In real estate, Timing Is Everything may have more than one meaning
My client, Shauna (not her real name) is businesslike and decisive. When she called me about selling her house. She was not hesitant. She had thought about the matter and she knew what she wanted to do. She was ready." I am moving to Florida. I discussed it with my husband and we are both in agreement. I want you to sell my house."
"When would you like me to come over to see it?" I asked.
"As soon as you can, I'd like to put it on the market this week." We agreed to meet the following day after her husband , John's scheduled medical appointment. About an hour into the appointment, Shauna called to say she would be delayed for our appointment becauseJohn was to be admitted to the hospital.
Shauna and I met the following day for our listing appointment. I made recommendations for preparing the home for sale and established a time line for doing so. Shauna is an ideal client. She agreed to follow my suggestions, reminding me that she had learned to appreciate my standards and values when I sold her mother's home two years earlier.
"The first time you worked for us I thought your were a pain in the ______ because I didn't understand what you were trying to do. But when I saw how quickly you got my mother's home sold, I was sold on you."
I told her that a successful transaction was always a joint effort. In working with her to sell her mother's home Shauna lived up to her side of our agreement, She followed my insructions to take control the aspects of the transaction that she could and was pleased with the favorable results she received.
Now, a year later, she did not hesitate to call me, she said, to sell her own home for her move to Florida. After a week on the market, however, the news from John's doctors suggested he would not be released soon to return home and it was unlikely he would be able to undertake a major move of the type he and Shauna were planning.
Shauna was tearful when we met. Sitting at her kitchen table, two calls came in from prospective buyers who wanted to view the property. In her usual decisive way, she told the agents she was taking her home off the market.
She explained to me that because of the uncertainties surrounding John's illness, she would postpone her plans. She requested a cancellation of the listing, at least for the time being.
I went to my office and prepared the amendment to terminate, returned to get her signature, removed the lockbox, and picked up my signs. There is a time and a season for everything.