The 11-day ghosting that almost killed a ₹2 crore deal , and why the broker gave him a second chance anyway

We asked brokers on ReUnited about co-broking horror stories. This one keeps coming up in different forms.

A broker recently told us about a deal that almost fell apart before it even started. He'd shared a buyer requirement, 3BHK in a specific Mumbai pocket, ready buyer, pre-approved loan, with someone he barely knew. Three meetups' worth of relationship, nothing more.

The other broker went quiet. Eleven days, no response to calls or messages.

Turned out the seller he had lined up backed out over a family dispute, and he got so buried in that mess he forgot to follow up. By the time he resurfaced with an apology, the original buyer had already closed through another channel.

Here's what's interesting though. The broker who got ghosted didn't cut ties. He asked around, other people vouched for the guy, and six months later they closed a commercial deal together, clean, fifty-fifty split, no issues.

We hear versions of this constantly. The eleven-day silence usually isn't actually what makes or breaks the relationship. What matters is whether the person owns it afterward or just expects everyone to move on like nothing happened. Brokers who disappear because they're disorganized are usually salvageable. Brokers who disappear because they found a way to close direct and cut the referring broker out entirely are a different problem altogether, and that one you usually only find out about from a third party.

Every broker seems to have their own threshold for this. Some only share requirements with people they've already closed a deal with. Some go entirely on referral. A few just take the risk repeatedly and get burned until they stop trusting anyone outside their own circle.

None of these approaches is wrong. But it does raise a real question for anyone doing collaborative deals regularly: how do you decide who gets a second chance and who doesn't?

Would love to hear how other brokers here draw that line. Is it about the excuse, the track record, or who's willing to vouch for the person?