Have You Pissed Anyone Off Lately?

Have you pissed anyone off lately?

Sorry for the bluntness, but have you?

The reason I ask is if you haven’t, then you’re not doing!

Years ago, I was buying a property “subject to” from a young couple that was buying a house from me. In order for them to be approved for a loan, they had to have someone buy their house, so I agreed to buy on my terms. I would take over their monthly payments and they could move on with their lives and move in the house I was selling them.

The deal wasn’t a slam dunk by no means, but I knew I could make it work. I, also, stood to make a cool $15K from the sale of my house, so I agreed to take it subject to.

The closing date was set for a week in advance and everything seem to be on track until the closing. Let me explain.

At this point in my life, I’d never closed a “subject to” deal with a title company before, so I thought that I could just whip out my docs, have my title company notarize the docs and I’d be on my merry way. After all, the couple was buying my house, so I thought we could take care of all the paperwork at one time. And I thought everyone understood what I was doing and that they had my best interest at heart. I mean this was my title company so I felt they’d do what I tell’em. Right?

Wrong!

What happened at that closing table gave me a feeling that I was incompetent and a complete idiot for doing what I was doing. The closing agent started picking apart my documents telling me - “You don’t need this. What’s this for?” Remember, all I wanted him to do was to notarize my documents to buy their house after closing on the house I just sold them.

Now, imagine for a moment, you’re sitting there in front of your seller and the closing agent, which you’d picked and he starts picking apart all of your docs.

You’d want to crawl under the table and hide.

Next, he says, “Don’t worry, I got you covered.”

So, he flashes out a lease purchase agreement for us to sign. I signed the agreement because at this point I was intimidated and just wanted to get the deal done. Later on, I had to go back to get the deed signed from these sellers. Now, if the closing agent would have done his job and just notarize the damn documents, then I would have never had to go back.

After leaving, I was enraged and swore I’d never be back to this closing agent again. And so far I haven’t.

The moral to the story is “Don’t be afraid to piss someone off.” Do what you know is right and is beneficial to you. Don’t be afraid to stand up to someone and fight for what you believe in. Because…

You’re the only one that is responsible for your success. Nobody else.

Don’t be afraid to go against the grain. As a matter of fact, only a handful of real estate professionals understand what we do with creative real estate, so keep plugging away to find your team that will work with you and not against you.

Now, go find some deals,

Derek Pierce