Irresponsible Client, part 2

As we left part 1, I was waiting for the check. It arrived by overnight mail the next day, and I took it up to the agent.

Some days later, he told me their check had bounced. He said if they sent him a good check for the entire escrow amount (Escrow is usually paid one part with the offer and the rest of it at a later time, usually 10 days or 2 weeks) they'd be fine. I called Jim and left a message. He never returned my call. I called him several times, and finally I got Judy who gave me a litany of excuses. She said she'd tell Jim about it and they'd get a check in the mail.

Then they called my manager, and complained that I was "the worst realtor in the world." They wanted the house but didn't want to work with me. He suggested he handle it, and I said fine and gave him all the gory details. Funny thing, he was even a bigger nagger than I was. I said I'd split the commission with him.

He called them and tried to get them to live up to their responsibilities, but he never heard from them either.

No check ever arrived, despite the dedicated work of two agents. The seller finally lost patience and put the house back on the market and it sold a month or so later despite my constant nagging. Through their irresponsibility, they lost the house.

In retrospect, I don't know what their game was. They seemed like reasonable people, but it turned out, not. I took their evaluation of me as the "worst" realtor in the world a compliment. It's hard to be the best or worst at anything, because you have such a huge number of competitors.

I'm trying to create savvier real estate customer. Is this working?

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