Real estate transactions can make people nervous. When an issue arises, it can seem to confirm all those fears about things going wrong.

Awhile ago, just before closing, the lawyer doing the titles search discovered that the road the house was on was not a town road as everyone — including the town road crew — had always thought, but in fact belonged to one of the three houses on that road. (You may have heard the expression: “They think they own the road.” Well in this case the neighbor did!) There was nothing in writing to guarantee access to the subject property. Because the purchase was to be financed, the lender would not approve of the mortgage unless that issue could be resolved. The buyer’s attorney determined that a notarized statement from the neighbor granting permanent permission to use the road would resolve the matter; but at first we could not contact the neighbor, and there was no guarantee that she would agree. Once we were able to approach her and explain the situation, she turned out to be a very nice person, and agreed without hesitation. What had appeared on Friday to be a monster of a problem, on Monday was only an “i” to be dotted.

It is not uncommon for a matter to arise on a Friday, keep everyone in a tizzy all weekend, only to be resolved easily on Monday. A now retired local Realtor® used to say: “Don’t stew about it all weekend…let it percolate.”

Recently, in a current transaction, there was a mix-up, and an appraiser who should not have been assigned the appraisal, showed up at the seller’s house without an appointment. The seller — not being sure what to do — let him in, and he began his work. It turned out that the mix-up occurred because the buyers had filled out an application with one bank, but, after shopping around, had decided to use a different bank for their loan. The first bank had never collected the application fee, but, thinking they would be financing the transaction, had ordered the appraisal. In the meantime, because of the mix-up, a second appraiser was scheduled to visit the property the following week. When the buyers, my clients, found out, they were very upset. They were concerned that they might be expected to pay two appraisal fees, and even worse, they feared that the sellers might not give access to the second appraiser.

When I spoke with the buyers, it was past the end of the business day on Friday. I gave them my personal guarantee that they would not have to pay two fees, and expressed confidence that, on Monday, we would work it out. I advised them to put the matter aside, fully enjoy the weekend, and to “let it percolate.” On Monday morning I called the lenders. Both were local bankers. I asked them to help us get out of the jam. The first bank agreed to assign the appraisal to the second bank. The second bank agreed to accept it and to call off the appraisal they had ordered. After “percolating” all weekend, the matter was easily resolved on Monday morning before 9 a.m.