You cannot defeat me....

“If I were asked to give what I consider the single most important advice, it would be this: Expect trouble as an inevitable part of life and when it comes, hold your head high, look it squarely in the eye and say, ‘I will be bigger than you. You cannot defeat me.’” (Ann Landers) from the Jack’s Winning Words Blog.

Now, I admit that I’m not a regular reader of Ann Landers or any of the other daily columns of that ilk; however, this seemed to be particularly applicable to my real estate career, since I get so many opportunities to look trouble (or issues or whatever else you want to call the little glitches in life that occur) in the eye. Real estate transactions tend to riff with opportunities for the various people involved to drop the ball – the mortgage company, the title company, the appraiser, the home inspectors and, yes, the agents involved all have multiple tasks to perform any one of which can hold things up or mess things up. Most of the time everybody does what they are supposed to do and things move along to a smooth closing. Then there are the deals from hell.

If I had to rank the issues that cause frustration and delays in deals it would be a tight race between the home appraisers and the mortgage underwriters. Home inspectors can and do cause problems too, sometimes causing undue concern over easily remedied issues; however those are out there for everyone to see and can be fixed or negotiated. Since the passage of the HVCC (Home Valuation Code of Conduct), appraisals have increasingly become matters of great concern. Appraisers from out of the area are often assigned to do the appraisal and often know little about the local market, so appraisals often come in too low and cause problems.

Then there are the underwriters. Many buyers find what appear to be attractive deals at on-line sites, which represent out of state lenders, such as eloan.com and others. I guess I can’t blame them for being sucked-in to what appears to be a great deal; however, too many of those on-line loan sources don’t provide written Good Faith Estimates and many of them end up unveiling lots of hidden fees when the HUD-1 document is finally produced. I try to encourage my buyers to work with local lenders, so that we can easily stay in touch and make sure that everyone understands everything as the deal progresses.

Of course, the real estate agents involved can also cause problems in deals, often because of trying to go too fast and forgetting something. Not clearly stating everything in writing at the front-end of the deal with a well written Purchase Agreement and Addendums can mean days of scrambling later to try to correct an oversight. Even worse are cases where an agent from either side let’s his client sign something that puts them at a severe disadvantage or cost them money. It happens.

So there are lots of opportunities to use the words of Ann Landers in the life of a Realtor. The key in her words and in other similar advice is not to let adversity overcome you, not to let it win. There will be a tomorrow and another deal, so deal with what is in front of you as best that you can and move on with life. Early in my blogging here I had another post that is also applicable that advised that one must be able to say “So, what!” and let go of failures or things that one cannot control and move on. That is still good advice.