“You really did a number on me!!! The main thing is that you made your profit on the sale of the property, and you left me stuck with an apartment that has been impossible to rent to anyone for over five months!!!”
As you have probably understood, I am a real estate agent, and I have a fundamental rule that guides me in business: “What I would not want for myself, I do not offer to someone else.” I felt utterly humiliated to hear such complaints about a dream apartment with a sea view that I had brokered for him, and I tried to think—what is the problem with the apartment?!
I remembered that in that same building, I had sold another apartment that was identical to this one, and the buyer was happy because the apartment was snapped up immediately and was rented at a good price.
I am a national-level broker, so I called a friend who mainly works as a broker in that specific area and asked for his opinion on why the apartment was not being rented. I began giving him the details of the apartment, and he completed the sentence for me and described the apartment exactly. Then, silence on the other end of the line.
I asked what was happening, and after a tense silence, he said: “That apartment has no blessing in it, and that is why it is not being rented—and apparently, it never will be!!!”
I was startled and asked, “What caused the apartment to be cursed?” And he answered: “I was the one who brought that apartment to the market, and the company you worked for back then went behind my back and brokered the deal improperly. I told your employer at the time that this apartment would have no blessing in it, and now you see that deals done dishonestly never show any sign of blessing—ever!!!”
I explained to him that I am now independent, and what sin has the buyer committed, who did not know and still does not know that there had been fraud in his purchase?
Are the buyer or I to be blamed for the theft of the deal?
“The truth is, neither you nor the buyer should suffer because of my grievance. You really are not part of it. If that is the case, then I forgive! Forgiven!!! Forgiven!!! Forgiven are you!!! May my grievance not cause any harm to him or to you, Heaven forbid!!!”
He took it upon himself to find a tenant and said with confidence that within two weeks there would be a satisfied tenant living in the apartment!!!
At that point, it was already clear to me that if we had identified the source of the trouble, then the salvation would surely come...
In reality, within a week, a contract was signed with a tenant who was thrilled to have found such an apartment available for rent!!!
א.מ.
