NaBloPoMo Day 5: I am a Jerk

A few weeks ago we closed a deal where we were representing the seller. The deal was a pain, y'all. The buyers were a pain, their agent was a pain, our sellers certainly had their days, and the lender? If the lender was just one person instead of a group of people I would have worked really hard to meet up with that person in a dark alley. Needless to say, we all needed a vacation when we got word that that mother finally closed. And you can bet we were doing a happy dancebecause we wouldn't have to deal with the people associated with the transaction anymore!

Five days after it closed (3 business days) I went on, what I like to call, a "tour of the valley". I go on these tours from time to time to pick up lock boxes, check on vacant properties, etc. They are often all day trips.

This trip was made extra long due to the fact that I had to swing by this property. It's not near ANY of the other properties I had to visit and, really, not near much of anything. Between the distance and traffic it easily added 2 hours to my already long trip. But, it had to be done because the lockbox was still on the property.

When I finally pulled up to the property, I looked long and hard for the lockbox, but it wasn't there. We usually put them on the front door or hose spigot out front, but it wasn't in either place. I searched the entire front of the house, but couldn't find it. Many new owners have the locks changed on the property when it closes, which allows them to remove the otherwise impermeable lockboxes (you have to have a digital key or completely remove the door handle to get them off). It looked to me like they had immediately changed their locks and placed the lockbox somewhere inside the property where I couldn't easily get it.

So, I drove the hour (actually, more) home fuming at the other agent. It was his responsibility to let his clients know that I would be by to pick up the lockbox within the next few days and they were not to touch it. I was fuming at the buyers who had made my life miserable for what had amounted to a 60+ day close and were somehow able to get one more thing in to make my life difficult. I was pissed that they couldn't handle having the lockbox on their door for the 5 days it took me to get out there.

Fortunately, I did put off calling the agent until the next day because I knew I would sound really snotty if I didn't. I ended up leaving a voicemail telling him that I had driven a long way there and back only to find the lockbox missing and he needed to figure out what happened to it and return it to my office because I didn't really want to drive out there again. It wasn't a nice message, per se, but it could have been worse.

Two weeks later, he hadn't called me back and the lockbox hadn't been returned. These things are expensive, by the way, and I work hard tracking all our boxes to make sure none of them get lost or forgotten.

So, I called again today. This time he answered. I was pretty snotty at him since this whole thing was clearly his fault and he never bothered to call me back. He told me, not very nicely, that I had obviously forgotten where I put it because it was on the water pipe. Hm. I had checked the spigot, but if the lockbox was on the pipes the buyers wouldn't have been able to remove it without seriously damaging the pipes. Why bother? And this agent had been out to the property multiple times with his buyers during the escrow period, he should certainly know where it is.

So, I thought really hard. Did I put the lockbox on in the first place? Why did I think it was on the front door? I finally realized that no, I hadn't put it out there, another person in my office had. If I had, I would have put it on the front door or hose spigot, but he obviously had not.

Uh oh, I might be in the wrong here.

So, I drove the hour+ out there again today (TRAFFIC!). I searched the whole front of the house again, including the spigot where I probably would have put the box. Not there. Finally, I went around the side of the house (the one place I hadn't checked previously because of bugs and weeds). What do you know? The lockbox! On some random water pipes I had never noticed before! I'm not sure why the person who placed it decided that was a good spot for it, but since I had made him drive out there because I was too lazy, I couldn't really argue.

And so, I got all kinds of snippy with another agent over something that was A. not his fault and B. um..all in my head. Lovely.