The Worst Transaction I Ever Had

The worst transaction I ever had was one where my clients were unhappy at the end. It was unfortunate because in that situation I felt like I had done everything I could do but it didn't end as I expected.

Back in 2013, the market was still kind of recovering but there are tons of places on the market and there are not very many offers out there. It was way different than today. My clients wanted to purchase a property.

They were in a three-on-a-lot townhome in Redondo Beach and they wanted to purchase the middle unit right next door for the brother of one of my buyers. This home was on the market from an agent who was less than forthcoming and I knew I was the only offer in the situation. We got through the process of getting into escrow. We got the exact property my clients wanted. We're in the investigation stage and there's a leak under the kitchen, faucet, and some things were wrong with the house. These homes that we buy most of the time are not brand new so there's always something and, a lot of times, you negotiate for these things but the seller also has no obligation to give you any repairs. We were negotiating pretty hard for repairs trying to get everything taken care of. The seller at the time was was unwilling to do most of them. I think the repairs totaled like $1500.

We're arguing over $1500 and the seller won't give it to us and started to cancel. I was explaining this to my clients, telling them that the sellers don't have any obligation to give them anything. My clients accused me of the other side. I was pretty upset because I fought hard to get this particular place into escrow, did all the inspections, did everything well, and, over $1500, I had lost the trust of my clients. That was a little rough. We ended up closing and got a phone call from the wife of the buyer and she just threw uncensored criticism of the whole process at me which makes it easily the worst transaction I've ever had.

We worked hard for that one in a tough market. I haven't spoken to that family since. They're not repeat clients. That was a long time ago. I've moved on but I'd say that was definitely the worst transaction I've ever had.