Clients First: The Two Word Miracle

Keep the Clients

That’s when I asked JoAnn to repeat what she had just said.

She said, “Maybe we should undo it all. We’ll find the Smiths another buyer, and we’ll find the Browns another house. What matters is that we keep the clients.”

There it was.

We both remember it so well and so indelibly. That was the solution. It didn’t matter that we had shown the buyers 30 or more houses or that we had held five open houses at the 71st Street home. It was the right thing to do—because it was the right thing to do for our jeweler and the right thing to do for those twins. And that is what we did.

We waited for the inevitable question and when Mr. Smith asked what we thought, we told him the truth as we saw it. We told him we could go to the seller’s agent for the house they wanted to buy and ask for an extension. It was a risk, but they needed to hold out for a buyer willing to pay their price. He was relieved. I think his wife started to cry, although she covered it up. The Smiths explained that they had hardly slept for three nights.

When we told the Browns that their counteroffer had been rejected, I believe the same relief was there, but they acted disappointed. JoAnn assured them we would find another house for them, and when we left it was almost midnight with no moon in the sky and a drizzle in the air.