A sentence in his email cost him a lead and cost me $2,400

Passed a pre-foreclosure to a buyer I hadn't worked with before. Single family, 1,800 square feet, owner about eleven months behind, and I'd had two long conversations with her. She'd told me she wanted to keep the house if there was any way to and sell if there wasn't. I sent that verbatim, along with her name and the filing date.

His reply offered $2,400 on close and included this: "go back and get her to sign the assignment paperwork, I'll email it over, then we'll talk about your fee."

That's not a lead handoff. That's asking me to put a property under contract on his behalf and get a homeowner's signature on documents I didn't write, don't understand, and am not a party to. My whole basis for doing this without a license is that I pass information and never touch the transaction. Whether that specific act would cross my state's licensing line is a question for an attorney in my state, and the fact that I'd have to ask is itself the answer for me.

I wrote back saying I don't get signatures and don't discuss terms, and I'd introduce him to her directly and step out. He said not to bother and that he'd find someone less difficult, which I believe.

So the deal I did instead: sent the same lead to an investor I've closed with before, told him about the keep-it-if-possible part, he called her, worked out a repayment situation with the servicer that let her stay, and there was no purchase and no fee for me. He then sent me two of his own overflow leads to work as a thank you, one of which paid $1,600 six weeks later.

What I'd keep: the rule that I never carry paperwork to a seller, stated up front in the first email to any new buyer, before there's money on the table to argue with. It costs deals. It cost me $2,400 in one visible instance. It also means the answer is decided before the moment when I'd be tempted.