Crazy Hamptons Real Estate Stories: Dog Dies

Have one?  Want to share? Contact me and we’ll publish it here in this weekly column. – Dan

So I spent six months trying to sell this mansion on Further Lane. It’s owned by an older couple. She’s all for it. He’s waffling. But it gets listed. Finally, in the seventh month after I’ve knocked myself out with open houses and promotions, I get an offer for them. It’s just 5% below asking. It’s a go. Handshakes are made. Contracts are drawn up. But my seller – the man – won’t sign. He can’t do this, he says. I badger him. All this work. All right.  OK, he finally says, bring the contract over to the house Thursday at 1 p.m. and I’ll sign.

He’s sitting in the dark at his desk in the living room at that hour. I put the contract in front of him, give him a pen, and show him where to sign on the last page. Instead, he turns to the first page and slowly starts reading.   I sit. After a while, this very elderly dog, a golden retriever, walks in on unsteady legs, looks up lovingly at his master and then falls over on his side, blam.

My seller gets up, walks over to the dog, gets down on his hands and knees and examines him.

“He’s dead,” he says. There’s a long pause. Then he says “it’s an omen. I won’t sign.”

I say, “It’s an omen that its time to move on. Sign. And I’ll help you with your dog.”

And so he signs. There’ll be new owners on Further Lane.