Surprise guests at the settlement table...

This post is a true story of a settlement I had a long time ago, in a galaxy far far away........

Once upon a time I was actually selling real estate for a living, or I should say for a meager existence. This was before Buyer Agency was in effect. We had never heard of anything other than buyer beware. We all worked for the seller... which in my opinion was not a bad system. After all, they paid us, not the buyer. And I might add that my real estate agent career did overlap with the buyer agency phase and not one buyer I worked for ever paid me.

I had these buyers of new construction. It was in a huge subdivision that was going to be building for 10-15 years to come. We were settling in the winter. They were a little upset with the builder about some items they wanted and he wasn't able to do it without charging more money. They thought he should do it for nothing. I don't recall the exact reasons and they aren't important, however; at some point they were so upset that they called a local attorney to ask questions about their rights. I was not aware they had done this. As far as I knew, things were going fine. They were difficult at times and required a good bit of hand holding.

We got there old home sold with a lot of effort, much advertising, many open houses and finally a good buyer with a decent offer that they seemed happy with. We settled on their home and went to the next settlement with the huge Penske truck loaded with all their belongings and went to the settlement appointment for their new home. The walk through had been done and I thought everything was goind smoothly.

Suddenly at that settlement table an uninvited guest blew into the room like he owned the place. It was the attorney they had contacted. The client seemed as surprised as everyone else was. He started just helping himself to the paperwork, looking it over and stated that it was a good thing they had called him. Obviously they had told him when and where settlement was going to be. We were all just kind of dumbstruck and then he asked to meet with "his clients" outside alone. Again, reminding you that I worked for the sellers, I sat in the room with them apologizing I had no idea this was going to happen. We spent the additional time going over the buyer's punch list from the walk through and found nothing that raised any flags.

Then Mad Max (with apologies to Mel Gibson) and 'His clients' blew back into the room and he stated, "I recommend we don't settle unless you escrow $3,000 for yard seeding." The seller responded with something like, "I have a long history and reputation of keeping my word. I will be building here in this neighborhood for another 15 years and am not about to leave someone's yard unfinished. It's winter and as soon as spring is here I promise as with all other yards of other homes settling in the winter, I will seed and finish the lawn. I have never and will not escrow any monies for seeding."

IMPASSE. The attorney stood his ground and my clients were going along with him. Thinking I had not done a good enough job for them apparently. A few more statements back and forth with nobody budging and then silence. I knew this game from training class, first one to speak loses. I thought and thought and then one thought popped into my head. So I broke the cardinal rule of speaking first. With their old home settled and all their belongings in a moving truck. I asked my clients, "So, where are you going to sleep tonight?"

Reality sunk in, they asked to talk alone without their attorney or me present. In 5 minutes, they came back in the room and said Thank you to their attorney and said, we feel we can trust the builder. We will sign. The attorney muttered something about it's a mistake and not to call him when they have more trouble and left in a huff. After he was gone, they claimed they never asked him to come. And to add insult to injury, they received a bill from him for $450. settlement conference fee. I'm not sure if they ever paid him or not.

This all came back to memory just from reading Doug Roger's featured headline today... do you plan on living in your truck? Thanks for the memories Doug. But I'm real happy to be advertising and marketing real estate instead of selling it.