What We Did When Our Deal Was Stolen

jail Have you ever wanted to kill someone and then gone as far as to think of ways to make that person think you might actually do it?

Preston Ely, and I haven’t. Yet. But if I had, it might have worked out something like this because of a phone call I got from my business partner…

Partner: Yo, you’re not gonna believe it.

Preston: What?

Partner: We just lost that deal.

Preston: How?

Partner: Someone called the seller, told him he worked with us, and that he
needed to come out to inspect the property. When he got there, he
told the seller we were total scam artists and were never planning
on closing the deal. He gave the seller a $500 check and put the
house under contract. They’re closing tomorrow.

Preston: (silence)

Partner: Hello?

Preston: You don’t happen to know the guy’s name, do you?

Partner: Yeah. It’s Mr. Thief. I have his number too.

Preston: Perfect. Text it to me.

Now, I thought about using Mr. Thief’s real name in this lesson, but decided to take the high road. This time.

Back to the story…

So, I called up Mr. Thief personally, told his receptionist who I was and who I wanted to speak with.

She sounded nervous: “He’s… ummm… unavailable.”

“Of course he is. Let him know that if I don’t receive a phone call back within 15 minutes… I’m showing up at his office. He’d probably prefer that didn’t happen.”

So that’s what we did.

My partner drove to the seller’s house, picked him up and drove out to the “new”
buyer’s office to settle the whole thing like men. Pistols and all.

steal I am only thankful – for Mr. Thief’s sake – that I was busy getting a relaxing massage and could not join them. Otherwise, I could be typing this lesson from a much different location.

Long Story Short

So, Mr. Thief was smart enough to file a Memorandum of Agreement with the county right after he got the contract. You have to be real smart like that in order to scam people regularly.

Remember this: If you want to scam people —> become smart first.

Now, Mr. Thief is lucky. He’s lucky because I’m a Christian. If I were NOT a Christian, he would have got beat up real bad. (Mr. Thief is smart, but he is also very, very, very much a wussy.)

So, what is a Memorandum of Agreement?

I’m glad you asked because that is the educational component of this lesson that I will devote at least one paragraph to.

A Memorandum of Agreement is a document (that all my VIP students have access to) that you use to pretty much screw up anyone else’s chances of ever buying your seller’s property.

Basically, you get the seller to sign it, take it to the county records department and file it. Then,
if anyone else tries to go behind you (or right in front of you as in our case) to steal your deal with the seller… they will not be able to close at a title company. The title will be clouded due to your Memorandum.

Good part about Memorandums ---> keeps your deal more secure.

Bad part about Memorandums ---> they’re a pain in the arse to expedite.

Well, Mr. Thief didn’t care about this pain because he knew it was his only hope to pull his scammy scam off.

So he filed it.

Seeing that we would be fighting a losing battle, we got him to write us a check for $3,000 just to walk away.

In the End

Remember, doing business is like playing poker. You have to know when to threaten a lawsuit and when not to.

Most lawsuits have no chance of ever standing up in court. But everyone knows you will pay an arm and a leg on both sides just to get through it.

Always keep that “move” up your sleeve for situations just like this.

Partner: Okay, Mr. Thief. No big deal. You’ll get a letter from our attorney in
the morning and we’ll handle it that way. (Knowing we would lose
if that ever happened.)

Mr. Thief: How about I write you a check for $2,000 just to go away?

Partner: Make it $3,000.

Mr. Thief: Okay, here ya go.

What is the moral of this story?

Be ethical, not scammy. And fight for what’s yours. A little legal knowledge is also helpful.