Blame the Realtor

My loan officer of 12 years made a massive error in judgement last week. I found out Friday after 4:30 p.m. and immediately alerted my client (whom they did not bother to tell). I am absolutely floored and for the past 36 hours I have tried to come up with some scenario where it makes sense they would have kept this all-important item a secret. So far, I haven't figured out one reason for this.

And of course, who is my client mad at? Me.

Why? Because they are inconvenienced. They "trusted" me to help them find a loan officer (to be fair, I gave them three names). I am the one who bothered to tell them. It causes them drama. Whatever. It is my fault.

I hate the "blame the realtor" game. Of course, it is a natural byproduct of the job. Situations happen. Boneheaded lapses of judgement occur. Even if it isn't something I did, but only because I am the spokesperson for the transaction. It is my fault.

With these same folks, the home owner's association told them recently I "negotiated in bad faith," though the woman at the HOA had no idea about the sale of my client's home or why decisions were made. Guess who my folks believe?

These are the same folks I spared the week-long drama about the buyers of their home wanting to kick them out early because the buyers wanted to move in. They won't care at this point anyway, because they are getting what they want. There is no concept about what work goes on behind the scenes of a real estate transaction. That's ok. I would rather it wasn't stressful to my clients. That's my job.

It isn't the first time I have been the scapegoat for bad situations. One time, my client--who had very questionable credit--was having a hard time getting their loan approved. I had gone to bat for them, got the sellers to agree not to pull the transaction and take their Earnest Money--something frankly the seller had every right to do. And yet, when I went over to explain everything and have them sign the hard-won addendum allowing my clients to still be able to purchase the home, my clients said, "Don't do us any favors!" I have never been so tempted to tear up papers as I was at that moment.

There are other moments where I have been verbally assaulted because someone is mad things don't go their way. I have been screamed at because a seller didn't want to follow the contract (in one case over $65). I have had folks not want to sign loan documents because circumstances changed. Or they made bad life decisions and decided they didn't want to sell their home at the last minute. I equate it to being a cashier at Wal-Mart and having a customer realize their debit card is declined and 1) expecting cashier to pay for their purchase or 2) verbally abusing the clerk for their poor choices.

This is the one aspect of my job I hate the most. In this case, even saying "I don't know why my loan officer didn't tell us about this," will not make it better. The situation is salvageable. My folks (hopefully) will get their home. I will, at the very least, never get a referral from them and at the worst be bad-mouthed because of this inconvenience. There is no win-win for this one.