The Deal that was Meant to Be

March 2025 - what a month this has turned out to be. I'll be honest, there are a lot of heavy, impactful topics on my mind: tariffs, stagflation, tariffs, stock market correction, a potential recession, tariffs, job numbers, and tariffs. But, as we seem to be in such a state of flux that I can't quite find the thread or finish a complete thought on any of the above, I'm going to let the world work itself out a little longer before I take a position. Instead, I'd like to tell you about the house my wife and I recently bought; or more accurately, the beautiful deal we experienced.

If you're in sales, like me, you're well acquainted with the push, push, push/always be closing mentality that dominates most training and work cultures. The foundational premise behind this approach is that customers are inherently indecisive and are unlikely to buy unless their sales rep. creates some sense of urgency, fear of missing out, or successfully "educates" them into believing that their life will be worse off if they don't move forward this very minute. For better or worse, this does occasionally appear to bear true, and passivity seldom gets anyone anywhere in this economy. That said, when I reflect on the deals I've made - especially the homeruns - I can't help but recognize that there was an element of serendipity, predestination, or downright magic that led to them working out. This is exactly what happened with our new home.

To set the scene, my wife and I entered the housing market in the fall of 2021. We owned a one-bedroom condo at the time with a gorgeous, COVID era interest rate but knew that we'd soon outgrow it and that it can take while to find the right place so we figured there was no harm in looking. In January of 2022, a listing came up that really caught our eye. It was at the tippy top of our price range, but we went to the open house on a snowy Saturday afternoon and absolutely fell in love. It was a mid-century inspired, one owner in 45 years, top floor, duplex condo by the lake with tons of natural light, underground parking, 500 sqft of outdoor living space, wood burning fireplace (a lifelong desire of mine), walking distance to a METRA station, and in the exact neighborhood we liked... we. wanted. it. bad.

I remember calling our mortgage lender after leaving the open house and having a very "creative" conversation about what it would take for us to put in a competitive offer. It wasn't pretty. I'd just done our annual ROTH contributions and sacked some money into a CD - a 4.6% yield was a novel/enticing rate at the time - so we didn't quite have the 20% down payment in cash on hand, our work tenures were dangerously close to the 2-year thresholds banks like to see, and the interest rates were soul crushingly worse when compared to the place I'd bought in 2020. Ultimately, we decided it just wasn't the right time and walked away. We knew it'd be nearly impossible to find another place like this one but on we'd keep on looking, a few months went by, then a year, and then another few months.

In October of 2024 we fell in love again - not as hard this time around - but enough to offer asking price on a property the very first day it hit the market. We lost... our bid came in fourth. Disappointed, and over a pasta diner with a glass of red wine the following night, I told my wife we should put moving out of our heads for a while. Buyer competition was fierce, interest rates were still high, and maybe summer 2025 would just be a better time to look all-round. We agreed and committed to stepping back. I went to work the next day having forgotten about moving and she went on Zillow. For some inexplicable reason she thought of the place we'd loved almost two years ago and saved the listing to her profile. A few hours later she got a notification on her phone that that very unit had hit the market. As she tells it, she was on a Teams call and initially assumed it was spam but then took a double take and read the message as though it was a mirage.

She immediately called me and then we called our realtors and asked: "What do we have to do to make this happen!?"

We put an offer together and they called the seller to make it - site unseen and within hours of the property hitting the market.

The seller responded: "Thank you, but we just listed it and would really like to hold the open house tomorrow. We will be in touch after that."

We replied: "We have been thinking about this place for two years, give us a number."

They thanked us again but reiterated that they'd "be in touch after the open house."

We regrouped with our realtors and decided that all we could do was wait. I was sure there'd be a bidding war after the open house and that we'd lose it a second time. I left work and met a friend and his girlfriend for a Friday happy hour, somewhat preoccupied.

Around 9pm that night, my wife and I got an unexpected call from our realtors.

We answered: "Hello??"

"Here's the number," they replied.

"Done."

The next morning we were under contract. There would be no open house.

There's something beautiful about that deal. I love that it almost didn't happen, probably shouldn't have happened, and yet, it still happened. There are no KPIs to be learned nor sales tip or trick to be gained. My wife simply remembered and we took action on the right day and at the right time. It's as if it was meant to be - maybe that's what makes it special, maybe that's the way it always goes.

Thanks for reading and please feel free to reach out if you'd care to discuss any of this further, explore new opportunities, or hire with the Illyrian Group

312.544.9237 | [email protected]

#recruiting #sales #deals #luck