When I say “I am a lucky guy,” I mean it. Recently I was reminded of a four-decade-old experience. I was a relatively new Plante Moran staff member when Barbara and I decided to sell our condo and begin our lake adventures. We had never sold a home before, so I went to my supervisor/mentor, Ken Kunkel, to seek his counsel. (For example, how do you get the timing of the sale to match the purchase of the new home?) Anyway, as always, he had a lot of good, solid, practical advice — plus, he helped me relax. Although I’m a calculated risk-taker, this was my first home swap-out.

We met several times. After each session, I would have some homework assignments. (As an aside, Ken knew quite a bit about the City of Novi, where our condo was located, and he knew the local officials, since they were his client.) Near the end of one of our meetings, to my shock, Ken said, “I may be interested in buying your condo for my daughter.” Really?

So, I started thinking, How is this going to work, selling to my supervisor? Ken suggested I get a couple of independent real estate appraisals and then we could discuss pricing. As you can imagine, I went from relaxed to nervous again. In addition to the appraisals, I did some of my own investigating, since we had a lot of friends living in Novi condos at the time.

In typical Tom Doescher fashion, I was very well prepared. You would have thought I was selling a Manhattan high-rise. The day came for our “pricing” discussion, and I shared all my findings with him; he studied the materials carefully. He took the highest appraisal, added several thousand dollars to the total, and said, “You and Barbara have made many nice improvements and are leaving several built-ins behind, so how does $X thousand sound?” He was definitely offering us a premium — plus, I wouldn’t have to worry about having my condo mortgage as a contingency on our new home offer, since he was offering a cash deal immediately.

I’m not sure who was more surprised, me or Barbara. It was like we won the lottery.

I had been re-recruited, and this was only one of the many reasons the “lucky guy” stayed with the firm.