insiderblm
Q: Have you ever had to referee a tug of war between buyer and seller?
Jonathan Schulz
Real-estate agent, The Corcoran Group in New York City
It was the worst closing I’ve ever been involved in. My clients were a couple with a child who needed more space, so they were moving out of their lofted studio apartment. The buyer was a single woman who was an attorney. Sometimes attorneys get into the nitty-gritty more than other people.
The contract had standard language about items to be left behind and one was “mirrors.” It’s boilerplate stuff, it refers to things like bathroom mirrors that are bolted to the wall. The sellers had mirrors in the bathroom and they also had two very large decorative mirrors leaning against the wall, and a sit-down vanity which had a mirror attached—an inexpensive thing, like from Ikea.
When the apartment was emptied out we did a walk-through with the buyer and she said, “Oh, those mirrors aren’t there.” And I said, “Those are basically pieces of furniture, they don’t stay.”
Then at the closing, she said to the seller, “I noticed you didn’t leave the mirrors.” And the husband said, “The two large mirrors you are talking about were wedding presents.” And then she pointed at the contract and said, “It says mirrors, and those are mirrors.” The attorneys looked at me like, “What should we do?”
Long story short, she relented on the two oversize mirrors but she would not relent on the vanity. The seller was just, “Are you kidding me? We’ve taken it apart and packed it up, it’s in a storage container on Long Island.”
It became a long closing, maybe three hours with a number of breaks. It got very heated. My client was adamant, “I am not going to relent.” I was like, “Let’s just get to a close.”
Finally, the husband agreed to get the vanity out of storage. Then he leans across the table and says, pointing in her face–“I will bring it back to you and you can look at your ugly face in it every day and think of me.”
She just stared straight ahead. I think she just wanted the win. Some agents try to be the peacemaker, but I remember being at a loss for words. The seller was actually a really, really nice guy. He did bring the vanity back, in pieces. He left it with the doorman.
Limor Nesher
Real-estate agent, Core Real Estate in New York City
This was a townhouse in East Harlem, years ago. I was representing the sellers. The top floor had a master bathroom with a Kate Spade sink, deep green with an Asian-inspired design. The owners created the entire bathroom around it—all the faucets, the cabinetry, all the little accents. It was a selling point. It was beautiful. I think I even used it in the listing description. We were asking $1.9 million, the highest listing price in the neighborhood back then.
We sold the home for $1.74 million. When we were ready to close, we all met at the house. The sellers had made a list of all the things they were going to take—things they couldn’t live without. They listed items like light bulbs, track lighting, shelving from the closets. The buyers were a little shocked. As we went from one floor to the other, going through the list, the husband started to roll his eyes, but he didn’t say anything; we just marked a “V” by each item agreed to. Then we get to the master bath and the seller has the Kate Spade sink on the list.
The husband says, “That’s it. I agreed to everything on the list, but the sink stays.” And the seller gets red and says “This sink was in my family for 30 years, it’s coming with us.” We were crowded in the bathroom—me, the seller and the husband of the couple buying. Their broker is in the doorway and the buyer’s wife is in the hall. I say to the seller, “You never told me this about the sink.” I had used it as part of my marketing, and all of a sudden I’m finding out that it’s a part of their family heritage.
I had to calm everyone down. I asked the seller if he would be willing to replace the sink with something of similar value in the same colors, that would not destroy the bathroom. After a few days he agreed.
Ego, especially with men, is such an obstacle.
