ing. “What kind of house did you move from?” “How big a mortgage do you
feel you can afford?”
At the time, we felt we could afford a $50,000 mortgage. We had no eq-
uity from our previous home, and we would have to borrow some money
from our parents for a down payment. She was candid and told us that our
choices were limited at that price, but she would do her best to find us the
best home possible within our means.
As she drove us from home to home and we saw what $50,000 would
buy, we found she had prepared us for reality. Coming from a small town
in Iowa, we were accustomed to more house for this price. After a long and
disappointing day, Beulah informed us that she had one other house she
wanted us to see. Although she thought the home would be perfect for us,
she said it was a bit out of our price range. This house was about to be listed
for over $70,000 by some close friends of hers who were in the same line of
work as us. As she had predicted, we fell in love with the beautifully kept,
blue, one-and-a-half story home but feared we would not be able to raise
enough down payment to make it work.
Beulah offered to do the following: She would introduce us to a banker
who might work with us (I was self-employed with a sporadic income stream),
and she would reduce her commission for selling the house and talk to her
friends to see what might work for them. She told us we should go to our
parents to see how much money they might be able to lend us toward the
down payment.
We visited with each set of parents, and they lent us what they could,
which gave us a total of $7,000 to use as a down payment. A few days later,
we reconvened. The sellers had agreed to a price of $67,000, which we of-
fered to pay contingent on funding. We drove with Beulah to talk with the
banker. The banker told us he could lend us the money only if we could
put 20 percent down toward the purchase. This meant we needed an addi-
tional $7,000, which we did not have and had no way of getting. The banker
might as well have asked for an additional $70,000. Beulah seemed as de-
flated as we were by the news.
As we got into Beulah’s car, she turned to us and said, “I just can’t help
but feel that this house is supposed to be your house. There must be a way
to make this work out for you.”
I thanked her for her sentiments but confirmed the fact that there was
simply no more money available anywhere for us to borrow.
“Well,” she said, “don’t you give up just yet. Let me think about it and
call you tomorrow.”
The next day, Beulah called and said, “I just know you’re supposed to
be in this house, and I have decided that I am going to personally lend you
the additional $7,000 you need, and I won’t take no for an answer.”
196 SELLING WITH EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE