Friday, I had a settlement. For real estate agents, settlements are a good thing. They mean that, among other things, we got through the transaction, resolved all the issues that inevitably arise, learned something, and helped the buyers and sellers move on to happy lives in new homes.

That’s what happened on Friday.

This was one of the most challenging transactions of my long career. It involved a beautiful turn-of-the-century Victorian bayfront house, some dear friends who were buying it, really nice sellers, and dedicated DC government employees.

And like most of my transactions, my clients (the buyers) included a lawyer. The seller was a “for sale by owner” who was also a lawyer. She had purchased it from a lawyer, and the basement apartment (the sourse of the complications) was rented out to two young lawyers who conveyed.

When things go awry under these circumstances, it can be a real estate agent’s worst nightmare!

The seller thought the basement apartment had a crucial little piece of paper on file with the DC government called a “certificate of occupancy” that made the apartment legal, and she included this representation is her listing materials and fact sheet. This was a huge plus for my buyers and the main reason they chose this house.

Soon after the contract was ratified, I made a trip to the office that keeps track of these papers, and it was missing from the filing, along with all of the building permits covering two major renovations.

Yikes!

There were a few times after that when I thought it might go south.

It didn’t.

The District employees were amazing, searching the bowels of the archives for 40 year old records. And they were really helpful as we tried to figure out how to fix things, turning what seemed like daunting red tape and paperwork into something manageable.

I won’t go into all the gorey details, but at Friday afternoon’s signing ceremony, I realized that we made it through with both buyer and seller behaving like lawyers, but behaving like good lawyers.

During the thorny process of working it all out, everyone was respectful, kept a sense of humor when possible, and there wasn’t any “You’re bad and wrong!” or “No, you’re bad and wrong!”

At the end of the day, there were lots of congratulatory emails. The sellers are delighted to join the ranks of the “second homeless”, and I am really happy to have wonderful old friends headed back to DC!