There are many people who share information that can, and do, help many others financially, personally, emotionally and physically. Doctors help us physically (we hope), while preachers, psychiatrists and our family and friends all help us emotionally and personally. As to those who help us financially, there are many who can help us but also many who can hurt us.

 I have never understood the latter but they are there and we all have to deal with them. In real estate these would be attorneys, banks and lenders, mortgage brokers, appraisers, home inspectors and title companies, and all have the chance to scuttle the deal, which is a shame because many times, it was for absolutely no discernible reason. Five years ago I, and my wife, were working for Keller/Williams and we sold a house in Spring Hill to a guy living in Pennsylvania. I was also working for Patriot Lending at the time, a local mortgage company, and offered my services to the buyer, through his agent, but she informed me that her buyers were already qualified by Century 21’s mortgage company that most of their agents used. A month or so later, the buyer was actually driving down from PA. when I got a call from his agent who told me that the mortgage company had called him in transit and had informed him that his loan had failed to go through. She had told me he had a 760 FICO so I knew something was wrong. I got his credit package filled out and closed the loan in less than a week.

There was no discernible reason for what happened; it had only happened I found out while calling the mortgage company to attempt to “save his loan” because the Loan Originator who had his file had been surreptitiously fired and had apparently sabotaged the loan. These things happen; a lot, believe me there are no EASY DEALS!

Another example is: when an agent in Cape Coral in 2006 called my wife, also an agent, and referred us to a short sale in Royal Highlands. The agent’s Broker in Cape Coral had sold his house for him before he moved up north and he had called this same broker who had talked him into investing in it, a new house. The loan was something over 200K and we listed it for $195 K but, because of the depressed market, we lowered the price to 170K, then 150K a year later, and ended up selling it for 110K, in 2008. We had both sides, the buyer and the seller, and were to pay, via the listing agreement, a referral fee to the Cape Coral Broker of .25% of the seller’s half but he decided he was entitled to the entire seller’s commission, a substantial difference. He had influence with the title company and they contacted my wife that they were going to pay him the seller’s half, even though the seller had signed a listing with us, agreeing, along with his agent, to the 25% referral fee but the Broker had, surreptitiously fired this particular agent. I called the title company and they said they were going to cut the Broker a check for the seller’s side, 3%, and so I had to get copies of all the documents, label them exhibits, “A thru O,” and yes I obtained this information from past experiences when I was involved in real estate litigation in Sacramento in 1978-’82, a period that saw 20% interest rates and double-digit inflation over a four-year period.

To make a long story short(er) the owner of the title company “saw the light” after getting my “complaint” and called me; I had also called the local Realtor’s board in Cape Coral and made a (verbal) complaint. The title company sent the check to my broker at Tropic Shores and the Cape Coral Broker then called him and informed him that he should pay him his “half” because he wasn’t going to take 25%, still claiming that he was entitled to the seller’s side, even though he knew, as did the title company and Board of Realtors of our documented proof. Needless to say, he got his check, for 25%. These things happen and everyone involved in a transaction needs to remember the truth, which is harder than you may think too many times, to accept and use it to everyone’s advantage. If a house has a sink hole or a bad roof or mold or is a wood-frame structure or has lead-paint or … we need to tell the buyers.

We need to also inform the banks that they need to set a price on short sales that they WILL ACCEPT or we won’t show them. We need to work with honest Realtors, honest mortgage brokers, honest appraisers and honest title companies and then we can make life easier on one another and maybe get these short sales and foreclosures sold easier and quicker. Realtors and mortgage brokers and title agents also need to represent their clients in a manner that will make them happy instead of miserable when the deal goes to the closing table; the buyers should know exactly what every figure on the Good Faith Estimate is and why it is there at least 3 days before the actual closing date, and when we accomplish all these things, then, maybe we can start seeing more happy faces, less puzzling questions, and smoother closings, that close on schedule.