Hey Karma You Owe Me One

Doing the Right Thing In Costa Mesa

Ok, I look at that title and please don’t think I am looking for some kind of entitlement. I just had one bad thing happen to one of my clients last week, and I guess it is still bugging me a bit. More about that stuff in a minute….

I do a lot of online shopping, to the point where I only go to South Coast Plaza once a year – Christmas time. Typical man I guess. Anyway, I ran out of sunscreen, so I ordered some sunscreen from Drugstore.com this week. They are terrifically efficient and sent me the order within a couple of days. However, they sent me the same order twice. Whoops! Of course, I was annoyed at first, thinking they sent me 4 tubes of the same sunscreen and billed me twice for it. Nope. They billed me once. SCORE! Right? That’s a twofer – two for the price of one baby, right?

Well, I couldn’t do it. Didn’t feel right. I kept thinking about it, looking at the two boxes. My son even asked me, why did you get so much sunscreen? It was a funny question.

I looked at him and realized it was time to set an example and do the right thing. I called Drugstore.com this morning and told them what happened. Of course, they had no idea that they duplicated my order. I explained to the rep Alicia that I wanted to send back the additional order, and what did she do? She apologized for the mixup and gave me a large account credit towards my next purchase. Nice (love them!)!!!

It felt good to do the right thing. Unlike what happened last week for my clients here in Costa Mesa, which is why I say hey Karma you owe me one.

Bad Mojo

One of my clients put in an offer on a Costa Mesa real estate short sale some time ago, all the way back in July of 2011. It was accepted by the owners, although the other agent did not want to accept my client’s offer. Not for financing, or fear of them not waiting for the process, just this agent desired to put their personality in the middle of things and not want to do business with my clients.

_{This is the bad MOJO bird….. 🙂}

My clients waited patiently (as Costa Mesa real estate short sales do take a little time to complete), but we were not getting updates. At all. I know the beginning process of a short sale takes time– usually, I will not bug the other agent for 3-4 weeks when we start, trusting them to get through the beginning stages with the bank. After that, I will check in with the other agent every two weeks or so, checking in to see where things are at with the bank and the process. At first, I thought they might just be busy, and I did not receive calls or e-mails back about status updates. So I tried the other agent’s broker – any good broker would get squarely in the middle of that situation, right? Nope. Same result, no updates, no e-mails, no calls. Then, 4 months into the process I get an e-mail from the broker asking my clients to sign a document. Since I am experienced with Bank of America short sales, I know that this document is the last in a series before B of A issues the short sale approval letter. I think, well, good. There has been something going on behind the scenes.

So what happened next? Nothing, no calls, no e-mails, nothing. For another 5 Months! Never a returned call.

Then, guess what? I get an e-mail with a cancellation document. The other agent said that the Sellers canceled the short sale. You know what I thought, being the honest person that I am? Oh good, perhaps the sellers got their loan modified or they caught up on the mortgage so they can stay in their home. Not that I received any explanation for what happened. The e-mail was just a one-liner – please have your clients sign this cancellation document. As things go, if a Seller wanted to stay and could afford to stay in a house, I would love to see a great story like that in Costa Mesa.

So what happened next? Nothing, no calls, no e-mails, nothing. For another 5 Months! Never a returned call.

Then, guess what? I get an e-mail with a cancellation document. The other agent said that the Sellers canceled the short sale. You know what I thought, being the honest person that I am? Oh good, perhaps the sellers got their loan modified or they caught up on the mortgage so they can stay in their home. Not that I received any explanation for what happened. The e-mail was just a one-liner – please have your clients sign this cancellation document. As things go, if a Seller wanted to stay and could afford to stay in a house, I would love to see a great story like that in Costa Mesa.

Then a week later, the house went back to Active status on the market- at a significantly lower price than my clients were offering. They are looking for a new buyer! My clients call me and say what’s up??? I don’t know, really I don’t. They still want to buy the house. Why in the world would the sellers cancel, when all along they have the buyer sitting waiting with money in the bank, ready to buy the house?

If you’re wondering, it wasn’t the sellers who canceled the deal, it was the agent. Which is funny. I am guessing the sellers have no idea my buyers are still here waiting to buy their house. I guess it is important, the agent that you work with in Costa Mesa, huh? My clients have grounds to sue the sellers, I wonder if they even know that. Not that they would, the family that wanted to buy that house are the nicest people. It’s just not cool to do that to other people.