I hope I am doing this story the justice it deserves, because I have never experienced anything like it!
Jordan & Sklyer are slowly moving into their condo, and I’m still dealing with the fallout from this now infamous deal at 18 Yonge Street, and the agent that I’ve still never met.
I wonder what he looks like….
When I left off this story yesterday, I had finally touched base with “Paul” more than two days after I had faxed him an offer to lease.
I had got his voicemail so many times in the past week that I was rather surprised to hear his voice when he picked up, after I had dialed *67 to conceal my identity…
“Hello?”
“Hi Paul, it’s David Fleming calling, I’ve been trying to reach you for the past two days? Did you get any of my ELEVEN messages?”
“Oh…..yes,” Paul replied, as if not responding to eleven messages was a normal thing to do.
“AND?” I proclaimed.
“Um, well, I’m working on a sign-back for you. Are you going to be in the office tonight?”
What Paul failed to realize, was that the offer I had sent him had already expired over two days ago, and you cannot sign back an offer that has expired! I began to explain this to him, but I realized that he really didn’t understand what I was saying.
When I was done explaining the situation, he just muttered “Ooohhh.”
How the heck does this man make a living in this business?
Beyond that, how does he tie his shoes and feed himself?
I asked him why had me paged through the office when he had my cell phone number, as well as a host of messages from me on his voicemail. He just said “Well I wanted to make sure the message got to you.”
Does that make sense? Doesn’t calling ME directly on my cell phone ensure that I’ll get the message, 110%?
I asked him why he would bother signing back or negotiating the FULL-PRICE of $1895 (marked UP from $1795, for some unknown reason….) when I specifially asked him on Monday if he would accept $1700, and he just paused, and then said nothing.
It’s like when you were seven years old, and you did something stupid in school, and your teacher would ask you “Why, David (or some other name…), why did you do that?” And you would just sit there, and say nothing.
He had absolutely no answer!
Then he said, “Soooo…..will your clients come up to $1895?”
“NO! Of course not! Didn’t you call me on Monday, and ask me to bring you an offer? Didn’t I tell you that $1700 was as far as my clients could stretch their budget? And didn’t you tell me to fax it to you asap?”
“Well…..the two sides are just too far apart at this point. I can’t get the owner to sign it.”
This is the part that really bothered me. You see, the name on the title was that of Paul and his wife—they were the owner/landlords of the property! And Paul was saying things like “the owner this,” and “the landlord that.”
“Paul, what ‘two sides?’ YOU are the owner!”
“Oh, yeah,” Paul replied. “Well, I’m having trouble getting my wife to sign it.”
“Okay, so?” I asked. “Why can’t you get your wife to sign it? Where is she?”
“She’s right here,” Paul said. “I don’t mean that she isn’t available to sign it, I mean she won’t sign it. I asked her and she just said ‘no’ to me.”
At this point, I lost it. And began my rant:
“Paul, in my five years in this business, I have never met somebody as incompetent as you! It’s almost as if you have no formal real estate expertice whatsoever. You don’t answer your phone or return calls, you let an offer lapse and then tried to sign it back two days later, and now you’re going to lose a tenant for February 1st and let the place sit vacant. I don’t know how you make a living in this business.”
Paul shot back, “I do well enough that I can afford to own an investment property at 18 Yonge Street!”
“YEAH,” I shouted, “One that is sitting vacant, and is going to lose an entire MONTH’s rent for February if you don’t find a tenant in the next four days!”
The fact that this man owns an investment property is just pathetic, because he is and has already run it into the ground. Every month’s rent that you lose means paying your mortgage, taxes, and maintenance fees out of your pocket, and your return (most condos in Toronto are run at a net-loss) shrinks even further.
I told Paul that this was it—this was our FINAL communication. He agreed, and I went back to Jordan & Skyler and told them again what had transpired.
The next morning, my phone rang…
…it was Paul….
