The
Business of Trading Properties
Well
there is a whole new concept of real estate I never thought I’d encounter. In
fact, to this day I have no idea of how I managed to acquire the commercial
listings I did or even the buyers wanting to do business, but I did so I might
as well explain my view of the concept.
See,
the whole idea is that you’ve got your various properties, mortgages, money,
all with buyers and sellers wanting to make a deal to their own advantage. What
you do is to take all these things together and throw them all into the air.
How high you throw them depends on how complicated the deal gets. Then all
these things come drifting down like confetti until they all settle in their
rightful (new) place. It all makes perfect sense if you look at it that way
(once it all clears Land Titles). Well, that’s the concept anyway.
Enter
Mel Burry, lawyer and property manager whose client wanted to dispose of
several properties. I won’t go into details of how we met or how I was selected
to represent his client. Suffice it to say that I was our office’s “commercial”
agent.
Also
enter Russ Wright, a buyer who was interested in the properties I had
advertised. I call him Trader Russ. Russ had a keen interest in a medical
building I had for sale not too far from the Victoria Hospital. The building
was not very old and there was room for expansion. The only problem was that
Russ had a number of small residential rental units he owned or had equity in and
needed to dispose of in order to buy the building, but he was really keen on
doing the deal.
I
discussed the whole business with Mel. To my surprise he said, “Let me get back
to you.” A few days later he said, “Let’s have a list of what he’s got.”
It
took a couple of days but Trader Russ, obviously excited, brought me a fairly
detailed list of all his properties, including appraised value, mortgages
owing, equity etc. It was impressive. Well, we ‘back and forth’ed’ for a few
days, getting familiar with each other’s properties, and Russ put in a
complicated offer. I won’t bother you with the details, but it took some doing.
Finally, all done, Mel wanted to meet together with his client to clear up some
details and sign off on the thing.
We
met at my office, exchanged pleasantries and got down to business. It was a
fairly long discussion, what with all the details of the various properties,
values etc, but it all worked out in the end, except when it came to my
commission. Now with a million and a half worth of real estate, especially with
such a complicated sale, my commission was to be no chump change (at least in
my mind). Stephan the client however, had other ideas. In his mind I was just
the clerk who had put together a collection of things he might want and by way
of thanking me he would give me a measly $1,000 bucks which he thought was
generous enough.
This
was obviously not my way of thinking and it completely surprised me. Now I make
it a point to never get angry, but when called upon I can put up a pretty good
act, so I launched into a lengthy lecture about honesty and honor and the
commission rate signed on the listing agreement, and how I had been convinced
he was a man of his word and how disappointed I was at his character and I
don’t know what all else, but when I was done I was all out of breath and
pleased with my self-righteous tirade.
Stephan
sat there like a log of wood, eyes somewhat glazed over as though he hadn’t
heard anything I had said while big Mel seemed to shrink in his chair, turning
from a swarthy complexion to a pale white by the end of it. Stephan merely said
in a dead pan voice that was the deal – take it or leave it. I think I replied
with something like I would take it just to get rid of this whole messy
transaction and that he – Stephan could live with his conscience. He left
without shaking hands, leaving Mel and me sitting there.
“What
the . . . . Where did that come from?” he wanted to know.
“Not
bad eh?” I asked. “What’d you think?”
“I
thought I was listening to the Sermon on the Mount for a minute there and was
afraid you might be tagged. You just don’t deal with these Sicilian immigrants
like that. Maybe I should have told you more about them ahead of time.”
My
blood suddenly ran cold. Well, you know the rumors you hear about Sicilians and
the Mafia. Mel said, “I’ll see if I can fix it.”
Mel
obviously fixed it because the deal finally went through and I got my thousand bucks
and another listing to boot. So you see, everything came drifting down to fall
into its designated place.
Whew!
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