Realtor who tries to meet client’s specific needs earns business

Q: I recently read one of your columns in the paper. R and M.T. wrote that they inherited a property in a different state and wanted to sell it. They were being bothered with correspondences from people they thought wanted to buy the property. I think they would be amazed at how good the Realtors are there. We’re from Maryland, and our son and daughter still live there. I really think the Realtors there are better than the ones where we live. — askedith.com.

A: Years ago my husband, Norm, and I went to Montreal, Canada to settle his cousin’s estate. He was a reclusive hermit. We only had one day, a Sunday at that, to put this rundown, cluttered home on the market. Norm was an experienced Realtor, but we decided to drive around the neighborhood and call the phone numbers listed on Realtors’ lawn signs.

Three local brokers came over promptly. Two of them gave us standard presentations about how great they were, but the third paid attention to our situation.

He suggested about the same asking price the others did, but then he volunteered to take care of all sorts of matters that we wouldn’t be able to take care of living out of town:

Did we want him to arrange a cleanup crew for the house and call the post office first thing Monday? Had we found a key to the garage? Did we want to have an estate sale or offer the furniture to a specific charity?

He took the time to explain local procedures and how agents work with notaries.

He was great, so we just turned the whole process over to him. It all ended in a smooth closing three months later. Q: We are buying our first home, and our parents say we should not sign a contract until our lawyer has OK’d it. What if we find a house we need to bid on in a hurry? For instance, what if we see it on a Sunday? What’s your advice? — J. and S. W.

A: Most of the time lawyers are fine with offers written on standard contracts. To protect yourselves, you can sign a purchase offer and write, “Subject to the approval in form of my attorney” above your signature. That way you can make a written offer while reserving the right for your lawyer to object to provisions that don’t protect you. Theoretically, your attorney could even disapprove the whole contract, but that seldom happens.

Most lawyers refuse to give advice on price, by the way, feeling that is outside their field of expertise.

Contact Edith Lank at www.askedith.com, or at 240 Hemingway Drive, Rochester NY 14620.