THE INCREDIBLE TRIPLE CLOSING HIGH WIRE ACT or,

(In the words of Dierks Bently) WHAT WAS I THINKIN'?

So there we are squirming at the closing table at 10:45 a.m. on a Friday morning. The sellers are anxious because they must step into their U-Haul and drive three hours to a walk-through and the closing of the new house they are purchasing. The closing company told us we could pop in at 10:00 a.m. and sign the HUD-1, drop off the deed, collect the proceeds from the sale of the clients existing home, and have them off in time for them to attend the closing of their new home hours away.

A funny thing happened on the way to the triple closing. No, that is not a new sport in the upcoming Olympics. It is a daring high wire act performed by Realtors, attorneys, and closing agents when there are three contingency contracts in play and all scheduled to close on the same day.

The single overriding important factor in maintaining your balance on the high wire and not tumbling to earth in agony in this situation is HONESTY. A secondary factor in this performance is for the type A personalities to take a chill pill and allow the professionals do their jobs. Unfortunately in the real estate business, the population of successful pros seem to be littered with overbearing type A's. I'm not sure the cause but that will be a post for another day.

A quick description of the choreography involved in our high wire act is as follows. Client A is relocating 3 hours away and agrees to a contingency purchase offer from client B. Client B must sell their existing home prior to purchasing client A's home. The contingency is removed in a week and client A places a contingency offer on a property hours away owned by client C. Of course the flaw in the performance exists because all three homes must close on the same day. Another problem arises with the Client C property 3 hours away. Since the Realtor representing client C does not know any of the actors in the first two transactions, and because she is an overbearing type A personality that treats other Realtors she doesn't know as school children, she constantly harasses and complains to the parties involved in the first two transactions.

For all of you type A Realtors out there I offer the following. Just because they do "IT" a certain way in your market, and just because certain lenders, attorneys, Realtors, and mortgage brokers are oily in your market, does not make it "SO" in my market. So, in an effort to improve our professional image I suggest that you take a chill pill and allow the pros to do their jobs. Enough of the editorial and back to the main feature: the high wire triple closing on a single day.

After awaiting the HUD-1 that turned out to be 45 minutes late, the broker walks in with the correct documentation and a big fat check for my sellers. They happily jump into an overstuffed U-Haul truck and head down the highway to the final closing of the day.

A successful triple closing pulled off by a group of professionals in State College, PA. with a bit of static coming three hours away. It is incredible to think how real estate transactions are so connected and what a web they weave.

The pros pulled off a triple contingency closing on a single day without any difficulty and at a total value of more than $700,000. Of course some of us never doubted the outcome.