Wolves Never Prosper 🐺 – TBG Update 2/28

It was super fun to celebrate our team this week at an outdoor team lunch. After a year of working remotely and doing so many virtual meetings and virtual get-togethers, it felt awesome to have lunch with each other in person. I love our team! Every one of us is wishing to be able to do open houses again! So many on our team have had vaccines, some have antibodies, and everyone is waiting for the day when we’re allowed to show others houses and to see houses ourselves just for fun and without an appointment! We all miss randomly walking in to see beautiful houses that are hosted by an agent and we wish we’d be allowed again!

We recently closed a sale that was fascinating because it was a style that we never encounter. In selling real estate for almost 15 years, I’ve never before seen a “notice to the seller to perform”. On a deal where we represented the seller, we got a “notice to the seller to perform” to show proof of retrofit completion and to initial a PEAD form. Retrofit is where the agents, on behalf of the sellers, call out a company to come and make sure that the house has smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, the water heater is strapped, and there’s a gas shut off valve. A PEAD form is where the buyer signs that he doesn’t have symptoms of Covid when he enters the property and there’s a space for the seller to initial acknowledgement. The retrofit work was already done and completion was already at escrow, and instead of politely requesting a copy, we got an official “notice to the seller to perform”.

We often come across buyers and sellers who wish that the other would DO something they really want done. Sellers often want buyers to remove contingencies per the time period in the contract or to move forward with the original negotiated price and to buy their house “as is” without asking for credits for repairs. Buyers often want sellers to make repairs or to share information or permits or some of their possessions in the house. In a real estate deal, as long as it’s before the sale closes, the only remedy that a buyer or a seller has, is to cancel. A buyer can decide to cancel and not to buy the house. A seller can decide to cancel and to find another buyer. Usually, buyers and sellers don’t want to cancel. The buyer wants to buy the house and the seller wants to sell their house to the buyer in escrow, but someone wants someone else to DO something…and also to buy or sell the house. If the other party agrees, that’s great. If the other party doesn’t agree, the ONLY remedy is to cancel. No one can MAKE someone else do something they don’t agree to do, and I don’t believe that threats are an effective or feel-good way to induce action.

I love that real estate deals are collaborative and always a group effort between buyers, sellers, two sets of agents, escrow, title, lenders, and a host of vendors. It’s fun that there’s always a whole bunch of people working on a transaction together. Real estate deals do in fact take a village. With a village of competent caring professionals, who are cordial and respectful to the others in the group, it’s fun to usher the buyers and sellers all the way to the moment when the buyers get keys to their new home.

I would like a version of the story of The Three Little Pigs where all the sweet animals come to visit the three little pigs to congratulate them on their new homes. They knock on the door politely and the little pigs let them in and play some music and host a little welcome party for all their sweet friends. I do like that in the authentic version, the wolf meets his match and he does not prosper. Ultimately I believe that the lessons of The Three LIttle Pigs hold true in modern day real estate. Buyers and sellers are wise to build brick houses and to put in the diligence, smarts, and effort to set their transactions up right. Agents are wise to be cordial, polite, respectful and friendly to one another for the good of the deal, the clients, and all the people working on the transaction. I believe that in both fairy tales and in real life, wolves never prosper. And it’s the kind nice people who ultimately live happily ever after.

Have an awesome weekend!

Xoxoxox,
Sheri