{"id":357,"date":"2010-07-09T13:39:31","date_gmt":"2010-07-09T13:39:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.topbev.com\/?p=357"},"modified":"2010-07-09T13:39:31","modified_gmt":"2010-07-09T13:39:31","slug":"throwing-out-the-baby-with-the-bath-water-make-sure-your-associations-with-other-professionals-dont-bring-you-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.topbev.com\/?p=357","title":{"rendered":"Throwing Out the Baby with the Bath Water&#8211;Make sure your &#8220;Associations&#8221; with other Professionals don&#8217;t bring you Down"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I swear, it was not my fault. In my mind, every closing in which I,or my firm participated, was handled promptly and professionally. We even conducted the closings &#8220;on-site&#8221; to make it easier for the 30 or so purchasers of the Condominium Units. Toward the end of the process, I started to see what the problem was. The mortgage loan originator, who brought my firm to the deal, and introduced me to the very talented and helpful Realtor whose commitment to this project was total had totally &#8220;dropped the ball&#8221;. Phone calls were not returned by the originator; data was requested from Borrowers two, sometimes three, times for the same piece of paper or information. The level of frustration was high, and I could feel it as I closed successive loans.<\/p>\n<p>The transactions are now completed, and the project is sold out. I often get future business from people whom I have met at closings. There has not been one from this set of closings. I thought my rapport with the listing Realtor was excellent. She and I had spoken about how she wanted to get me involved in future deals. She doesn&#8217;t even return my emails or phone calls.<\/p>\n<p>It is apparent to me that I have been tossed down the drain by my association with this originator and this lender. Since I was the closing agent, I must be involved with the problem. As most of you know, that is not really the case. My law firm is independent from this, or any other, lender. We review the title, prepare the closing documents and conduct the closings. We operate under a set of ethical rules which are governed by our State Bar Association.<\/p>\n<p>Regrettably, none of this seems to matter to the purchasers or the listing agent. The purpose of this post is not to rant. It is to caution all of you that you need to be extremely careful with whom you associate in your business dealings. Bad behavior, or negligence, on the part of the Realtor, mortgage professional or attorney or escrow agent can drag you down, even if you performed your part of the transaction flawlessly. My late, great father had an expression, &#8220;Tell me who your friends are, and I will tell you who you are&#8221; It would appear that the wisdom of this truism applies to our respective professional lives as much, or more, than our personal lives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I swear, it was not my fault. In my mind, every closing in which I,or my firm participated, was handled promptly and professionally. We even conducted the closings &#8220;on-site&#8221; to make it easier for the 30 or so purchasers of the Condominium Units. Toward the end of the process, I started to see what the &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.topbev.com\/?p=357\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Throwing Out the Baby with the Bath Water&#8211;Make sure your &#8220;Associations&#8221; with other Professionals don&#8217;t bring you Down<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[40,1],"tags":[232],"class_list":["post-357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-closing","category-uncategorized","tag-guilt-by-association-in-real-estate-transaction"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":292,"url":"https:\/\/blog.topbev.com\/?p=292","url_meta":{"origin":357,"position":0},"title":"Post-Closing Checklists&#8211;The work is not done until it is done","date":"July 2, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"As a Massachusetts real estate attorney, my role in the closing is different from attorneys in almost every other state. Not only do I conduct the closing, and attempt to explain matters to the parties involved while I am doing same, my firm also researches the title, writes the title\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;closing&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":199,"url":"https:\/\/blog.topbev.com\/?p=199","url_meta":{"origin":357,"position":1},"title":"The Closing Table&#8211;A Venue for Marketing!!!","date":"June 29, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"As a Massachusetts title attorney with over 40 years of closing experience, I am often shocked at the number of missed opportunities for marketing that the closing table presents. For my own part, I view the closing table as a chance to market my law firm and to provide the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;closing&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":156,"url":"https:\/\/blog.topbev.com\/?p=156","url_meta":{"origin":357,"position":2},"title":"The Resource Triangle&#8211;&#8220;Three&#8221; who can make it Happen","date":"June 24, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"As I have evolved from an attorney who sat in my office and waited for the phone to ring into a realist who started to understand that marketing is an essential part of doing business, one thing became clearer and clearer. My best efforts involved finding motivated and talented realtors\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Marketing \/ Communication&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":154,"url":"https:\/\/blog.topbev.com\/?p=154","url_meta":{"origin":357,"position":3},"title":"The Perfect Closing-One Lawyer&#8217;s Dream","date":"June 24, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Strangely enough, after more than forty years of doing residential closings, I cannot remember one closing which was perfect in every way. My state, Massachusetts, still has lawyer's serving as closing agents and also reviewing the title and writing the title insurance. This means that my firm, Topkins & Bevans,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"assistance to all parties\"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":140,"url":"https:\/\/blog.topbev.com\/?p=140","url_meta":{"origin":357,"position":4},"title":"New Restrictive Financing Guidelines are Killing our Industry-A Call to Action","date":"June 23, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"In a recent article in the New York TIMES,\u00a0problems besetting our industry were the main focus. Examples of people who had committed to purchase as yet unbuilt homes, free standing and condominiums,\u00a0 and were now\u00a0\"trapped\" by new FNMA\/FHLMC Guidelines, which have made many financing programs much more restrictive, in terms\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"fhlms\"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":205,"url":"https:\/\/blog.topbev.com\/?p=205","url_meta":{"origin":357,"position":5},"title":"Perfecting Your Persona&#8211;Being Different Is Not Enough","date":"June 29, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"While acting as a real estate professional, working on purchase and sale agreements, leases, real estate closings and the like, has been interesting, I must admit that nothing in my over 40 years of practicing has been elevated to the status of \"earth-shattering\" or even unique. What I do every\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Marketing \/ Communication&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.topbev.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.topbev.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.topbev.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.topbev.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.topbev.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=357"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.topbev.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":812,"href":"https:\/\/blog.topbev.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357\/revisions\/812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.topbev.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.topbev.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.topbev.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}