I’m sure many of you are a bit tired of me speaking about most of the closings I have and referring to them as being “soft landings”, but for me the reason I speak of them is because too many of the general public believe real estate transactions are similar to having to go the the dentist, and it’s at times too often painful. I truly work at not having situations to where harsh feelings are harbored by either buyers or sellers over things that could have been worked out before arriving at the closing table. I happened to hear a story from a lender today who’d done everything to mitigate a situation several buyers were having with the quality of service being provided by their agent. When the agent was alerted about the situation, instead of doing everything to get it worked out, a stern message was sent back to be, “Mind your own business”. My “soft landing” today was about as seamless as one would have expected in a normal transaction, but the wild card of it all was dealing with a government entity which caused the transaction to slow. Fortunately, I warned everyone involved about there being delays long before the ink was dry on the purchase agreement. In essence, that’s the way it should be, but too many consider the nuances of transactions to not be worthy of one’s attention to where in fact, they can become the most explosive if not addressed due to the state of high anxiety when in the middle of one of the most life altering situations on both sides of the fence.
I visited with someone today about an elderly gentleman who’d been such a dear one whenever I’d encounter him on occasion. I actually sold him and his wife their retirement home a great number of years ago. They’d rented all their working years while slowly squirreling away enough cash to pay for their dream retirement home, and I’d considered myself blessed by having the opportunity to show them around town all the available homes that were for sale that would likely fit their needs at the time. While driving them from home to home, I heard a number of stories about their family, their work, as well as their likes and dis-likes. Since I’m of the stripe who’d rather listen to another’s story rather than my own, I fully enjoyed listening to them. For me, when listening to someone tell an interesting story about their life, I find myself “stepping into it all” visually. Perhaps that’s why I don’t like watching gory movies or hear people tell of something that’s physically happened to themselves in radical ways.
I’ll never forget as long as I live seeing Roger Holtz arrive at a weekly MLS meeting with his hand and wrist in a bandage and sling. After getting past seeing it I said, “What happened to you?” Oh my goodness! I never should have asked because he told his story about attempting to change a florescent light bulb in his office to while being on a step ladder and falling. He cut his arm and hand on a shattered decorative glass panel that was situated above a work cubicle. Several years later I decided to join his team and every so often when seeing those glass panels at 409 N. Federal, I would cringe in remembering that fall of his. With that said, I believe we should all leave everyone left to telling their stories so to have some sort of remembrance for those still living.
