Liz

 Liz is my very favorite escrow officer. She has been doing this aspect of Arizona real estate long enough that I can swear she knows what she is doing. Liz does have one teensy annoying habit that must be remedied. She likes to take days off when I have a home in escrow. 

Thursday morning, as I was enjoying my breakfast in North Phoenix, an e-mail came in from Liz's replacement. It was sent to a bunch of folks. It was demanding Dee--the buyer--to please investigate and find out why her lender hadn't sent the mortgage money (we call this "the wire") so that the loan can fund and the house can close.  

There are so many things wrong with this e-mail. First, there were two random strangers who were cc'd on this e-mail who are not a party to this sale. I have no idea who they are and they had no idea what this was about. I'd be almost ok with the error, but there was a lot of personal info that was sent in that e-mail that these strangers didn't need to be privy to. 

Second, nowhere in this e-mail was the lender cc'd--you know, the guy who could tell us where the money happened to be. 

Third, it was escrow officer's job to take care of this--not to pass it along as a random errand to the buyer. And if escrow needed to ask anyone to do this (they didn't need to--because it was THIER JOB TO DO SO), it should have been me, the agent. 

This e-mail was straightened out by me calling the loan officer and asking him to directly contact the escrow officer. "Liz? She's great. Why is she looking for this?" The loan officer asked me. 

"Nope, she's on vacation." 

"Oh no," he said with the horror I was feeling. 

This money issue got resolved and I suspect the communication issue of the e-mail going to random strangers was also addressed, because the escrow branch manager stepped in and sent a few other e-mails shortly afterwards. 

Because we were still missing the money (this time the bank swears they sent it but the escrow officer couldn't find the wire), I called over and chatted a bit with Liz's boss. "Liz is not allowed to go on vacation again." I said. And given the weariness in her voice, I suspect I wasn't the only one who felt that way.