I've learned in my real estate career that running a real estate business is one of the most rewarding, and un-predictable businesses I've ever ran. I feel this is mostly in due to the problems that can arise, and it seems that there is an endless stream of new ones each day.

There comes a point that you have to seperate yourself from the problem, and focus on the solution. Unless due to an obvious lack of attention, communication, or expertise, a real estate agent WILL througout the course of his/her career encounter numerous obstacles to making their client's experience with the real estate transaction a smooth one.

With that said, the reaction to a problem, both time-wise and action taken, is more of a gauge on whether or not the individuals involved in your real estate transaction are doing a good job.

I do see some things that could have been done to avoid these issues. This is to learn from the experience, not really to hone in on how someone could of done better.

1) When in a contract-to-close situation, and I represent the seller, there are great, and revealing questions to ask the buyer's agent and their lender to REALLY get the status of the file. I ask questions like, "Is the file out of underwriting?" or "Has the file be sent to underwriting?" and "Have all buyer contingencies been met?". If this question would have been asked in your situation, you would of received a "no" which would of then triggered to your agent, hopefully, to call you in advance and warn you of a possible problem. This way you could have prepared emotionally and with your timing of scheduling your movers, utilities, etc.

2) A client last year proposed this and we've been doing it ever since. My office uses traditional master brand lockboxes that are easily removed and re-programmed. When putting a home on the market, I educate my clients on how to change a combination, and each week I instruct them to change it to a new number for security reasons. Is this cautionary task necessary? Maybe not, but then again it may save an agent thinking they can just come back when they want.

Even with supra keyboxes agents can get in at any time, so that's why we stick with the manual four-digit combo lockboxes.

Now, these are just suggestions and I want you to know that from what you've said in your post, it sounds like you did nothing wrong. These kinds of things happen in real estate, and unfortunately you cannot control the situation to the point to where you are 100% sure a deal will close.

As Ron mentioned as well, the subprime market is going through some adjustment at the moments, so deals are falling apart. If you get an offer with an approval letter with a high interest rate and 100% finance, this deal may be subprime and your agent needs to advise you to take precautions and be more inquisitive on the true likelyhood of having closing issues with this particular buyer.

I hope this helps!

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Steve Castaneda, Realtor
Keller Williams Realty
The MyHomeHouston Team

Specializing in Houston Real Estate. Feel free to visit my Houston Real Estate Blog or read about Real Estate Technology for agents.

I really feel sorry for this

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Pj,

Sorry to hear about your experience. Not to be funny but welcome to the world of real estate. I would say in the future don't put yourself in a 30 day crunch. Allow yourself more time just incase something like this hapens. Also, there is something called a lender commitment. You should try to get this at least 1 week before closing. It assures you that there is a 99.9% chance of the deal closing on your closing date.

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