Gui's Story, Part IV - How is it that there could be a Part IV to this story when I wrote on February 14 that Gui would be closing on his Las Vegas investment home in 10 days?!

I'm very patient and quite accustomed to dealing with difficult people. It's very, very rare that I've ever had to fire a client. Gui is lucky I have a sense of humor.

Once Gui finally had an offer accepted, he came to view the house again. He brought with him a friend, another very nice gentleman who also lives in San Diego. Although Gui already had a home in escrow, he wanted to accompany us while I showed his friend houses in the same neighborhood.

Naturally, Gui found another home he liked better. That can happen when you are buying an investment home; after all, you're not in love with a home you are buying for your portfolio. So I had to extricate Gui from an escrow, which tends to tick off the seller. Since this occurred during the time period when prices were dropping rapidly, I knew I was protecting my client's interests when we found the same home, in much better condition, for $5,000 less.

I happily reported that Gui's Story was nearing an end on February 14.

By February 17, Gui and his mortgage agent had seemingly been victims of alien abduction. The sales contract gave the mortgage agent permission to provide loan updates to the seller, yet for two weeks I was unable to get a return call from Gui or his mortgage agent. The title company wasn't pressing us to close; no news was good news as far as I was concerned.

When I suddenly got an email from Gui's mortgage agent on March 4 telling me that loan docs were ready, it was like hearing from a ghost from the past. The e-mail came one day after I finally had to inform the seller's agent that my client had disappeared. After all, we were to have closed escrow on February 22.

The loan agent was carrying out my client's wishes by ignoring my calls. Once I got my client to understand that the due diligence period had expired and he was going to lose his earnest money, suddenly the loan docs -- and the mortgage agent -- materialized. But was it too late to salvage the escrow?

Incredibly, the title company had made a computer error, and the seller assumed the delay was the fault of the title agent, whom the seller had selected. We were thus able to get the extension we need. Incredibly, docs were signed yesterday -- long after this deal should have been dead.

Keeping your agent guessing makes it really tough to represent your best interests. Like I said, Gui's lucky I have a sense of humor and was willing to help him revive this. I'm sure that mortgage agent thought he was helping Gui. However, if it weren't for the title company's snafu Gui would have lost his earnest money when he failed to perform on a contract.

Some mortgage agents don't know when they are hurting their client. Nevada mortgage agents don't have to sign a Duties Owed form that formalizes their commitment to represent their client's best interests. While I won't name names, there's an agent out here that will never hear me say a positive word about him when I'm asked for a referral.

I'm not holding my breath waiting for this one to close. And I'm hoping the next time my readers hear about Gui, it will be in a sequel rather than a chapter titled Part V.

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