There is nothing like a closing. Thankfully.

The truth is I hate closings, which are as ritualized as a religious service.

They never start on time. A key individual always is late. The amount of paperwork is oppressive, and the time taken for lawyerly explanations and writing signatures drags as slowly as a dial-up connection.

Photo by Orin Zebest

What brings up this topic is the closing I attended yesterday. I always go to see a transaction through to its conclusion and provide whatever comfort I can to invariably anxious clients.

Along with the buyer, whom I was not representing, I arrived 10 minutes early. The two of us sat in a downtown law office’s reception room with only five seats for the nine of us and anyone else who had business with the firm.

The buyer and I chatted while the other participants straggled in, wet as they were from the wind-whipped snow.

Finally, we were admitted into a conference room and took seats.

This broker’s style simply boggles the mind

There are brokers and, as everyone knows, there are brokers.  The lazy ones, the arrogant and the unquestionably rude ones such as the individual below (and the creature above) can be particularly hard to take.

Consider this smug one – call him Simon – who has several listings in the same historic building on Manhattan’s Upper West Side.

Let’s celebrate the BlackBerry Tour

Two friends of mine who sell real estate refuse to own a BlackBerry.  One younger than me says she is too old and experienced (after 25 years as a broker) to bother with “new” (!) technology.  The other says he doesn’t want to spend the money on such a PDA because clients always can reach him on the phone.

Neither reason worked for me years ago and certainly doesn’t work for me now.  But then, I am such a “CrackBerry” addict that I always have it with me and turned on, even carrying it room to room when I’m home.

The Blackberry Tour

I have depended on a BlackBerry (and, yes, too much so while driving during my years in in D.C.) since I began my real estate business in 2002.  I realized that many folks prefer the ease and speed of email and justifiably required an immediate response.  Further, they don’t want to be condemned to voicemail.

But the ability to shoot back an answer to an email isn’t the only benefit: With a BlackBerry you also can search the Internet, read and manipulate attachments, looks up all a contact’s information and easily be reminded of calendar items.

After owning, buying, losing, damaging and buying spare BlackBerries in a quantity greater than I care to remember, I have endured several of the same version so old that it had no cute name but only a number (7105T).