The closing date on a home purchase is always a stressful day. Even in the smoothest of situations, you’ve always got a little worry in the back of your mind that something could go wrong and the whole deal might fall through. In the case of RBC client and B.C. physician Dr. Marvin Lemke, the day was made all the more complicated by a few unfortunate twists and turns.
For starters, processing delays meant that key parts of the condo deal – namely signing the documents and transferring the funds to the lawyer – were coming down to the last minute. To make matters (far) worse, he was told the morning of the closing that he had been exposed to COVID-19 by a patient the previous week.
“The day became very complicated,” says Dr. Lemke. “I had patients in the exam room waiting to see me. The lawyer was calling me to tell me I needed to come down and sign papers or else they couldn’t release the funds. But that couldn’t happen because I was forced to go straight home.”
Fortunately, Dr. Lemke has a very strong and long-standing relationship with his RBC Financial Advisor, Rebecca Mand. Mand and Dr. Lemke have been working together for over 25 years.
Following Dr. Lemke’s panicked call, Mand said: “You’re not going to lose the deal. Give me a few minutes.”
She made good on her promise.
“What made this really unique was that we are all isolated,” says Mand. “[Because I’m at home] I have no means of processing transactions, so I had to rely on a team that was based downtown. The Assistant Branch Manager dropped everything and took care of it so that we could send the money through to the seller’s lawyer on time.”
While the times are certainly unusual, Mand’s commitment to her clients is par for the course. “When you are so integrated in clients’ lives and go on their life journey with them, when they encounter a road block they trust you to come up with an answer for you. They rely on your expertise to help them unblock the jam. Really that’s what it’s all about.”
Mand reveals that during the first five weeks of the pandemic, she would start her day at 6:00am and wouldn’t shut down her computer until after 11:00pm. She was committed to let her clients know that she was there for them, and shared both heartbreak and hope through conversations over the phone.
Mand is grateful for the opportunity to make a difference in her clients’ lives. In Dr. Lemke’s case, she made all the difference on this fateful Monday.
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