this post about 2 months ago. Well, I have an exciting update, and an interesting study in real estate transactions. We successfully closed on the condo today, after filing a lawsuit and essentially giving the seller no option but to sell us the property. Initially, I think he felt we would just go away when he refused to sell it to us.. unfortunately, he didn’t realize he was dealing with someone who does a lot of real estate and knows his rights. While it was a stressful process (never mind the $20,000 legal bill), it feels great to come out as the new owners of the unit. It’s absolutely fantastic, and in the end, the effort was absolutely worth it. I think what I learned most through this experience is that you can NEVER predict what someone is going to do, and you always have to hope for the best, but plan for the worst. I never expected this guy to try and back out of the contract to begin with. Then, when he did, he committed he would do whatever he needed to in order to “make it right” for us. I took him at his word, but found out it was worth nothing. A very powerful phrase I learned from a guy named John Burley many years ago was, “When someone shows you who they are . . . believe them.” And that philosophy has served me well over the years. For some reason, in this case, I didn’t apply it, and was surprised by the seller’s lack of integrity. The good news, however, was that I was hoping for the best, but had planned for the worst. Had I not taken immediate action to try and protect our interest and position, it’s likely that this guy could have weaseled his way out of the deal. Because I took immediate legal action (starting with filing a lien on the property), it put me into a position where we had leverage, and could force him to live up to the terms of the contract. In the end, we’re thrilled to finally have our Canmore getaway property that we can now enjoy for many years to come. With it being so close to the creek and rivers, with miles of trails out the back door, our brood of puppies is also going to enjoy being up there a lot!]]>