I think it’s been long enough since this event that I can tell this story…

I’m not perfect, and I don’t ever want to give the impression that I act as if I am!

Here’s one of the dumbest things I’ve ever done while performing my duties as a Realtor…

I’m not trying to overstate it, this truly is one of the stupidest things I’ve ever done.

Do you know how I know?

Because my colleague and mentor, with 30 years in the business, told me, “David, this is truly one of the stupidest things you’ve ever done.

It was one of those lose-lose situations that I tried so desperately to turn into win-win.

It was a case of trying to please everybody, go out of my way, take the high road, and a bevy of other cliches.

But in the end, it was nothing short of a catastrophe.

Let me start from the beginning…

Earlier this year, I was working with a client who was looking to purchase a Rosdedale home after having rented in the area for the previous year.

The family was growing tired of the rental, feeling no “pride of ownership,” and so we began our property search well before their lease was up, knowing just how hit-or-miss Rosedale can be.

After a couple of months, we still hadn’t found anything that fit the “dream home” mold, and believe me – at this price, you can’t settle for anything less than a dream home!

I tried to think outside the box a little, and I remembered a property that had been lingering on the market for quite some time the previous year, which had then been put up for lease, and eventually taken off the market.

The property was listed by a colleague of mine, and since it was sitting empty and literally gathering dust, the seller and my colleague were more than happy to show us around!

The house ended up being perfect, as did the entire process, since we all got along so swimmingly!  My clients were quite pleased with my colleague who represented the seller, and having met the seller himself a few times, we all felt quite comfortable!

The negotiation was a bit drawn-out, and we definitely hit a few snags before we came to an agreement, but in the end, the buyer agreed to buy, the seller agreed to sell, and that’s what most deals boil down to.

Before the deal was scheduled to close, however, the buyer’s lawyer was notified that there was an outstanding work order on the home.  This would affect the title to the property and thus title insurance, and it took us several days to work through the issue.

It was during this time that the seller really made us feel comfortable and at home.  We met with him a few times, and he showed us the code to the garage, where to find the house key, and told us, “Don’t worry about booking an appointment through your brokerage, or asking permission – it’s going to be your house in a week, so please feel free to come and go as you please!”

Remember that line.  It will come into play a bit later…

My buyers were very pleased with the way that the seller was handling everything, and how kind, polite, and helpful he was!

They ended up going back to view the property once or twice, using the key in the garage as instructed, and the closing date approached.

Three days before closing, however, a few items that needed to be repaired in the house had still not been addressed, and my buyer began to make noise.  He’s the nicest guy in the world – they’re from the west coast, where people are far more laid-back, and he said, “It looks like they’re not gonna get this done in time, so let’s just push the closing back, no biggie.”

Semantics?  Not really.

“Push the closing date back” could be easy-peasey to somebody if they’re of the laid-back variety, where they have no ill intentions.

But “Push the closing date back” to somebody in Toronto, in a cutthroat real estate market, could be deemed as a threat.

The seller was notified by his lawyer, via the buyer, that there was a request to push the closing date back.  He was NOT happy.  The way it was conveyed to him wasn’t all nicey-nice, the way the buyer had intended, since the buyer thought he was doing the seller a favor by giving him “more time.”

One of the other issues was that the house was a mess – full of dust and dirt after 10 months of vacancy, and the buyers wanted the house cleaned from top to bottom.  They had inspected the property a day earlier, and it wasn’t pretty.  That’s when the laid-back couple determined, “No big deal, he needs more time, so let’s give him more time!  We’ll move the closing.”

They saw it as helpful, and the seller saw it as a threat.

And this is when I had my bright idea!

I knew that the buyers were coming back for a walk-through the night before the day of closing, so I decided that I was going to have the property cleaned – and cleaned well!

I was introduced to a cleaning lady by a colleague of mine, and now a bunch of us at the office use her services.  She’s a super nice lady – a single-mom who lives in a small apartment with her teenage son, and she does an amazing job, at a really great price.  So I told her I’d give her $500 to clean the 5,000 square foot house, and she jumped in the air and hugged me.  She thought she’d won the lottery, and I thought that a “professional cleaning company,” who are among the biggest con artists out there, would charge about $2K for the same job.

Win-Win, right?

Or Win-Win-Win?

Help out Katie the Cleaning Lady, save a few bucks, and make the house sparkle from head-to-toe so that the buyer and seller have one less thing to argue over?

Unfortunately, it would prove otherwise.

You see, any Realtor that shows a property has to be authorized to do so.  There are rules in place, and an “unauthorized entry” to a property comes with stiff penalties through RECO!

But wait – didn’t I tell you that the seller himself gave me the code to the garage, the location of the key, and the alarm code for the house?  Didn’t the seller tell me I could “come any time without booking an appointment?”

Yes, all that is true.

And none of it matters…

On the day before closing, without telling the seller, the buyer, or the listing agent, I brought Katie the Cleaning Lady to the property, opened the door as I was told was okay by the seller, and told Katie “have a great day.”

I knew that the buyers were coming back that night, and I knew that they wanted to see all of the work completed in the house, AND see the house clean like a whistle.

I was patting myself on the back as I left the house, and I didn’t mind shelling out $500 for the cleaning.  All part of the business, right?

An hour later, the listing agent came down to my office and said, “We have a problem.”

Problem?  Was their an issue with the title?  Did the city not come through?

Oh no, not that.  The problem, you see, was Katie the Cleaning Lady.

Ever have “one of those days” where something can set you off?  You know when you’re just about to blow your top, and you try, try, try to keep your calm, but finally something triggers the inner rage you’ve been bottling up?

Well, it seemed that the seller went by the house – which was about to close on in less than 24 hours, and entered to find a strange lady, up on a rickety ladder, balancing on one foot, dusting the ceiling.

Although the seller was a home-builder, he was a lawyer in his former life.  And lawyers see the world in terms of potential litigation, wherever they go, whatever they do.  So when the seller walked inside and saw a “slip and fall” about to happen, he was not pleased.

But believe it or not, with Katie the Cleaning Lady dangling from the ceiling, representing a $10 Million lawsuit after her head cracks open, that didn’t set the seller off.

It was when Katie, who has an “interesting” vocabulary and personality, to go with her loud, accented voice, looked up at the seller and said, “Hey Chico – you get me a Tim Hortons coffee or what?  Three cream, one sugar.”

Oh yeah – he lost it.  Big time!

Maybe he thought that Katie confused him – a successful, millionaire businessman, with a tradesperson working on the house.  Or maybe he thought that Katie was bossing him around and telling him to make a coffee run!  Or maybe he just didn’t like her accent, demeanor, and the fact that she was in HIS house.

In any event, he called the listing agent in a rage and said, “I’m going to kill that Fleming guy.”

I pleaded – “But he gave me the key to the house and told me ‘go any time you want, you don’t even have to book an appointment,'” but even as those words came out of my mouth, I knew I was dead wrong.

I had physically walked a third-party into a property that was not my listing, without booking an appointment.  I was guilty of unauthorized entry, even if it was for all the right reasons.

“Best intentions” need not apply.

“Meaning well” meant nothing.

Dishing out $500 for something that should have been paid for by the seller himself was of no value at this point.

The seller had just had enough of this transaction, for this house that he’d been carrying for three years, with these buyers that were “threatening” not to close the deal, and having a cleaning lady tell him to go and get coffee while standing on a Caeserstone kitchen island was the final straw.

It took us an entire day to sort this out, make apologies, draft “mea culpa” letters, and put the pieces back together.

My colleague told me, “Doing the right thing, and having best intentions don’t protect you in this business.  Watch your own back, and protect your own real estate license.”

It sounds cold, but I guess it’s true.

I’m man enough to admit when I’m wrong, and I’m confident enough to share a story where I look like an idiot! 🙂

The deal closed, the seller was happy, the buyers were ecstatic, and Katie came back to clean two days later, but man – was that the dumbest thing I’ve ever done, or what?