Plaster is removed, the client leaves: how to avoid a deal break

As you know, making an advance payment and even “entering a deal” is not a deal. However, it is known to realtors, but not at all – to their clients. The client has a different profession, and he understands completely different things. Actually, in order to save himself from the need to “understand”, he seeks real estate assistance. Therefore, with regard to the intricacies of buying and selling real estate (and even more so at the same time buying and selling several apartments), the buyer or seller, entrusting himself with the care of a realtor, seems to have every right to be childishly naive.

Gathering at one point and at the same time, buyers and sellers often mentally already consider the matter done. However, it often happens that after a couple of hours everyone disperses, spending a lot of nerves, but never signing the coveted sales contract.

Why does this happen? What can hinder at the last moment?

Swan, Cancer and Pike
The most common reason is the lack of prior approval by the parties of all the nuances of the transaction. After all, it only seems at first glance that the process of registering a purchase and sale is extremely primitive: they signed an agreement, put money in a cell, and handed in registration contracts.

In fact, each action consists of many small, but extremely important. On what basis and in what terms will sellers get access to the treasured cell? Who will have the whole month that registration is in progress, is the key to this cell stored? When the seller gives the buyer a receipt, what money did he receive? In the end, what conditions for the release of the apartment will be indicated in the contract? All this is not just “trifles”, but important and very serious agreements, the price of which, without exaggeration, is the price of the apartment and the fate of the transaction.

For example, the key to the cell is lost: while they are doing a new one, the seller’s access period may end. And even then it will depend on the goodwill of the buyer whether to give this money away or not. And the contract of sale is signed and registered. That left the seller without money and without an apartment! The opposite situation: registration of the contract, which is the “top” in the alternative “chain”, was refused, and the seller of the “bottom” apartment, the sale of which is registered, took the money from the cell. In this case, the buyer remains without an apartment, and without money.

Of course, in practice from these, and not only these, dangers, there are long-developed “antidotes.” And realtors, protecting the interests of their customers, should use them. So the direct duty of realtors of both (or all, since there can be much more than two) parties to the transaction is to agree on such a system of “checks and balances” when both the seller and the buyer will be insured against accidents. It is clear that all this is pre-negotiated and agreed upon. But it also happens that both realtors leave everything for later, “here on the deal we will get together and decide.” The result of these “decisions” in a hurry and nervousness can easily become a lack of agreement on a particular issue and, as a result, a refusal of the transaction.

By the way, if both realtors are commonplace slobs, this is not so scary. Of course, the buyer and seller lost time. However, it is much worse when one of the realtors calmly and prudently takes advantage of the unprofessionalism of his colleague, “squeezing” the most favorable conditions for his client. Of course, he defends the interests of his client – and does the right thing. But here you will not envy the other side.

When the nerves pass …

The deal is a nervous event. The reasons are clear: at stake is a large (often the largest) material value – an apartment. Therefore, another task of a realtor is to help his client not to be nervous and adequately perceive what is happening. A necessary condition for this is to explain in advance to a person, “what, how and why.” This is not even from the field of psychology, it is from the field of common sense.

Often, realtors agree among themselves in advance and work out all the nuances, and uphold the interests of their clients as expected. Moreover, the achievement of such agreements is a normal practice for realtors. But consumers are not obliged to know what this practice is. In order for them to find out about this, the realtor must explain the practice. And do it BEFORE the transaction.

I recall one recent story. All realtors have long been accustomed to settling transactions through bank cells. And when several apartments are sold and bought at the same time, the condition for access to money is usually the fact that the state has registered the sale and purchase agreements for all apartments participating in the “chain”. Realtors are also used to this so much that some of them began to believe that all customers know about it.

Among the participants in the transaction in question was a seller who (or rather, who) did not know about it. And her realtor did not pay attention to this issue. And so, the lady seller, having come to the bank and saw that money can be received only if some more apartments are registered, almost literally reared up. Moreover, it is curious that such a reaction of the client came as a complete surprise for her realtor, and his arguments with which he tried to reassure the client consisted in repeating the phrase “all transactions are done”. Naturally, from such an argument and the lack of preliminary information, the lady, already already at the platoon, only grew stronger in the belief that those who gathered for the deal pursued a single goal – to select her apartment.

In the end, after two hours of very nervous negotiations, the deal was still saved. True, for this we had to connect to work with a client, and one of the other colleagues involved in the transaction. It is significant that when all this ended and the woman, exhausted by anxiety, received her money, we heard from her a simple phrase: “You will excuse me, but I really was very scared: I am selling an apartment for the first time in my life. If my agent explained everything to me normally beforehand, I would have prepared for this in advance and would not have fallen into hysteria. ” And in my opinion, she is right: to make sure that the client does not experience extreme nervous overloads in connection with the transaction is the realtor’s immediate task. Actually, including just for this, he receives his reward.

Registration is one of the stages of the transaction

Even when the “summit” was successful, all conditions are determined, the money is in the cell and the contract of sale is signed, this does not mean that the transaction has been completed. After all, a contract without state registration is considered invalid, and the transfer of ownership does not occur.

And state registration can be denied for many reasons. These are incorrectly executed documents, and the absence in the general package of one or another piece of paper or mistakes made when compiling this piece of paper, and expired identity cards or certificates. There are other reasons, for example, an arrest or a ban on operations with an apartment. But there are no reasons that realtors could not have previously determined. Just for this you need to figure it out …

However, all this is not so bad. In the end, the necessary certificates can be conveyed, and the contract will be registered a little later. It is much worse when the transaction cannot be approved by the state in principle. What, for example, is the arrogance of a “real estate specialist” known to me, who, having picked up an apartment with an unauthorized redevelopment for his client, a mortgage buyer, was deeply surprised that the bank refused to credit its acquisition! Accordingly, the planned deal in this regard immediately moved from the category of almost prepared to the category of collapsed, and its participants acquired an exciting entertainment for a snack called “return the prepayment – we will not refund”!

Napoleon complex

Oddly enough, but sometimes the ambitions of one of the realtors also become the reason for the collapse of a serious real estate transaction. When at the forefront is painful pride and insurmountable complexes, it is both funny and sad at the same time.

Recently, we made a difficult “alternative” to Moscow – Moscow Region, and an apartment sold with mortgage collateral participated in it. In such cases, there are so many objective difficulties that only the coordinated work of all realtors leads to success. However, one lady realtor, calling herself an “expert” and working under a well-known brand, apparently thought differently. Her main role in the deal was the issuing of loud and semi-hysterical cries “I am the most important here, and as I say, it will be so.” Moreover, this very “as I say” generally had little to do with the essence of the transaction and did not at all take into account its specifics. Moreover, most of the actions she demanded to carry out simply excluded the very possibility of a transaction!

As a result, together with the rest of our colleagues, we managed to save the deal. But for this we had to resort to extreme measures, since other methods, alas, showed their inefficiency: morally “smear” the presumptuous “expert” and clearly demonstrate his incompetence to all those gathered. But it is obvious that everything at the moment depended not even on technology and not on the legal side, but on elementary human bad manners and rudeness. And if we had given even a moment of weakness, our customers would not have solved their “housing issues”. At least this time …

Save the deal in advance …

So, the main cause of the collapse of the transaction is, alas, the lack of professionalism of realtors and the reluctance to do more work.

The eternal question “What to do?” Is not so simple to answer. And yet…

Ask your realtor to tell you in detail about how the transaction will be held, and to provide you with all the documents prepared for signing (draft sale contracts, the necessary powers of attorney and statements, as well as bank agreements that specify the conditions for access to cell; it’s not bad for a realtor to familiarize you with the texts of guarantee letters on the procedure for transferring documents and keys, if such letters are planned to be used on the transaction). Read all of these documents carefully. Do not be afraid to ask about everything that is incomprehensible: you are not required to know the realtor details, and explaining them to you is the agent’s direct responsibility. And not only the agent: if he could not answer your questions, do not be shy – you need to demand that a lawyer or manager connect to the clarification process.

If something did not suit you in the proposed transaction procedure, do not postpone the discussion of the questions that have raised complaints “for later”. And most importantly, do not hope that this somehow “resolves itself” on the deal. Perhaps it will “resolve.” But not the fact that in your favor …

Based on the results of all these discussions, you should have a clear picture of what and how will happen on the transaction. Moreover, this picture should not be general, but with all the details. By the way, special attention should be paid to the moments, the solution of which is supposed to be implemented directly “in the process”. If these will be, again, it is necessary not only to find out about them in advance, but also to find out from your realtor how he intends to solve them.

And on the deal itself, I recommend periodically recalling what and how, according to the story of your realtor, what should happen. And if something suddenly goes wrong as stated, it is worth saying “stop” and ask the agent for additional clarifications. At the same time, you don’t have to be nervous: perhaps everything is in order. But to find out why there is a deviation from the “intended course”, it is necessary.

In general, all these actions a realtor who claims to be a “professional” must do so on his own initiative, without waiting for the client to ask him or ask about it. After all, if he is a master, his interest in ensuring that you are satisfied as a result of the service and gratefully recommend it to your friends should be high. And the whole list of simple tasks, the implementation of which will allow you as a client to feel confident in the transaction, is his professional duty.

That is why for me one of the measures of a realtor’s competence is how the deal goes. And I don’t get tired of repeating to my employees: “We can consider the work of realtors in preparing for the transaction to be done ideally only if …”

“… When clients have nothing to discuss in the transaction process, except for the weather forecast, since they know very well what, when and how it will happen or will happen,” the agents amicably conclude the phrase.

Of course, I am fully aware that from the outside, such a picture may seem like a pipe dream, but a realtor should always strive for this dream. And not in words, but in practice. After all, a transaction is the most critical stage of service. And what quality of service can we talk about if a client comes to his senses after everything he has experienced during the transaction?