A Couple of Newbies

One of my worst deals to date was actually my very first deal! I was fresh in the business (Licensed Realtor® for about 3 weeks). My buyer was a young lady looking to purchase her very first property. She wasn’t really sure what she wanted so we were looking at a bit of everything. After about 3 weeks of looking at numerous properties, she fell in love with a condo in a small building just off of Jasper Ave. It was an apartment building that had recently been converted to condos.

We wrote up an offer and after some back and forth we had an accepted deal. So far, so good.

Things Go Sideways

I booked the home inspection for 9am the following Tuesday. We met the inspector at the front of the building. I opened up the keysafe and we headed inside. The property was occupied, so just to make sure nobody was home, I knocked on the door before unlocking it. We could hear someone stirring inside so we waited. After about a minute, a young lady opened the door with a completely puzzled look on her face.

I introduced myself and explained that we were there for the inspection. Again, she just looked confused. It turned out her and her boyfriend were tenants, and not only were they not informed that we were doing the inspection, she had no idea that the place was even FOR SALE!!

After explaining everything, and her calling the seller, we finally got the inspection done. There were a few smaller issues that we negotiated for the seller to have fixed prior to possession, but nothing major.

My buyer ended up waiving her conditions and moving forward with the purchase.

Possession Day

Flash forward to the possession day (Friday about 45 days later). I got the call in the early afternoon on the possession day that keys were released and I could pick them up at the listing Realtor’s® brokerage. My buyer was not in a rush to get in as she wasn’t actually moving until the weekend, so we agreed to meet there Saturday morning at 9am.

I pulled up to the building at around 8:45am on Saturday and immediately knew it was going to be a bad day! When I pulled up I noticed that the balcony was covered in Halloween decorations. In a panic, I went inside the building and knocked on the door. Again, I could hear shuffling around. Not good!

The same young lady, this time with her boyfriend, opened the door with the same puzzled look on her face. Not only were they not moved out, they had not even started packing up their stuff!

I immediately called the listing agent to find out what the hell was going on. She wasn’t terribly helpful. Instead of dropping everything and helping figure things out, she gave me the seller’s number and told me to call him. Begrudgingly, I called him to figure things out. After speaking with him, I wasn’t nearly as surprised at what a mess everything was (he wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed!). According to him, the tenants in our unit were supposed to be moving to the unit across the hall and those people were moving upstairs but apparently he forgot to tell anybody this because guess what, the neighbours hadn’t started moving yet either!

My buyer showed up, and honestly handled things like a champ. She was obviously mad, but I would have completely lost my mind if I were in her shoes!

To the Rescue

The seller guaranteed us that everything would be ready by mid afternoon. I knew the place was not going to be cleaned in that time frame, so I called around and found a cleaner that I could pay to clean it that day. It wasn’t easy, but I was able to find someone.

I had other clients to meet with that day, but I didn’t trust anyone I had spoken with to actually do what they were supposed to, so I would rush off to a meeting, then pop back in between to check progress.

The tenants were finally out, and my cleaner had the place sparkling by around 5:30pm that day. My buyer met me there at 6:30pm and I was finally able to hand over the keys to her new home.

Happily Ever After

Overall, it was a long miserable day, but at the end of the day my client was in her new home. It was a rough first deal, but in the end I was able to get everything sorted out for my client as quickly as possible and without any unnecessary legal fees!

Needless to say, it was a learning experience but thankfully, everything worked out in the end.