YOUR KARMA RAN OVER MY DOGMA

I couldn't resist that 'subject' heading. One of my favourite bumper stickers of all time. Anyhow, this story should remind everyone of the simple fact that what comes around, goes around. You reap what you sow. Good things happen to good people and vica versa. O.k., here goes.

I had a co-listing with another realtor in my office of a rather large, new home. It was even a total fluke that I got the house to list in the first place.  I just happened to leave the area where our Monday morning meeting was taking place and I bumped into a developer who had just strolled into the building.  I said, 'can I help you' and he said 'I've just finished building a $1.4 million dollar home and I need a new realtor, mine sucks".  I dropped to my knees and, between major grovelling, began spit-shining his shoes immediately.  He hired me.  I decided to co-list it with a realtor in my office who specializes with the 'older' crowd.  Suffice to say, the commission was substantial and I (we) really wanted to sell the house.

We had the listing for a 3 month period. We soon discovered we also had a very impatient builder who needed the money and it had already been on the market 1 year with his other realtor.   We also realized we were flogging a dead horse. This house had had more people through it than the Playboy Mansion and the quality wasn't exactly fantastic.

Now, right around the same time period, my dear mother had sent me some birthday money. I don't want to get into the issue of why my mother still insists on sending her semi-successful son birthday money but I usually say 'thanks' and deposit it into my daughter's account. However, this time my mother and I were in a tiff and I tried to refuse it and she got upset to say the least.

I was driving home one day and I saw a large sign posted outside of a rather ramshackled house that basically indicated that the tenant living there was furious at whoever stole her poor son's bicycle. She wrote on the sign how devastated he was and how she couldn't understand how anyone could do that to a poor, 12 year old boy.

To make a long story short, I thought 'what the hell' and put $140.00 into an envelope and shoved it through her mail slot. My daughter wouldn't miss it I figured, she was only 3 months old at the time.  She'll have plenty of time to hate me when I'm a teenage. 

This is where the Karma of this story gets very interesting.  The very next day, with only 1 week to go before we lost the listing, two people walked through the front door for the first time in 12 days.  They wrote an offer within 6 hours and purchased that house with very little negotiating. The final price? $1.3 million dollars. 

MOTS--If that story isn't karma, I don't know what is. I've never forgotten that lesson. I probably should have gone back and shoved half the commission under that Mother's door.