on the market. The perfect buyer came along and made a full- price offer for the home. The seller and the buyer signed a contract, and the buyer started working on financing. However, the buyer ran into a problem with the financing and canceled the contract. The seller told the story to an agent. It turns out that the problem the buyer had was completely solvable. However, the seller didn’t know how to solve it. As a result, the buyer couldn’t obtain financing to buy the home. The agent is confident that if he had been involved in the sale, the buyer would have obtained financing and bought the home. Unfortunately, the seller had to put the home back on the market. It took another five months to sell. The seller had to pay an additional five months’ worth of mortgage payments, property tax payments, and homeowner’s insurance premiums. In addition, she had to maintain the lawn, pay the electric bill, and take care of the property. This reminds me of the old story of the importance of “Knowing Where to Tap.” Have you ever heard the story? Here’s the short version: A huge steamship boiler system was not working properly. The steamship captain hired a top boiler expert to fix it. The expert asked a few questions and inspected the boiler room. He looked at the pipes that twisted and turned every which-way and listened to the boiler and all the machinery. He studied the problem, reached into his tools, and grabbed a small hammer. He gently tapped one valve, and— voilà! —the problem was fixed. He sent a bill for $1,000 to the owner of the steamship.
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