A Little Bit of Something is Better Tham a Little Bit of Nothing

[Account Closed]

A Piece of Something is Better Than a Piece of Nothing I see this simple concept overlooked and underappreciated……all of the time. At the office, in our homes, and at the proverbial negotiating table. How many times do we sell ourselves short by letting the desire to win on our terms get in the way of a productive and fruit full outcome? One of the fun aspects of being a real estate junkie is I get to see it all, something new happens on every deal, every time, hands down. Last week I had the pleasure of mentoring my real estate partner on a contract where the concept around a piece of something is better than a piece of nothing mattered. Let’s just say the seller of this classically beautiful house had some personal issues and experienced a bad case of seller’s remorse after signing a contract with my partner to sell his house. The time to closing was fast approaching. The circumstances were such that this poor guy went as far as to have his estranged brother and sister call and beg and plead to let their “idiot” brother out of the contract. Now why would any buyer want to do that? This was prime Grade A realty. I could unequivocally see that the renovation of this property was guaranteed to end in a $ucce$$ful (successful) outcome. Well, it got nasty fast. What do you do? Either you dig your feet in and fight the fight or be the good guy and let him out. I told my partner, “Let’s face it, neither of these answers are good and this guy has issues and can drag this out for a while. Time is money and the probability that he finds an out is actually probably pretty good. Some fights just aren’t worth the fight. I think you tell him if he wants out you need to be compensated for your time and effort and you would be willing to give him a pass. Remember, a piece of something is better than a piece of nothing.” Well after a 7 minute phone call with the seller, the seller was kindly let out of his obligation to sell his house for the modest price of $2,500. No attorneys. No egged cars. No stressful calls at 2:19am in the morning. Do you like this answer? Not really. But is it the right answer? Absolutely. Based on the facts, we had to make a decision. How much time, money, uncertainty and stress was this fight really worth; or get what I can get and go on down the road to the next deal. We make business decisions daily. We make personal decisions daily. Don’t let greed and ego own your life. Remember, a piece of something is (always) better than a piece of nothing. See you in the trenches. The Real Estate Junkie November 29, 2017