When I “drop” marketing about the professional network I have built in the over 25 years I have spent in the mortgage business, I am not always sure that people “get it”. I mean, sure like everybody else, I seem to have the business card of someone that does whatever it is you are looking for.
Especially if you are buying a house. Of course I have a Real Estate Attorney, Home Inspector or Landscaper (if you live in my town) that I can refer you to. That’s easy. And honestly, you should take those recommendations because, unlike your brother in law who used a home inspector once, , six years ago, I’m involved in over a dozen transactions a month and know now only who you can trust. But just as importantly, who you can’t.
Sometimes you hire the wrong person, because they were cheap, because their uncle recommended them or because you needed someone in a hurry. By definition it usually means you hire them without much digging. And most of the time, it ought to work out…until it doesn’t.
I’m going to tell you a couple of quick tales as to why you should trust the people that I refer a little more than the average connection. It’s because I work with them every day and have to “go deep” in my dealings with them. If they fail my clients when things get rough, I just can’t introduce them to anyone else. They know that!
For example, let’s discuss my best Real Estate Attorney, who I connect to everyone without fail. In fact, I tell people you better hire him so the other side does not!
In the last month we had a transaction where one of my longest standing clients was trying to purchase a home and the transaction was getting sideways. Sellers were both getting divorced AND were in foreclosure. They didn’t mention the foreclosure upfront and attempted to stall the closing another 30 days so one of them could keep living in the house for free.
In addition to that stall, the night before the closing the sellers found out they were going to have to bring money to SELL the house and said they could not and wanted to cancel the transaction. Well my guy immediately stopped them from doing that, found an error in the real estate commissions, found an additional mistake on some of the seller fees and found just enough errors/money to let the sellers complete the transaction with no additional funds being needed.
Most importantly, our buyer was able to complete the purchase, move into the home and get on with things THAT DAY without losing the 2 months invested of time or roughly $1000 already spent on appraisals, inspections, etc. He got the house he wanted and did not have to start his home search over.
Unfortunately I had a similar dispute show up in a transaction recently where I did not know either attorney. They fought with each other for about 20 days and the contract died. Not only that but they apparently NEVER got on the phone. They just emailed each other arguing who was “tecnically right”. Finally, the seller decided to pull the plug on the whole thing and now the buyer has to move twice. Once to a temporary rental and then to whatever new house they find.
I also know that I can trust my insurance agent. He’s a broker and always shops the market for the best deal I can get. But more important is the service.
Last summer we had some really big rains hit and my sump pump gave out and my basement flooded with rainwater/back up.
His team was my first call, they helped get me to the front of the line with a remediation company and assisted in making the claim go through the system with the insurance company.
His team made sure I didn’t have to get frustrated or take off work to deal with things. It was just handled. You cannot put a price tag on delivering under pressure. Anyone can deliver when it’s easy!
So look, two things I guess are the point of this post, maybe three.
- I have people I know, that you can trust when things are tough. All you gotta do is ask me for a connection
- Don’t be too quick to take a recommendation without asking yourself, or the person doing the referring or the connection “what’s a really tough situation you’ve helped with”?
- If you have someone fantastic, that has helped you under pressure/out of a difficult situation, introduce me to them. I am always looking to grow my network.
Rant over
