If you don’t know what is going on with NBC, Jay Leno, and Conan O’Brien, you might count your self a little lucky. It is better than any “reality” show out there but it is tedious because it seems to be about a spoiled millionaire, Jay Leno, for the most part who in effect changed his mind about retiring..
So how do I tie this in to the Late Night debacle? Jay seems to be returning to 11:35 and Conan was asked to be pushed to 12:05. Conan said no and that he respected the institution that is “The Tonight Show”. There was also a belief that NBC didn’t have the right to move him otherwise it was a breach of contract and he would still get 60 – 80 million dollars.
Now there are reports that he doesn’t have that 11:35 time guaranteed in his contract – and that might be costly. Who would have thought there would be a scenario that he needed to have that in a contract. When else has “The Tonight Show” aired without being bumped by sports or breaking news? I would have never expected they would bring Jay back to the time they forced him to leave.
Real estate is a little backwards but typically negotiations take place and then a contract is written. Contracts are to enforce what everyone wanted and agreed to do in the first place. So by leaving something out, just because it seems understood, it can bite you when someone gets desperate much like NBC is right now.
Do the drapes come with the house? How clean will the house be when possession occurs? Is there a walk through prior to close written in? If you want it, write it in.
And this is for all contracts. In my mind a contract is to enforce what everyone was thinking the day the contract was drafted. As time goes on view points change and people may become desperate it keeps everything in line. Protect yourself.
Just for fun: Jeff Zucker, NBC honcho, had Conan arrested in the 80’s and stared him in the face while it happened.
photo via I’m With Coco
Mike Rohrig, Broker
Beaverton Realtor
8 thoughts on ““Late Night” Lesson About Contracts”
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Great post Mike. Like how you tied it all together.
When i started reading this had no idea where it was going, great job pulling it all together and making it relevant to real estate.
Thank you. It was a fun post to write.
Thanks. I had a post in mind where I tied what was going on with Tiger Woods to real estate but thought I might be reaching to far and scrapped it last month. Glad this one worked.
This is an interesting article. I was one of the few that did not know the details of the Leno-Conan issue, though I had heard many mentions about it. Unfortunately, I have heard far too many about Tiger.
Thanks.
Great reminder. I'm curious how you would address items that upon first glance seemed to be line with but later seem to be a little off? Also, how then do you address your own clients when they seem to be becoming the “desperate party?”
There can be some negotiating but it partly depends on if you hare the buyer or seller, how important an issue is, and other things. Every situation is different. I have had buyer and seller talk issues out. Sometimes the agents find solutions and often they pay to make problems go away like repairs, changing closing dates, etc. Almost every deal has a moment where I panic and think, did I cover that issue enough.I try my best to prepare for the worst so it doesn't happen. That is where I think a lot of issues come from. Overpromising and not explaining the process well.