A Few Words

Mr. Williams, the seller of a country ranchette on the outskirts of town, pounced on my Buyer and me.

“Hey, how ya’ll doin’ come on in and have a look around I was just gettin the rider mower tuned up out there in the shop it’s a beauty the shop I mean but the mower’s a good little number too it runs like there’s no tomorrow and I use it for all kinds of stuff what with this place being so big and all and private too anyway like I was sayin that shop’s a beauty with 220 power and you-name-it because when we built this place it was a no-holds-barred kind of a deal as far as I was concerned you know when the contractor asked if I wanted this or that I said just make it the best and I’m talkin the whole Mary Ann not just the shop I’m talkin the house and everything like this open-beamed ceiling right here those aren’t toothpicks up there those are four-by-twelve laminated beams engineered for span all the way up to that ridge beam which is nineteen-and-a-half feet in the air from the floor we’re standing on so you from around here?”

Later, I asked my buyer, Mr. Lansing, how he liked the property. Mr. Lansing was a man a few words.

“Well, I have a few questions,” he said.

I called the Listing Agent. I was tempted to ask her how in the world she could ever manage to get a word in edgewise with her seller, but instead I told her my buyer had a few questions, and that we had met her seller, Mr. Will-

“Oh that’s wonderful,” she said, “and I’m glad you got to meet Mr. Williams who is just a great guy not to mention a wealth of information about the property which he is so proud of and rightfully so because it was built with such quality and oh my goodness I hope you got to meet Mrs. Williams just a sweetheart of a lady and the both of them are so nice and a pleasure to work with I just feel so fortunate to have them as clients and I know they’ll be conscientious sellers and there won’t be many repairs to negotiate because the place is so well-maintained and Mr. Williams is always willing to do whatever it takes to make things right like he’s already done all the extras I recommended for preparing for selling so what are your questions?”

Mr. Lansing bought that property without having too say much at all.