up the transaction, and to find a way to best serve those people. Given the different life experiences that people bring to a transaction, we had to strive to find out the things that were important for them, the things that would make the purchase or sale a “success” in their terms. We knew that if we made real estate “real” and provided honest effort and communication, our clients would have a better experience and we’d benefit in the long run.

Even though commissions drive our business, we don’t even calculate commissions on a closing until the attorney prepares the closing statement. It’s a way of not getting tangled up in the dollars and cents and forces us to focus on the best possible service.

What does that mean in the real world?

Well, once a corporate client contacted us about selling a home for an elderly couple who, due to failing health and mounting medical bills, were about to lose their home of 40+ years.

We met with the home owners, we found they had already moved out in anticipation of the pending foreclosure. We also found the house to be in run down condition because these folks had neither the money nor the energy to maintain things. We negotiated with the corporate seller on their behalf and got the company to accept nearly $ 50,000 less than what was owed on the mortgage. This is termed "satisfaction of the loan" (no foreclosure), and we were able to sell the home.

At closing, we learned that the elderly couple owed a year’s worth of back taxes (about $ 700), which they didn’t have. There was just no way we were going to allow these nice folks to lose the sale of their home, so we paid their taxes. In case you’re thinking it was a huge commission, the taxes represented more than half of what we were expecting to make.

When we got ready to leave the closing table, the home sold and burden lifted, that precious woman actually hugged me and we all cried! That’s when we knew we’d gone beyond “the deal”.