Bang! You’re Closed: Threats, Stormy Exits and Violence at New York Closings

[steve2470]

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/29/realestate/threats-stormy-exits-and-violence-at-new-york-closings.html?google_editors_picks=true

THE setting for the closing on an apartment in the East 50s was a lawyer’s office. Things seemed to be going well between the sellers until the wife found out the price her husband had received for the apartment. She clearly didn’t think it was enough. When he asked her to turn over her keys, she hurled them at him and hit him in the forehead, drawing blood.

This is New York City, where real estate transactions can literally take on the trappings of a blood sport. Unlike most other parts of the country, it is a place where lawyers are invariably involved in the transaction; at the very least, this increases the number of people around the table. Deals can be dauntingly complex. Even with relatively low-end properties, mind-boggling amounts of money change hands. Cultural differences, common in this multicultural city, can add kindling to a volatile situation, as can personal issues like a messy divorce.

Not to mention the fact that New York is heavy on Type A individuals. Or as Stephen Raphael, who has been practicing real estate law in New York for four decades and has seen his share of drama-packed closings, summed it up, “A lot of people in this city have gotten what they want by being emotional.”

Some of that emotion is understandable. The purchase or sale of a house or apartment is the biggest financial transaction most buyers or sellers will ever be involved in, and the closing is the moment when the promises and concessions that have been patched together to get a contract signed now have to be made final. All the parties — lawyers and brokers for both, along with the mortgage broker, appraiser and bank representatives — gather in a nondescript conference room at a bank or a law firm to seal the deal.