My office is missing something now
Please read
For a good reason. Let me explain.
Monday, a realtor we work with called me. The appraisal on one of her deals had just come back with conditions. Two of them.
One: the backyard shed, doors shot, had to be repaired or demolished.
Two: the water heater was missing a cover plate. A small piece of metal that covers the electrical connections. It costs about as much as lunch.
No fixes, no closing. And the reappraisal was already on the books, 48 hours out.
Here's the part that makes me laugh now: we had actually quoted work at this property a while back. It didn't move forward. That's fine, it happens. But the list didn't go anywhere. It just sat there, waiting for the worst possible moment to become urgent.
So the next morning we went out. The shed was demoed, loaded, and gone before the day was over.
Then came the cover plate.
ACE didn't have it. Home Depot didn't have it. Online, the part was two weeks out. The reappraisal was the next day.
A $10 piece of metal was about to push someone's closing by two weeks.
And then I remembered: there's a water heater in my own office. Same style. So I walked in, pulled the cover off my water heater, drove it over, and put it on theirs.
Reappraisal happened on time. Deal stayed on schedule. And somewhere in town there's a closing that has no idea it almost died over a piece of sheet metal.
(My office water heater is fine. Its replacement cover is on order. Two weeks, naturally.)
Here's what I want you to take from this: appraisal conditions are almost never big things. A broken shed door. A missing plate. But they show up at the very end of the deal, when there's zero slack left in the calendar and suddenly the smallest item on the property controls the whole closing.
So if a deal is ever hanging on a repair list or you've got a punch list that's been quietly waiting for its moment, send it over. We move fast. And if the calendar demands it, we'll raid our own building.
Talk soon, Peyton, We Build We Fix
P.S. Next time I want to tell you about how a $50 fix almost cost my clients seller $5000