Sometimes you get what you need.
I recently had the unfortunate experience of having one of my real estate deals fall apart. You might think this happens a lot. There are a lot of moving pieces, differing wants and needs, there’s money involved, and a lot of emotion thrown into the mix. You’d be forgiven for thinking that deals frequently don’t make it to completion. The reality is that it’s actually quite rare - at least in my experience.
SOMETIMES BAD THINGS HAPPEN TO GOOD DEALS.
Sometimes bad things happen to good deals. Despite having a buyer and seller who equally wanted the transaction to happen, both equally working in good faith to bring it together, who invested in its success, sometimes - as in this case - there are obstacles we just can’t navigate around, and we have to walk away.
The parties in this case are both wonderful people. I can’t really blame either of them. Everyone involved knew there were going to be obstacles from the start, and everyone was onboard to proactively and constructively work through obstacles. We’d cross those bridges as we came to them. This particular deal seemed to benefit both buyer and seller, that is to say that the deal was not lop-sided nor did it heavily favor one party or another. The deal provided a solution to a problem each party was faced with. So why couldn’t we make it happen?
A BRIDGE TOO FAR?
The Rules that govern Realtors in Ontario say I can’t share with you the nitty-gritty details, but suffice it to say that those bridges we planned to cross, well it turns out the bridges had been washed out, and all that remained was a gaping chasm over rough water hundreds of feet below. The parties, though pretty heart-broken and disappointed, decided that building new bridge after new bridge at each washed out crossing was becoming untenable. Buyer and Seller, unable to find another bridge to one another, decided to let the deal go.
FAILURE OR OPPORTUNITY?
This got me thinking about sunk costs, and everyone’s time and energy invested in the deal. We’d spent months getting here, and both buyer and seller were optimistic about the next chapter of their lives. What could I have done differently, or was this deal simply doomed from the start. I’m not one to obsess over failures (okay, anyone who knows me also knows that’s not exactly true). Rather, I prefer to see opportunities to learn from disappointment so that it doesn’t happen again, both for my benefit and for my future buyers and sellers.
GOOD MONEY AFTER BAD.
I think the idea of sunk costs is difficult for some to accept. Despite what initially seems like a great idea, and despite investing in moving that idea forward, it's important to recognize that the resources invested in an idea are irrelevant to the decision of whether to continue investing in it. In other words, the fact that you have already invested time, money, and resources in an idea is not in itself a good enough reason to continue investing in it if it is no longer likely to succeed. What’s the expression? “Good money after bad”?
SQUARE PEGS, ROUND HOLES AND PUZZLE PIECES.
It's been my experience that the best deals often fit together like puzzle pieces. The more you try to hammer incorrect pieces together the more problems you create for yourself in putting the rest of it together. A “good deal” will almost always propel itself toward completion as if by its own inertia. This has been my experience not only in real estate, or in my previous career in family law, but in life generally.
That’s not to say that there won’t be incredibly difficult transactions, deals, projects and endeavors in life that aren’t, nonetheless, worth the effort. However, as we experience more and more hurdles and seemingly insurmountable obstacles, it’s worth bearing in mind that we should strive to be honest with ourselves about the realistic chances of success. We can’t always get what we want. No matter how many resources we throw at it.
THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST.
As a Realtor it can be really difficult to give a client the really difficult advice to walk away. It's tough to tell a client that despite their best efforts, a deal just isn't going to happen and it's time to cut their losses and move on. We invest in our clients’ success, and we want to see them “win the day”. Sometimes that might mean knowing when to pick up our toys and go home, fold at the poker table, pull the proverbial plug, or whatever cliche makes it easier to hear, but this is our job, in fact it is our fiduciary duty, and perhaps it’s exactly what our clients need to hear.
LESSONS LEARNED.
So, what’s the lesson in this disappointment? Perhaps it's best summed up in the immortal words of the Rolling Stones, “You can't always get what you want, But if you try sometime [...], You get what you need.”
Brenton Zinck You Are Unique. So are your Real Estate Goals Royal LePage Performance Realty Sales Representative | REALTOR® BGRS Registered | He/Him |  |
| brenton@brentonzinck.com www.brentonzinck.com | |
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