I just got off the phone with one of my favorite loan officers with Wells Fargo. I can call her at home and have her pre-qualify a prospect in a minute. One of the reasons I do this is I get calls from people wanting me to drop what I'm doing and meet them immediately near their home just outside of Timbuktu, pick them up, take them out for the afternoon and show them houses. The first five minutes you're in real estate you might do that, but it's becoming more and more unheard of, especially in these economic times. I don't operate my business on the divine right of a king to enter a person's home just because they have a lockbox and I can.
Today I had one person call my office twenty five times, despite having emailed him yesterday and several times today, plus having two agents call him to let him know that the properties he's interested in are clearly marked "Pending Sale" and I explained the difference between active, contingent, and pending sale. Some people will tell me - I don't care if it's under contract, you MUST take my offer to the seller and they then make a verbal offer of fifty cents on the dollar. Once a property is put in the status of Pending Sale, there's been an inspection, a survey, maybe two appraisals, title search, and we're headed to the closing table. In some cases, the property has already closed but the multilist is so far behind in reporting, I once had a house listed as active for 18 months post-closing in Sugar Hill, GA. I will present all offers providing the seller directs me to do so, but unless it's a foreclosure with a clause stating that all offers are to be presented even at the closing table, most sellers won't breach a signed contract, not even for cash, not even for price plus.
Have you ever gone onto your public broadcasting channel during pledge week? Do you see how there's three tiers of long tables with approximately six people on each tier. There's a phone at each station, and as you are watching the pledge sponsor and perhaps one of the BBC Stars asking for support, the phones in the background are (hopefully) ringing off the hook. You have a one in eighteen chance of getting any one particular operator.
I am convinced certain people calling a real estate company envision the PBS studio scenario, or perhaps a baseball bullpen with one REALTOR up at bat, one in the hole. People who call me all day long after the loan officer told them they are unable to purchase at this time or the particular house they have found out of the 120,000 for sale in the metro area is no longer available are convinced if they just keep calling, SOMEONE, one of the other seventeen pledge takers is going to tell them what they want to hear. You know I just love the Field of Dreams, the holodeck on Star Trek, and the fact that I can visit alternate realities for an hour through a Stargate, but I have to answer the phone right now, it's the same person who has been calling and emailing for two days.
By the way, posthumous thanks to Janis Joplin for the title! It really worked!
