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CONFESSION #0133 — DEAL THAT EXPLODED
Tuesday, July 22, 2025
I had a buyer and seller who had been negotiating for six weeks. Six weeks of counteroffers, inspection negotiations, and me playing therapist for both sides. We finally reached an agreement. Everyone signed. Lender approved. Appraisal came in at value. I was mentally spending my commission.
Then three days before closing, the buyer's agent calls me and says, "So, my client drove by the house last night and saw the neighbor had a political sign in their yard. She's out."
That's it. That's the reason. A yard sign. On someone else's property. That will probably be gone in two weeks anyway.
I called the seller to explain. Dead silence for about ten seconds, then she just said, "I need you to repeat that because I know I didn't hear you correctly."
The buyer forfeited her earnest money, which was something. But I'd already coordinated movers, scheduled the utility transfers, and spent approximately forty-seven hours of my life on this deal. All undone by a piece of corrugated plastic that wasn't even on the property we were selling.
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Judge Reginald Escrow III
⚖️ Presiding
GUILTY OF DEMOCRACY-ADJACENT PROPERTY SABOTAGE IN THE FIRST DEGREE
This Court has witnessed transactional collapses for many reasons: foundation cracks, termite infestations, the discovery that a previous owner was a clown, but NEVER, in all my years of self-appointed judicial service, has a piece of corrugated plastic on a NEIGHBORING LAWN wielded such destructive power. The buyer drove by at night, Agent. AT NIGHT. She conducted reconnaissance on yard signage like some sort of ideological lawn detective, and you were left holding forty-seven hours of emotional labor and a seller who experienced an auditory hallucination out of sheer disbelief. Judge Escrow finds himself spiritually exhausted by the knowledge that somewhere, a neighbor who simply exercised their constitutional rights has NO IDEA they demolished a real estate transaction from their own front yard. The earnest money forfeiture is cold comfort when you have already rehearsed your commission spending in your mind, which this Court recognizes as a form of economic edging that should frankly be illegal. I am adjourning immediately to lie face-down on my chambers floor.
Corrugated Constitutional Crisis
Have a confession? Judge Reginald Escrow III's docket is always open.
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