PROTECT YOURSELF FIRST

Once upon a time, Broker 1 got a call from Broker 2.

“Do you have the consularized SPA? We need it for the transfer.”

“We already gave it to you,” he said. “It was in the folder with the other documents.”

“We checked. It’s not here.”

A week passed.

Broker 1 went through every file in the office. Nothing. He was sure he had submitted it.

But being sure doesn’t solve a missing document.

Now the real problem came in. The seller, who lived abroad, refused to take another painful trip to the PH embassy to have a new SPA consularized.

Hence, the transaction stalled over a single document.

Lesson: Always protect yourself with proof.

In brokerage, it’s not enough to hand over documents. You need to prove that you did. Without a Transmittal, it becomes your word against theirs.

Thankfully, it wasn’t the title.

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Where Do You Keep Important Documents (e.g., Titles)?

This came up again recently.

A colleague asked me if she should get a safety deposit box.

My initial answer was simple.

I keep everything in my condo.

Security is tight. I’m almost always home. There are sprinklers in case of fire.

Then she asked a better question.

What happens if something goes wrong? Imagine telling a client the title was destroyed because a neighboring unit caught fire.

Not your fault.

But in this business, fault doesn’t matter as much as outcome.

There will be blowback.

So I did what any rational adult would do. I consulted my life coach, ChatGPT. 😂

The answer was simple. It’s not just about risk. It’s about perception of risk.

Even if a condo and a bank are both secure, a bank is institutionally trusted.

If something happens at home, it feels like you were careless.

If something happens at a bank, it feels unavoidable.

That difference protects your reputation.

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The Decision

So I made the shift. I moved my important documents to a bank safety deposit box.

Not because my condo is unsafe. But because in this business, you also manage trust.

Looking back, the transmittal in that story is no different from a safety deposit box. Both are systems designed to protect you when things go wrong.

How much did it cost? That’s for tomorrow’s post.