There’s a guy who I’ve been calling every week for a while. What’s most surprising to me is that he’s never once been like, “Why are you calling me every week?”. It’s always been a little update even when he’s really saying nothing new.

I’d love to say that I’m just that diligent. I’m not. My client is. I have a buyer client that I represent only in this purchase (which may never happen), and he sends me a gentle text every week on the day that I say I’ll follow up with the seller again.

This began as an invitation to list the property. It’s an 11-unit apartment building in a small town near where I live. I prepared a market analysis without having seen the units, just to give him a down-and-dirty estimate of the value to begin with.

He went cold after we went back and forth a couple of times. I kept on him a bit but my spirits were flagging after about a month or two of checking in.

Then I met Mr. Buyer. He reached out to me cold after finding me on LoopNet, asking if I had any buildings like this one. I told him that I might have a listing coming on with 11 units in it and that it sounds like it would fit what he was looking for quite well actually.

Now I get to call the seller with a purpose! I have a buyer. He listened, intrigued, and asked if this guy had mailed him. He was fascinated that people actually wanted to buy buildings like this now (it had been owned by his LLC and others he owned and partnered on since the late ’70s).

Then he abruptly ended the conversation by saying something similar to “uh-huh, right, right, right, okay. Okay. Good. Sounds good. Good. Yup. See ya later. Bye,” all in fairly quick succession without me saying anything other than “bye” at the end. It’s one way to end a conversation. (It’s also the way he ends every phone conversation, I’ve since learned.)

Fast forward a week. I call again. Little update. Has some other buyers who might be interested (that mailed him last year and who he called). Okay.

My guy decided to submit an offer. Now he’s contractually my guy (on this place anyway). Seller invites me over to see the units. Things are looking promising.

I look at the units. I offer feedback. I inquire about the offer. They express interest but nothing concrete. Still thinking about it.

Another week. I call. Similar thing. The other buyer is working on getting more buyers to partner. Still interested in our offer (but it’s low), just want to see how much they can get for it. Don’t want to expose it to the market because then the tenants will know. That could be messy.

Okay. Next week. I call again.

Gotten keys from some of the units. Many of them are nicer than the ones I saw in person. There’s a lot of potential here. Do I have any idea about building code in this town as it relates to second form of egress? No? Okay. Still thinking about it. Buyers are still trying to find other partners. Bye.

This went on and has gone on now for five months, maybe six?

Every week, I put a new task in my calendar to call this guy. Every week, my client texts me and asks for an update.

Today was that day of the week. I called. Voicemail. I had a challenging day today (as well as yesterday). It’s the end of my day. He calls back. I answer. One of the first things he says is he asks me what the listing fee is. I know where this is going! I answer adeptly and I explain that that includes buyer agency as well. He asks a clarifying question. I explain. Finally! I’ve been at this stupid thing altogether since January (August 29th today), and calling weekly for close to four or five months. I’ve had a tough couple days baby, but this is going to make it all worth it!

He next asks if I know why his buyers backed out.

I say that I don’t. He explains various things regarding the width of one of the stairwells, that there’s a support beam too close to a header and they’ve taken water there before, and something he wasn’t sure about concerning the foundation.

I listen and make understanding noises as he talks.

After 10 minutes of this, he says they still have a lot to think about. He makes no committal indications of anything.

Well, it would have been nice…

What did I do? Cry into my keyboard and wish that my fucking day would lighten just a little bit?

I set the reminder to call him next week.