T4 -- Totally True Travel Tales | Bryce’s Paperchase

T4 is an ongoing series of hard-to-believe but true encounters traveling to our signature at-home closings. For 15 years we’ve been taking the closing anywhere that’s convenient for the client – literally anywhere. Jana’s closed in the ICU and in prison, Kara’s had to deal with a super affectionate cat kneading closing papers on the dining room table, and (everyone’s favorite) Heather pushed her SUV out of a muddy ditch one night in the rain – in heels. Yep, we have unintentionally amassed quite a few crazy stories that didn’t seem humorous at the time, but in hindsight, they sure provided a good bit of levity. Like they say, “you can’t make this stuff up!”

Today’s T4 spotlights persistence and commitment to customer service here at Cook & James … as well as the fact that we’re quite capable of laughing at ourselves.

It was early on in the pandemic and we had just developed the Curbside Closing. Because we were already adept at bringing the closing anywhere, it wasn’t so far-fetched for us to amp it up with masks, gloves and other CDC-recommended best practices to keep situations safe for everyone health-wise, because our show had to go on. What we didn’t 100% prepare for at first were all the inevitabilities, like unpredictable weather. Mother Nature was just doing her job one day, but she sure sent Bryce scampering. Here’s how he tells it.

We had just started to conduct outside closings and this one was curbside in a residential cul de sac. I confirmed everything was in order with the documents, double checked the sun/rain weather-wise and headed out.

But I failed to look at the wind forecast. And forgot a paperweight. My bad. There was not one single, spare, good sized rock in that upscale neighborhood street. You can imagine what happened when a strong gust came along. My papers went flying. Womp, womp.

It was seriously like the cartoons. As soon as I’d get close to a paper, it would flutter juusssst out of reach of my stomping foot. To make matters worse, I was wearing slick loafers which gave me zero traction for the quick bobs and jukes I had to do on my little run around the cul de sac. You can imagine the scene: me, gloved and masked in my slippery shoes, scampering after papers that would scoot off just as I got near enough to capture them!

But all’s well that ends well. I was able to retrieve each and every paper and we closed on time with minimal disruption. Except for the very excellent, belly laughs my little, slapstick “paperchase” provided to everyone at the closing. And probably gave a few folks looking on from inside their windows a good chuckle too!

~ Bryce Linden as told to Kara

Thanks https://unsplash.com/@randyfath for the photo!