The update no one asked for

A couple weeks ago, I told you about the deal that was bleeding in real time.

Mark had lost his father, moved home to care for his special needs brother, fallen behind on the mortgage, and was trying to sell before the situation got worse.

The buyer was stretched too. They were selling their mobile home to fund their down payment. Then, halfway through escrow, buyer lost his job.

There was a $26,000 structural quote on the garage, built in 1955. No one had the money to fix it before closing. The seller couldn’t do it, and the buyer agreed to take it on after closing because that was the only way the numbers worked.

At the time I wrote the first email, I was already out around $3,600 in cleanup, lawn work, payables, and concessions.

The buyer had eight days to get another job, produce an offer letter, and make it through underwriting again before the deal came apart.

I’m happy to say we closed two weeks ago.

Not because it got easier.

Because two agents actually put their heads down and made it close.

The buyer got another job. The lender re underwrote the loan. The deal held together, barely.

But the seller was still short to the bank.

In the end, I got to give up $6,500 of a $15,000 fee to make the closing work.

I had already put money into getting the house market ready.

The structural issue didn’t disappear; it just became the buyer’s problem after closing, as agreed.

And today two weeks after closing I got another $450 bill to clean out the garage because the seller wasn’t able to complete it.

That’s part of the file too.

No victory lap here. I do not need that pat on the back.

The house closed. Mark got out. The buyer got a good solid home.

Both sides avoided a much worse outcome. That matters.

But when people talk about the commission, just for opening doors, they usually picture the deal that closes on time, has clean inspections, stable employment, plenty of cash, and nobody asking anyone to absorb a loss just to get to the finish line.

That’s not every deal.

Some deals are four months of trying to keep a bad situation from becoming a catastrophic one.

Some deals mean paying for work upfront, taking fee reductions, absorbing costs after the fact, and continuing to answer the phone after the closing statement has been signed.

I don’t take those risks because I’m looking for a pat on the back. I do it because, when I take on a client, I take the job seriously; as a fiduciary.

A fiduciary is a person who has accepted a legal duty to act in someone else’s best interest, not their own, and to handle that responsibility with loyalty, care, honesty, and disclosure of conflicts.

Sometimes the job is listing a house, negotiating a contract, and getting to closing.

Sometimes its easy. Sometimes its not.

Sometimes it’s spending four months holding together a deal that has every reason to fall apart because the people on both sides need it to close.

This one got done because two agents did the work, made hard calls, gave up money, and kept pushing until there was a path through.
That’s the update.

Peace