No matter what career you have chosen, we all have that one day that will forever stick in our mind. Mine had to do with one whacky real estate transaction where a misunderstanding nearly led to my arrest! Here’s what happened:
The purchaser of this particular property wanted to acquire the house but not occupy it for about 10 months. His family had a trans-Atlantic move planned and he really wanted it all nailed down ahead of time. To make the deal work, we found a seller who was happy to sell and didn’t care if it closed in two months or 10 as long as he was holding a huge deposit and was also able to rent the property in the interim period.
This was a corner parcel. The address was #8 Unknown Lane (I really can’t say the actual street). Little did I know, just two blocks away there was also #8 Unknown Court. Same street name, just a Court not a Lane. Both of these are two-story houses on corner lots, and to this day they share similar exterior appearances.
Anyway … I’m running short on time as per usual and arrive about a minute ahead of schedule. I jump out of the car and begin walking up to the wrong house. “Interesting,” I say to myself as I observe three little kids looking at me from behind the screen of the front door. The other realtor said to just go ahead and use the lockbox for access. Alarm bells are going off in my head as I am walking up to the door. “Oh no, somebody didn’t tell the tenants they had to move! Was I supposed to do that? No, it was clear in the contract that the seller was responsible for that. I remember typing ‘Vacant at closing.’ ”
Whatever got screwed up here, I knew this long closing thing was going to be a problem. I get to the door and I ask the kids, “Is your mommy home?” They smile and giggle and in a heartbeat, Mother Bear pounces on the scene. “You bet I’m home! What are you trying to do? Who the hell are you? Get off my property! Are you trying to steal my kids?”
Sometimes I’m not the sharpest tool in the shed, but I got the idea fairly quickly that I should leave.
So I get in my car and start driving down the street. Within a few blocks, there’s a police car with flashing lights in my rear view mirror. “Can you step out of the car, sir?”
The bright side is he helped me figure out where I was supposed to be. I think once in a while the universe really keeps us on our toes.