I had two closings slated for this week. Both deals were moving along swimmingly… the first one closed Tuesday, after the Memorial Day holiday. All done, everything smooth, all parties THRILLED. And then the seller didn’t get her wire proceeds. On Wednesday, the first wire was sent back to escrow… some issue with the For Credit To. The second one went out, and Thursday morning that bounced back again. My seller was freaking out: she was on the phone with her brokerage, the escrow company… Never happened to me before. The brokerage rep said all the instructions on the second wire looked perfect, and she was perplexed that the Federal Reserve sent it back. The escrow company then escalated to their accounting department. A third iteration was made. Meanwhile, I was feeling so frustrated. People have no idea the amount of work that happens behind the scenes shepherding all the details along. You get to the end, and all is beautiful and then this kind of shit crops up literally ruining the entire deal in one late fumble. All the client will remember now are the two days of stress when she didn’t get her money. All week I’ve been sleepless, frustrated by the pieces where I have no control. I started inquiring all the details for Plan B in case that third wire bounced back again. Could it be a glitch with the Federal Reserve (happened many months ago)? Should we try a different account to deposit the funds? If we went the route of a check, could a courier deliver to any branch and staff there make the deposit? How soon would the funds be available? All Wednesday afternoon and night, I’m making calls and mulling over the details. THANKFULLY, Thursday morning the funds finally arrived. First fire extinguished.

The second deal was supposed to close on Wednesday. Due to two of the three buyers being out of state AND the lender requiring all three to sign on the same document (no counterpart signing allowed), we had a notary sent out last Friday. After the signing, she was supposed to drop off the package to FedEx on Saturday, so it would be back in San Jose first thing on Tuesday morning after the holiday weekend. First, she dropped it off on Tuesday, so we didn’t get it until Wednesday. Second, she did a shit job stamping her notary acknowledgement page, meaning the rubber stamp was half-ass and completely illegible. When the escrow officer realized the stamp was not valid, she reached out to the notary to re-stamp and FedEx another page back (another day lost). The notary didn’t get back to her until the afternoon, and on top of that, the notary was on vacation out of town. Yup, FML. So that meant, all three buyers needed to re-sign with a different notary. Long story short, bc of this half-ass bullshit first notary (I mean, you have TWO jobs: stamp the files and drop off at FedEx), we were looking at a one week delay in closing, with financial consequences. I was so pissed; my buyers were so stressed and upset… again, we got to ONE DAY before closing with a very smooth deal and then shit hit the fan.

For the second deal, we had the buyers and a new notary hustle to re-sign. The second notary shared a scan of the signed file showing the clear stamped acknowledgement. The FedEx arrived this morning, and the lender is slated to fund shortly. Fingers crossed, this will get through the finish line later today. I can’t help but be a bit gun shy due to the random hiccups from this week, but it’s now as far along as we can take it.

In other news, after this very stressful week, I’m very happy about the unanimous Trump verdict. Wow, finally, there is no confusion or disagreement about his role in all this chaos. I’m disappointed that he can still run and he can still serve, but for now, what a day to feel some relief and redemption and faith that NOT all is lost.