Sometimes you do everything right and still lose the deal! 
Here's the part of real estate you won't see on Selling Sunset: we can spend weeks - sometimes months - pumping time (countless hours), money, (I'm talking THOUSANDS of dollars), and every ounce of energy into selling a home...and still walk away with zero dollars. No salary, no "thanks for trying" check, not even reimbursement for your gas money. If it doesn't close (with us), we don't get paid. Period!
This was one of those gut-wrenching turns of events that left everyone involved quite disgruntled.
We had incredible sellers. The kind you'd be happy to welcome to your home for dinner. The kind who trusted and supported our strategies and expertise. They trusted us with their home, and we want all in (like we do) with professional photos, an awesome listing video, staging guidance, a tailored marketing plan, paid ads, phone calls at all hours, endless behind-the-scenes strategies, etc. In no time at all we had it sold and were under contract with a buyer.
And then...the buyers got cold feet and walked away, vowing to continue renting. 
Yes, this was quite annoying. However, it was nothing we couldn't fix. We were about to relaunch when life threw us an even bigger, gnarlier curveball. One of our sellers received a job promotion that came with a healthy relocation package. This was great news - except for the fact that the relocation company would only honor the package if they used THEIR agent to sell the home. We fought it. Our brokerage fought it. Our clients fought it. Brad (a certified relocation expert, by the way) fought it. But the company had already promised the listing to one of "their" agents.
Needless to say, we lost the listing.
They sold their home with the relocation company's appointed agent. Unfortunately, they had a less than stellar experience in working with that agent.
All of this to say, this review from our sellers is extremely bittersweet and means an awful lot to us.
We didn't get the closing. We didn't get paid. However, we did get something money can't buy. We got clients who know we fought for them until the very last second - and who would choose or recommend us again in a heartbeat.
In this business, that's both heartbreaking and a big win.
The truth is, not every story gets a happy ending, but that doesn't mean you stop giving everything you've got - every time.
