The Offer

I got in my car in a semi-dazed state, and immediately whipped out my Nokia phone to call Betty.  

 “My clients want to write an offer on the house in Berkeley Heights!!  Can you meet me at the office ASAP?” 

“Well, hello Jane.   Congratulations!   How terrific!   I can’t meet you at the office, but I am sure that after all the simulations we have gone through, you will be just fine.”

“What?” I thought feverishly.  “But this time there is a real, live client, who was not present during the simulations!!!!”  I hissed into the phone.  

As it turned out, I was able to find all the documents where Betty had organized them in little cubbies.   However, I was ready to cry as I  looked at each document —as if I had never laid eyes on it before.   

 In NJ, all contracts are prefaced by a mysteriously named, “Opinion 26.” I wracked my brain to try to remember its purpose, and reading the doc didn’t do much to help me.   Although I never was a huge sweat person, even during workouts at the gym, I discovered that my sweat glands were operating at optimal level, as my shirt began to feel damp.  The realization that I was responsible for guiding two trusting souls, sitting in the conference room right now,  in the purchase of their biggest asset made me exceedingly nervous.   

When nervous, I tend to frown excessively and my right eyebrow shoots up.   I sat down on the opposite side of the conference table from Talia and her husband, with the sheaf of documents that needed to be signed in front of me. I found solace as I looked at the “Offer for Purchase,” — especially the part where it asked for the Buyers names and their street address.  

When we got to the mortgage contingency, I meekly asked Talia if she had a pre-approval.    Answering in the affirmative, she passed the document across the table to me, and thankful for small favors, I gathered enough information to fill in the blanks.  

But then the home inspection clause.  “Why so many bloody words?” I thought.

I mentioned to my clients that they would want to do a home inspection, and left the amount of days blank.    Finally, we got to the signatures, and I made an executive decision to skip over the rest of the documents, and get my clients out of the office as quickly as possible.   

Of course the next day, everything looked better.   Betty talked me through the documents that Talia and Tony had signed.   She also explained that there were some missing pieces that they would need to sign before the offer could be submitted.   I arranged with Talia to drop off all the documents at her salon, and asked her to bring them home to Tony to sign and return the next day.

Looking back on all of this now, I am struck by how many days it took us to get this offer submitted.   That luxury of time just seems so quaint now.   Anyway, the offer was submitted and accepted in short order,  and then, I thought, I would be able to add real value and support to my clients during the home inspection.   Little did I know what lay ahead.