Sorry, But I Don't Have Change for $100,000

We had an interesting exchange with one of our clients today that I wanted to share here, partially because it's somewhat instructional and partly because it made me laugh.

We wrote offers yesterday for two duplexes for a cash buyer (investor) who is a past client of ours. Today, one of them was accepted, and we're waiting to hear about the other one.

The listing agent offered to pick up the paperwork from our client, since he lives nearby. He also said that he could pick up the earnest money and option fee checks. The earnest money was $2000 and the option fee is $100. My business partner told the buyer, "Write a check for two thousand to ______ Title and another check for a hundred which goes to ____________ (seller)."

Needless to say, the listing agent was surprised when he was presented with two checks, one for $2000 and another for $100,000! I guess the buyer thought that a rather sizable deposit was required? Thankfully, everything was corrected quickly.

Two lessons:

• 
  
• Make sure you communicate very clearly with your clients, and especially with cash buyers, since they might be thinking in different terms than you are.
  
• Pick up the checks yourself to make sure that no problems occur.
  

Thanks for reading!