My Worst Mistake in Real Estate

So, I'm going to tell you about the worst, most devastating mistake that I have ever made, not just in the real estate business, which I'd been in for many years by the time that this took place, but in the other businesses that I was involved with before real estate. I never made a bigger mistake than this. They cost me both financially, significant amount of money, but also it cost me emotionally. It was devastating for me.

Here was the situation. So I was working with a beautiful family, just this amazing family. They had relocated from Western Canada. Four kids, they had really great kids, and mom was pregnant with child number five. Well, this was, they made very clear, this was a challenging pregnancy, so they were concerned about her health. I was concerned about stress levels for them and everything else, and so I was overjoyed when we found exactly the right property. Literally, the property of the dreams, everything they wanted, put in the offer, sellers accepted the offer, five days was allowed for the buyers to secure financing.

That particular week that all of this took place also was one of the busiest weeks professionally that I had ever had. That week and the week prior, we had five listings that hit the market. I had never before had five listings on the market at the same time. My phone was ringing a hundred times a day, text messages, emails. I was stretched and on top of that, I was an instructor for a team that was teaching real estate agents across Canada, all sorts of real estate agent things. I was stressed to the limit, not excuses. I'm just letting you know what was happening.

I'm sitting there on a Wednesday evening, around 6:30 p.m., and I realized to myself, oh my goodness, the financing waiver was due today at 6 o'clock. It's now 6:30. We're late. So I immediately got my clients to sign the financing waiver. They in fact had secured their financing. That was all good. I sent it to the seller's agent. Seller's agent received it via email around 7:15, never replied back. Now that's unusual. Normally, seller's agent will reply back with some confirmation. It didn't happen.

Next morning, I still think things are fine. Seller's agent calls me and says, Jim, we've got a serious issue. And I'm like, yeah, what is it? Because as Jim, sellers are bailing out. They went out of the deal. And because your waiver came in after 6 p.m., they're using that to escape. They're out. They don't want to sell anymore. I'm like, are you kidding me? For you, Sirius, I'm pleading with that agent to explain to the sellers who were an older couple who purported to be lovely people. I said, explain to them that this is a young family. They got four kids. Fifth on the way. It's a high risk pregnancy. Please implore them to stick to the agreement that we made.

As a side note, I had never before put in a waiver late on the buying side, but on the selling side many times, a waiver had come in after the deadline. And never had I seen a seller say, oh no, we don't want to sell anymore. This is highly unusual. So I'm imploring the seller's agent to reason with his clients. He says, Jim, I'll do my best. He did. He came back to me and said, nope, they're not budging. They don't want to sell anymore.

At this point, I need to call my clients. Calling them and telling them that their dream home was not going to be their home. And acknowledging it was my mistake, I sent that waiver in after the deadline. The hardest professional phone call I have ever had to make. And to say that it was emotional at the other end, understatement, and they were flabbergasted. They were so shaken and surprised and shocked because this was their home. And I could not apologize enough because at the end of the day, it was on me. I had to have that waiver and buy six a car. I promise them I would do anything, anything to get them that house.

So I went back to the seller's agent and I said, Tim, listen, here's the situation. My clients who devastated, they loved your client's home. We give a fantastic offer for your client's home. Your clients accepted. I understand you to my mistake, they're backing out. So tell your sellers this. Tell them that I will waive entirely the commission that would have been paid to the buyer brokerage. Now, I don't mind telling you, it was a pretty big commission. It was a luxury home and it was somewhere in the range of $35,000 plus. I said, you tell the sellers they can keep my commission. That's $35,000 plus in their pocket. But please come back to the deal that we had made because I just, I'm so heartbroken for my client.

Agent went back to his clients. It took a day, but the next day he called and said, Jim, if you're willing to do that, they're willing to come back to the table. I said 100%. Long story short, it ended well for my clients. They got the home that they dreamed of having. They've lived there ever since they enjoy it. I've heard nothing but good things about their time and their life in that home. For me, it was an extremely expensive mistake.

But the thing that it should tell you is twofold. Number one, when you're working with my team at the end of the day, we are always going to take responsibility and accountability for our actions. And in this case, we made a mistake. And I did absolutely every single thing I could to make it right. Fairly significant personal cost. Number two, I told a colleague this recently, a good friend. He said, Jim, the public doesn't hear these stories about realtors. The public hear stories about realtors ripping off their clients, being unethical. If the list goes on, that's what makes it into the media. But they don't hear stories about how we as realtors, the good ones, will literally go to the moon to make sure our clients are happy. You have to tell the story. That's the other reason I'm letting you know about what happened in this case. More of the story, my clients are happy and that's really all that matters.

Thanks for listening and hearing about the worst mistake that I've ever made in real estate.