Why? How? What? What?

I repeat WHY? at least 1,000 times a day in my head and probably a few too many times out loud. Why did this deal go bad? Why did this happen? Why do they think that? Why didn’t I say it this way not that way? Why did they list with them not me? Why didn’t we already know this? Why are they getting involved? Why on earth did they do that? Why hasn’t this been done yet? Why didn’t I see this coming?

Why… why… why?

The only thing that keeps me sane (please don’t laugh, I’m sane & I’m sticking to it) is going from Why? to How? and What? I usually try to allow myself a few minutes of whying and then I try to move on to more constructive thoughts and questions. How did this happen? What could we have done differently? What do we do from here? Some days that’s easier said than done.

Today is no different. Today I had a deal fall apart. Not just “a” deal but both sides of a deal, I represent both the buyer and the seller. Yep, as soon as I heard the bad news I could feel my blood pressure go up, tears of frustration welling up in my eyes, the muscles in my neck stiffen and the not so nice words swirling around in my head. But I took a couple of really deep breaths, took the dogs outside for a 5 minute walk (I’m working from home today, internet at the office is down) and did everything I could NOT to think about it for a few minutes.

Once I calmed down a little and after I had talked to the buyer, the lender, the seller and made sure our closing department knew to stop everything,  I went back to WHY? Why did this happen? No finger pointing, just the facts. Then I moved on to HOW? Again, just the facts are important here. Then immediately asked myself WHAT could I/we have done differently? In this case there are a couple of little things I found & noted we could have done, a lot of this one was out of our control and probably wouldn’t have changed the outcome. And most importantly, I asked WHAT do we do from here?

There are more steps to cancelling a deal than one would think, so we’ll get started on those things and the paperwork asap. I’ve also got to work with the buyer and the seller to get new plans of action in place for each of them moving forward. Then I went back over those “little things” that I noted we could have maybe done different… I added another reminder a little earlier in the process for the buyer, I added another email to the buyer program in our pending communications, I added another item on the pending checklist to ask the lender and a I made a mental note that sometimes things out of our control happen.