The Week In Review: November 10th, 2026
Real Estate Disasters
If I knew this industry only from headlines and Selling Sunset, I would assume that success in luxury real estate requires little more than a great manicure and several pairs of Louboutins.
Opening doors to beautifully presented houses and putting deals together in five-minute, tough-guy phone calls?
Not exactly.
Of all the decidedly unglamorous, behind-the-scenes moments in real estate, the pre-settlement walkthrough may be the one I fear most. This is when the buyer walks through the property shortly before closing to confirm that it is, in the language of our contracts, “free and clear of trash and debris” and in “substantially the same physical condition” as it was on the date of the offer.
Usually, this is uneventful.
But when things go wrong, they go wrong in very big and very unexpected ways. And when it's your listing and you represent the seller, buckle up.
Three recent examples:
During the buyer’s home inspection, we learned that the septic tank was old, leaking and needed to be replaced. This was no small undertaking: excavation, heavy equipment, a crane and re-landscaping.
I was thrilled to find contractors who could complete the work before settlement. Turns out all that digging and craning led to a small closing day surprise... the entire retaining wall at the end of the septic field had crumbled.
The Out-of-Town Sellers: My clients had moved to Los Angeles several years earlier and had been renting out their Bethesda home.
Whenever a house has passed through owners, tenants and movers, determining exactly whose “stuff” remains behind can become complicated. This became abundantly clear when I opened the garage door on walkthrough day.
Apparently, “free and clear of trash and debris” didn't apply to the garage.
The Vacant House: One of the immutable laws of real estate is that as soon as a house is under contract, something will break. In this case, a third-floor sink in a vacant house was somehow left running.
For two days.
You can imagine the result: water from the third floor through floor to the primary bedroom and down into the living room below.
With only a few weeks until settlement, we helped coordinate a major remediation project: removing drywall, drying the affected spaces with industrial fans, replacing carpet, applying fungicide, repainting and putting everything back together.
We got it done.
So imagine our surprise when we arrived for the pre-settlement walkthrough and discovered that, unbeknownst to anyone, DC Water had chosen that exact day to dig up the front yard and replace the lead service line.
Of course they had.
Every one of these situations required trusted resources, "game face" calm, and a fervent hope that the buyers involved were reasonable people.
Thankfully, they were. And not one of these closings was delayed.
Which is perhaps the reality of this business. Much of the value of an experienced real estate advisor has very little to do with opening doors.
It's knowing what to do when, just before closing, something entirely unexpected walks through one.
