Advertisement
CONFESSION #0792 — HOA HORROR
Tuesday, August 18, 2026
We were in multiple offers. Three other buyers, my clients are already stretched, and the listing agent calls me and says the HOA just passed a special assessment. Twelve thousand dollars. Due at closing. She says it real casual, like she's telling me the pool hours changed.
And here's where I messed up. I told my clients it was probably negotiable. That the sellers might split it. I don't know why I said that. I had no reason to think that. I just wanted to keep them in the deal because we'd been looking for five months and they were exhausted and I was exhausted.
Sellers didn't split anything. My clients had to come up with an extra twelve grand in eight days. The wife cried on the phone. Not yelling, just quiet crying, which is worse.
I should have told them to walk. The numbers didn't work anymore. But I'd already said it was probably fine, so.
They closed. They're fine now, I think. We don't really talk.
Advertisement
Judge Reginald Escrow III
⚖️ Presiding
GUILTY OF RECKLESS OPTIMISM IN THE FIRST DEGREE WITH AGGRAVATED HOPIUM DISTRIBUTION
The Court has reviewed this confession and finds itself PHYSICALLY ILL at the phrase "probably negotiable" uttered with ZERO SUPPORTING EVIDENCE. You looked at exhausted clients, you heard quiet crying on a phone line, and somewhere in that five-month haze you decided to become a FORTUNE TELLER instead of a fiduciary. Reginald knows this feeling well, having once convinced himself that a third law school would "probably" accept his transcript from the second, which itself was "probably" going to overlook the incident with the dean's parking space. The listing agent dropped a twelve-thousand-dollar bomb on you like she was mentioning a POOL SCHEDULE CHANGE and you responded by handing your clients a WISH and calling it advice. "They're fine now, I think" is not a sentence a professional says, it is a sentence someone says at a parole hearing when asked about their former business partner. The quiet crying is IN THE RECORD, counsel, it is IN THE RECORD FOREVER, and The Court must now adjourn because Order the Roomba has begun circling the bench in what Reginald can only interpret as a vote of no confidence. VERDICT RENDERED, THIS COURT IS IN RECESS.
Weaponized Wishful Thinking
Have a confession? Judge Reginald Escrow III's docket is always open.
Advertisement