Years ago, I was selling a hotel in Nashville well before the internet, cell phones, email, and such. Back then I had to physically go to the closings if I wanted to get paid.

The closing was set for 9am, so I drove up to Nashville early that morning. When I got there the buyer was there with his attorney and my client (seller) was there with his attorney. The buyer was a good guy and a deeply religious man. We had discussed our faiths several times during the sales process.

When everyone was in the room, everyone got coffee and chatted and the two attorneys do what they usually do and that was talk about where they went to school and common people, they knew etc. By this time, it is now 9:40 that morning.  During the chatter between the attorneys, I noticed the buyer hadn’t said anything. A minute later he leaned across the table and told me that if he didn’t sign all the documents before 10am sharp we would have to reschedule the closing.

I calmly stood up and ask to speak with the seller and his attorney in the hallway. Once we were clear of the room, I told the seller and his attorney what the buyer said. I looked at the seller’s attorney and told him the buyer was represented by an attorney and to just slide the stack of documents over and let him instruct the buyer. It was now 9:45

We walked back in and the seller’s attorney did just what I had suggested. He told the buyer’s attorney of the time urgency and slid the documents over to him. The buyer started signing and 12 minutes later the deal was closed.

I felt like I needed a shower after that, but I learned a big lesson that day. When going into a meeting, always ask everyone how much time we have.  KT