While taking telephone floor duty early in my real estate career (just a few years ago), I received a call from a man looking for some rural land on which to build.  I found several pieces, and he wanted to see the first that afternoon.  It was February and already getting dark but he was insistent that he see it that day.

I found someone to cover for me and arranged to meet him at a local convenience store/gas station.  The land was not far from where I lived, and I intended to go home from there.  While driving to meet him, I had a strong urge to call my husband and give him this man’s contact information as well as where the land was located.

As I turned into the convenience store, I saw this man standing in the drive holding an overcoat, wearing gloves with the fingertips cut out, and carrying a large heavy stick.  I pulled up and told him to follow me.

He said he had been up since 5:00 AM and was too tired to drive.  He walked in front of my vehicle so I couldn’t pull away and to the driver’s side.  He placed his coat and stick in the back of my car.  As we drove, this man began talking in a manner that made me grow exceedingly uneasy.

When we got to the land, I handed him the plat and he got out to see where the corners were located. I told him I dropped my cell phone and needed to find it.  At this point, we were still on a local paved road. I found the phone and called my husband to drive over where we were as the man was talking crazy.  He came back to the vehicle and wanted to pull along the side of the land, which we did.  There were still mobile homes and people around.  He wanted me to pull up further.  I told him my car was too low to the ground to go further.  He got out of the car and mentioned walking the land.

The strangest thing happened when I tried to get out of the car — my door would not open!  I told him to go ahead while I saw what was wrong with my door, and that I was not going in the wooded area with him anyway.  He walked away by himself and I climbed out through the passenger side and went to the driver’s side.  The door opened right away!

All this time, my husband is frantically calling every few minutes for directions.  I got back in the vehicle, the man looked up and came literally RUNNING back to the car! I looked at him and said, “I thought you were tired!”  I turned the car around and started back to where I picked him up.  My husband called yet again, still not finding my location.  I told him I would be home in a few minutes.   Thankful to be away from this creeper.

The next day…I called the listing agent for another piece the man expressed interest in seeing.  The listing agent was on his way to my office, so I told him to come see me.  I described what happened, we called the man, and the agent spoke with him. Later in the week, this agent called me and said this man called him at 5:00 AM one morning.  He didn’t answer the phone and waited until later in the day to return the call.  He told the man never to call him at that time of morning again.

A week or so later, a local appraiser called this same agent and told him he had someone in his office interested in some land.  The agent told him he would meet the man at the land.  When the client drove up and got out, the agent told me he knew it was the same person, and he had a gun sticking out the waistband of his pants!  He told the man to put the gun away, it was not hunting season.  Then the agent walked over to speak to a neighbor and get away from this crazy man.

Not long after, I read in the paper that this man was arrested for assault.  Just recently, I saw in the newspaper where he approached a woman at a local MacDonald’s, sat down uninvited, and made some inappropriate comments.

In the course of the conversation, he mentioned where he would be the next night.  She notified police. They arrested him at a local pizza establishment.  He resisted arrest and kicked a police officer in the stomach.

I told my story in the office then and again just recently after the latest arrest. We have a dangerous occupation and must always take precautions and go with our instincts when something doesn’t feel right.

“Didn’t see this one coming… My client wrote an offer on a short sale in Elk Grove in April that was finally accepted by the bank in July.  Close of Escrow was scheduled for August 15th.

All inspections went well and we had full loan approval and everything had been completed with funding of the loan scheduled 2 days before COE…until everything came to a screeching halt with some shocking news…

The title company pulled up a ‘bankruptcy filing’ by the seller, although the seller said he had NOT filed a bankruptcy.  The bankruptcy trustee now took control of the house as she suspected fraud and my clients had to cancel and requested their deposit back.

Fortunately we were able to get their deposit released and we have now found them a beautiful home just around the corner from this other nightmare.  Just one more thing that we need to make our short sale buyers aware of!!!”

“My clients and I went for a ‘final’ walk through the morning of the closing and it was still full of furniture, rugs, dishes, etc.  Hindsight tells me the furniture and rugs were in certain places for a reason.  You’ll know what I mean in a second…

This was an ‘estate’ home that had been for sale for a long time.  I asked my clients to push the closing another day or two until the selling agent could get the house cleaned out.  But they said it would be ‘okay’ and talked me into continuing the closing and they signed off on the ‘final walk through’.

Well, a day later, when the furniture was removed from the house and I returned with my buyers, we found the floors where rugs and furniture had been were literally rotted out.  And the cabinets in the kitchens where the pots and pans had been were also rotted.  Talk about a disgusting mess.

Months later, we are still in the process of trying to get things cleaned up.  This was a nightmare.  I learned a very valuable lesson here and hope no one else has to go through it.  Sure…I’ve heard the warnings before from fellow agents, but I’m telling you from first-hand experience…please, please, please don’t close on a house until the occupants are totally moved out.”

“A couple I know came to my office one day a year after they started looking at homes and said they were ready again to look at homes they could purchase.

They told me another real estate agent wouldn’t show them any homes until they got pre-approved.  I carefully told them the reason for that was to make sure he didn’t waste their time or his time looking at homes that didn’t fit their criteria and price range.

I said that was a good idea but that I did things a little bit differently when I had a little extra time, because I like to dream a little bit with my clients…even if they haven’t been to a lender yet.  Little did I know what I was about to get into…

I told them I’d show them only one or two homes and then we would definitely need to get them to a lender to see what they could afford, otherwise, they’d be wasting their time too – and I didn’t want them to do that!

They were sure what they could afford and found the home of their dreams.  They told me to write up an offer on their dream home, one that was over $300,000, and I asked them several times, ‘Are you sure you’re comfortable with that high of a monthly house payment?’  Both of them said ‘YES’.  So, I began the process of writing up the offer but had to wait until the next day to go with them to the lender.  Has this happened to you before?

The lender who told them that there were 30 pages in their credit report that they needed to work on for the next two months in order for them to receive a loan from her in SIX months.

Now, I knew from the start that this was going to be a learning experience for both them and myself, and it was definitely challenging, but a couple of days after they met with the lender, they called me and told me they were going to buy the $180,000 home they were living in, from their landlord, and ‘could you help us with it?’  (They couldn’t get a loan yet anyway, so I don’t know why they thought they could still get one with a lower price right now.)

What a nightmare.  I had told the listing agent on the first home that I was bringing him an offer and then had to tell him I wasn’t bringing an offer, which didn’t reflect well on me.  And now these buyers wanted me to do it again with another home.

One of the lessons I learned from this is not to tell a listing agent you have an offer until you actually have the signed offer in your hands (with proper financing).  The other lesson is that even though I have some ‘free’ time, it is not always best to use it ‘freely’, even if you know your client will be learning a valuable lesson.  It’s best just to call the lender, right then and there, to see what amount they will be pre-approved for BEFORE spending my gas money on a trip around the countryside.”