Pet Peeves and other stuff

WARNING: Wordy with no pictures.

I am pretty laid back.  Try not to sweat the small stuff.  If there isn't a hard deadline involved, I'm not going to freak people out.  For instance, the South Carolina sales contract gives a 10 business day due diligence period.  In that time you are allowed to have inspections and verify any important information (square footage, schools, and restrictions are a few good examples).  There are agents who will start emailing me three days into the due diligence period asking if I have the repair requests ready for them.  Why, man?  Why?  If you are asking, you probably have your clients in a huff waiting.

I always tell my sellers in the beginning that buyers have ten business days for inspections, etc.  I'm not going to bother them until that tenth day.  They aren't doing anything wrong by taking those days.  If it's ready before then, awesome.  But many good inspectors take a full week to get you on their schedule.  If they find an issue with the HVAC system or the roof or any number of things, those are more inspections to schedule.  I've never gone over a contract deadline.  If you do in the case of repair negotiations, you are accepting the house as-is (buyer) or agreeing to do all requested repairs (seller).  It's dangerous, and one of the most important ways that agents need to protect their clients.  The sales contract lays out a specific timeline, and it's always the same (unless crossed out, changed, and initialed).

Ok, so on to the pet peeve thing.  Here it is: All I ask is that people take responsibility for their mistakes.  Many people either make excuses or shift blame.  Have some sense of personal responsibility.  If you mess up, it isn't the end of the world.  Say it, pay up whatever the damage is, hopefully learn from it, and move on.  Is that so hard?

I made a deal with myself when I started in real estate.  I promised myself and God that I would always do the right thing.  In all cases if I make a mistake, I pay for it.  I don't go around making tons of mistakes, and I've never made the same one twice.  One that comes to mind is when a freezer was repaired on the day of closing.  It didn't have time to freeze so that the inspector could make sure it was repaired properly and we went to closing anyway.  I should have advised my buyers to wait on closing until we were sure the repair was complete.  It was still broken the next day, so I paid for the repair.

You'd be surprised how many agents don't work this way.  I hear all the time, "I won't cut my commission, I never do."  Well dude, if you messed up and it's going to cost your clients money, you should cut your commission.  I probably take responsibility that isn't mine on occasion, too.  I'll never be rich, but hopefully people will know that I have their best interests at heart.  And I'll always be able to look myself in the mirror and hold my head up high at the grocery store.  It never fails that I run into clients when I go in my pajamas.

Morals of the story:

1. Don't stress unnecessarily
2. Take responsibility
3. Do what is right
4. People will remember

Phew.  (as I jump down from my soap box.)