Its All Pretty Funny in Retrospect
My first year of practice as a real estate broker I repeatedly asked myself why I ever considered trying to make a living in such a strange business? Now I know that besides all the wonderful people I meet and fascinating property situations I work on, the real answer is that it is so darn weird, unpredictable, challenging, and flat out funny that I just cannot resist being involved. Real estate is about people and their circumstances in the world. People suffer when buying and selling something of enormous expense, and often there is some kind of life change that is precipitating the action. It could be “just an investment,” but if it is, it’s an important one. It could be a job change, death and estate liquidation, illness, marriage, divorce, children, old age, need to care for someone or need to be cared for. There are the people one works with for twenty years before the real estate gets straightened out. Better be capable of delayed gratification! There are the family feuds and neighborhood disputes. Negotiating those labyrinthine communication minefields is indeed a challenge. There are the problems an agent has with other agents—oh my. And through it all is the issue of responsibility and trust.
Being involved with a person’s property means understanding their financial situation, something of their personal life, and (Lord have mercy) sometimes helping them to totally reorganize it…or not. There have been many serious cases, but here’s a funny one I can’t forget. There was this sweet elderly lady who had recently lost her husband and needed to sell some Placitas land she owned to pay medical expenses. She was convinced that someone she knew would steal the money, or land, from her. She owned two lots. The first sale went smoothly, and she was delighted. Then there was the second. I had a buyer, and so did the seller, sort of. The Seller’s buyer was a two person church who (or which) intended to pay the Seller, not $25,000 which was the price, but a Chihuahua (little dog). I had spent hours gently listening to my client’s need for money and her fear of being ripped off. Now she tells me she’s selling her land to two people who say they are a church and who will pay her with a Chihuahua. I was incredulous and really worried about her financial situation. Ultimately the company lawyer talked with her lawyer. Her lawyer told mine to lay off accusing his client of dementia. Who was innocent and who demented, I wonder? I guess I was both. I thought I was giving “reasonable care” as I had paid attention to what I was told. And after all, it’s not every day that two and a half acres in Placitas sells for a Chihuahua.
Often the real estate itself is the problem. These days I seem to be a master at attracting problematic properties—overlapping boundaries, quiet title suits, lack of access, water, septic, utility and clean up nightmares, to name a few. But here is an example of Year One’s funnier transactions. An out of state Seller needed to settle her parent’s estate, which included a piece of land in Corrales. She didn’t know where. I investigated and was distressed to find that there was a house on her lot. Figuring something was wrong somewhere, I interviewed the property owners on the street, hired a surveyor and did a title search. There was one vacant lot in the area but not where it was supposed to be. Irene Brackeen, owner of Zia Title Company, seemed to know every property owner in Sandoval County. For years she coached me in the idiosyncrasies of NM properties. Irene said the surveyor must measure from the Corrales Main Canal—not from the Thompson Dam—border of Rio Rancho. Sure enough measuring from east to west landed on the vacant lot. Measuring from west to east landed us in the living room of that house. I still don’t get it.
Enter “Life.” I found a builder-buyer set to build a house on that lot. We were ready for closing when I found out that “the other sibling-seller” was at the bottom of the North Sea in a submarine. No one I had access to knew when he would “come up.” (Has modern technology eliminated this problem?) A month, and a lot of psychological unease later, he surfaced, and we were ready once again to close the sale.
Enter Barricuda Realtor. The night before closing, my home phone rings and it’s a real estate agent (whose name I have repressed) who says to me: “The buyer cannot buy that lot.” I said “Excuse me, but who are you?” She said “What I am telling you is that this buyer is not allowed to purchase any real estate without my being involved—so he doesn’t buy the lot unless I get paid 5% of the selling price.” “But, but, but…the North Sea…the Corrales Main Canal…You don’t understand. I’ve been working with buyer and seller for four months.” “Tough…no 5%, no sale.” The sale went through. It had to.
There isn’t a real estate transaction that doesn’t have its surprises. All the title searches, surveys, inspections and disclosures help to identify the situation and prevent serious mistakes—like selling the wrong property, for instance. My conservative New England upbringing taught me that “nice people” don’t pry into others’ affairs, talk about money or ask questions of a personal nature. I’ve had to learn, with considerable pain, to ask these questions. The fact is if I don’t understand the situation and who all the players are, who really makes the decisions and where the money is, I could make a mistake. I was definitely missing some information when satisfactory “consideration” was determined to be a Chihuahua, and I certainly lacked knowledge of “all the players” in the second example. Happily it all came out all right for my clients. (Or at least I hope it did.) I was richer for the experience but still had a lot more to learn about getting paid for my work!
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