per week? $135. They put the Daycare for sale at $5 Mil.

What is my acquaintance?  - "Sorry, you were right then. But who could know?". Yeah, sure...

I had already 4 times like that with him. Every time I say "no more", but then he comes ..... To be honest though, we did something, where for whatever reason he did not screw me.

Oh, maybe because it was in US Virgin Islands and 10 minutes was not enough to reach the Canadian border?

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   Jon Zolsky, your Daytona Beach connection
   www.BeautifulFlorida.com

Comments (6)

Mike Frazier
Carousel Realty of Dyer County - Dyersburg, TN
Northwest Tennessee Realtor

Jon,

We get a lot of "helpers" in our business who know how to screw it all up. Even when you are looking out for your clients best interest someone always manages to talk the client into bailing out.

If people would just listen to the professional who truly has their best interest at heart, things would turn out much different most of the time.

Jul 30, 2008 01:41 PM
Elizabeth Weintraub Sacramento Broker
Elizabeth Anne Weintraub, Broker - Sacramento, CA
Put 40 years of experience to work for you

Your Florida clients flee to Canada? Am I missing something?

elizabeth weintraub sacramento land park real estate agent

Jul 30, 2008 02:22 PM
Simon Conway
Orlando Area Real Estate Services - Orlando, FL

I feel for you Jon. Had a weird few days. I'll get around to blogging on it when it finally gets resolved!

Jul 30, 2008 03:17 PM
Jon Zolsky, Daytona Beach, FL
Daytona Condo Realty, 386-405-4408 - Daytona Beach, FL
Buy Daytona condos for heavenly good prices

Elizabeth - Ooops, I made a mistake assuming that everyone in the US knows that quote, just because it is from the American novellist O'Henry. It is from his most famous story "The ransom of the Red Chief".

This is the story of a kidnapping of a ten year old kid, who is happy to be kidnapped as he hates school, and now he is playing and he is the Red Chief. Ends up with the kidnappers agreeing instead of ransom to pay $250 for bringing the kid back. The quote is the ending:

"How long can you hold him?" asks Bill.

"I'm not as strong as I used to be," says old Dorset, "but I think I can promise you ten minutes."

"Enough," says Bill. "In ten minutes I shall cross the Central, Southern and Middle Western States, and be legging it trippingly for the Canadian border."

I sometimes forget that in different cultures we have different references. I thought that because O'Henry is American, everyone knows this story. In Russia there was a terrific movie made based on his short stories, and they were very popular, and that phrase about 10 minutes to the Canadian border is used when you want to say that someone is scared and is running away.

If you would like to read the whole story (rather short), you can find it here: http://www.online-literature.com/o_henry/1041/

 

Jul 30, 2008 04:33 PM
Jon Zolsky, Daytona Beach, FL
Daytona Condo Realty, 386-405-4408 - Daytona Beach, FL
Buy Daytona condos for heavenly good prices

Mike - this is so true.

Jul 30, 2008 04:35 PM
Jon Zolsky, Daytona Beach, FL
Daytona Condo Realty, 386-405-4408 - Daytona Beach, FL
Buy Daytona condos for heavenly good prices

Simon - Thanks for stopping by. I saw your blog in Daytona. You could call or drop me a line. Net time you come, I invite you to visit us in Ponce Inlet, we will have some Russian dinner and American beer.

Jul 30, 2008 04:39 PM