A First for Me!

Good Evening:

Ever hear of the saying "There is a first time for everything?"  Well, I truly had thought I had seen it all in my real estate career.  I have seen homes burn, I have seen couples separate during escrow, I have seen people have their relocation plans change during escrow, but something happened on Thursday that I had never seen nor experienced before!

To set the story up, one of my clients had successfully made an offer on a property and was going to pay cash for the home.  We signed our papers and sent in our funds to close the escrow.  We were notified by the escrow company that they had received the buyer's funds and all closing documents needed to consummate the sale.  The escrow called me the next day (Wednesday) to let me know that the property would be closing that afternoon.  I received an email late Wednesday that the property did close and the please relay the good information to the Buyer, which I did.  

A nice easy escrow.  A seven day close. No hassles with appraisers, pest companies, home inspections, and lenders. At least that is what we all thought.  I get a call from the escrow officer and she sounded frantic.  I was in a meeting so I missed her call.  The Buyer also called me and said "get a hold of the escrow lady, because she just called and makes no sense...."

When I called her back this is how our conversation went.

dwo34:  I got a message you called. What can I do for you?

Escrow Officer: Your buyer needs to bring in additional funds. He was short. 

dwo34: What do you mean? You confirmed you had the funds and we are on record. As a matter of fact we brought in more than what was needed to close. You owe him money.

EO:  I cannot find the other check. Are you sure you gave it to me?  Maybe you only gave me one check.

dwo34:  You confirmed receipt of the funds. If you did not have enough, you would not have let it record.  Did you lose one of the checks?

EO:  I don't know.  Can you see if it is at your office, or in the buyer's car, or maybe you still have it.

dwo34:  We gave it to you. You confirmed it.  I would have more respect for you if you just admitted you lost it or misplaced it.

EO:  I don't know where it is.  I take full responsibility for the check.  I cannot find it. Can you have the buyer cancel the check and get me a new one?

dwo34: I will call him, I know he cannot do it today, he is out of town. I will see what he can do.

EO: Thank you

Amazing!! Misplacing a check for $50,000!  I know she received it, because you will not close an escrow when there are not enough funds.  The thing is with banks, they will not give you access to your funds for 90 days! Even though we stopped pay on the check, we cannot get another check for 90 days!  The head brass at the title company did not act the way I thought they should.  They wanted me to have the buyer sign back the deed to the seller.  I said "Give him his money back, including access to his $50,000 and we would.  The story is not over.  My client has a home and the seller who sold it to him is probably short $50,000.  Not a good way to start your weekend if you were the escrow officer!

I'll finish this blog this upcoming week.  We need to get this ratified.  One of the reasons I wanted to blog on this is simple:  Use qualified service people!! Use people who will pay attention to details.  Even the simplest tasks can be botched.  In this case, a simple depositing of a check would have made all the difference in the world!  

It's Saturday, October 24, 2009, and I am very Bullish on Sacramento!

David Ohara

@dwo34

dwo34@aol.com