Good Folk and Old Fashioned Values July 29, 2006
Last night, my dream came true.
“If” the beginning of every residential real estate transaction were the buyers and the sellers and their agents meeting and chatting, maybe having dinner together and a drink or two for an hour. Then everyone walks through the house together while the seller tells the buyer the story of their life in the house and the buyer and agents ask questions. Then the offer is written, and proceeds through the inspections to find things the seller just truly doesn’t know about.”
In the comments section I said to Tim of Legacy Escrow, “Tim, the sad thing is that it is totally within our power to civilize the process.”
The owner received multiple offers in short order, due to our diligent efforts in getting the property “positioned to sell”. We did not ask ALL of the potential buyers to sit down at the table with us. We selected the one offer we would most likely counter (all had escalation clauses) and invited that buyer and that buyer’s agent to come over and do exactly what I “wished for” on July 12, 2006 in my “if wishes were horses” post.
I met with the owner an hour ahead of time, went over everything in all of the offers and explained what I planned to do when the “front runner buyer” and his buyer agent arrived. I greeted the buyer and his agent at the door, introduced everyone to each other and proceeded to walk through every inch of the property to disclose anything and everything the seller and I knew about the property. We pointed out the upgrades that were done by the previous owner and the ones done by the current seller. We pointed out several items that the handyman was coming back to take care of before closing and we also pointed out a few things that were not going to be addressed prior to closing.
There was some touch up paint that needed to be done, but I asked the buyer “Are you going to keep this room this color?” He said no, because his furniture didn’t go with that color. The owner and I did a high five saying GREAT! We don’t have to Paint! LOL The buyer and seller talked briefly about the closing date in the offer and came up with a different date that better suited both, and then we checked the calendar to make sure the date coincided with my favorite day of the week to close…a Wednesday.
I wrote the few changes on the offer and drew the little circle with a line down the middle for intitialing by both parties. Then the owner and I stepped outside, giving the buyer and the buyer’s agent some time to review the counter items. We stepped back in and everyone signed around and shook hands. The buyer thanked us for inviting him and the I thanked the buyer’s agent for accommodating our request.
We have all heard some horror stories about selecting one of the offers in a multiple bid situation, only to find that the one picked was more into “winning the bid” than “getting the property”. Since there is an automatic out clause in the sale of every condo, it is important to ascertain, as best as possible, the buyer’s commitment to the property itself.
I came home and changed the status in the mls, left phone messages for the other agents who submitted offers, faxed a copy of the signed around contract to the buyer’s agent and called it a day at 9:45 p.m. Now I just have to get ahold of the “Chief Errand Boy”, as I decided (and the buyer and seller agreed) to bring this post full circle, using Legacy as the escrow company to settle out this “Dream Come True”.
I’ll admit there were a few awkward moments, mostly because it was just unusual. But hiding behind fax machines and sliding papers back and forth across to faceless parties, isn’t without its hiccups either. If we can get used to faxing mountains of papers, we can get used to meeting nose to nose and toes to toes to make sure we have a true meeting of the minds, before everyone signs on the dotted line.
Sphere: Related Content- Posted in : General Real Estate
- Author : ARDELL
I guess they day is not...
Comments»
Beauty. Our experience the beginning of this year was similar — a happy error with the owners not being aware of the time of the inspection. The misses stayed in the house the whole time (3 kids, no sitter) and we chatted as the inspector rooted around all over.
We were pretty much interviewing each other, since the sellers moved only 2 blocks away.
If I ever buy (or sell) again, I would really want it to happen this way. Much more human.
Here in my little corner of Los Angeles, we have always encouraged buyers and sellers to meet, share information, and get acquainted. It does help make for a pleasant, civilized transaction.
However in the last couple of years, with all the day-trading flip-artists in the market, there wasn’t much point in personal interaction. The flippers just want to get in for as little money as possible, and get out for as much money as possible. What’s to talk about?
I am very happy to see a return to a market where regular people deal with regular people. And people buy homes to actually live in them.
Dustin, is there a way for posters to claim and edit their comments? So I can correct stupid grammatical errors/typos that (as always) are “impossible” to see until after one hits “Post”?
Cheryl,
I went “in the back door” and corrected it for you.
I think only Dustin and the person whose post it is, can make changes. You can preview, make changes and post after you edit in “Preview” mode.
Giving everyone access to edit, also gives you access to deleting. I think it would also give you access to editing anything and everything, including the post itself.
I’m sure Dustin will answer also. Are you guys back from “The City” yet?
Ardell,
Thanks for another great post topic…two questions come to mind: as a listing agent, I recently handled a multiple-offer situation in a somewhat similar fashion…1 - how did you convince the sellers that this was the best way to handle the offers, (as opposed to pitting them all against one another) and 2 - how did you explain to the other agents that this was your strategy and what were their reactions?
Awesome work - keep it up!
Gordon
Cheryl,
There is no way for you to edit your comments once they are posted… but if you ever want me to change something, just email me the changes!
Gordon,
I have to be a little careful on this reply, as the people with the other offers, as well as the buyer and seller in this transaction, deserve “confidentiality”. There’s a very fine line I walk when blogging about real life. Mostly I try to use “old” stories where I can make a point without anyone being able to track who the story is about.
I know that for a blog to be “credible” one has to give REAL details. But in our line of work, I can’t just blab on about the details, once I’ve indicated it is my listing, and have photos of the property linked here from my blog. But current info is the only way to tell this story and in order to bring about change in the industry as a whole, this one has to be “current”.
So here’s my carefully guarded response, knowing all of the agents and their clients can read this blog post.
1) “How did you ‘convince’ the seller”…
I don’t convince people of anything. People hire me because they trust me to represent their best interests, and they have confidence in my skills and knowledge in my field. The client and I have to trust and respect each other from day one, or choose not to work together, so that by the time these situations arise, there is no “conflict” or “need to convince”.
I have, on occasion over the last 16+ years, worked with a few clients that needed to be “convinced” all of the time, like those people from the “Show Me State”. I have found that to be ineffective to the client’s objective and not in the client’s best interest for me to work with them. I no longer work with people who insist on shooting themselves in the foot, who constantly try to focus my attention to the obscure points of “no nevermind”, leaving me with less time to focus on the points most important to them.
I lay out a strategy giving my reasons why we should proceed in this manner. They agree, say thank you, and “what do you need me to do?.” If your client’s don’t trust your advice, then it’s a bad match, and you shouldn’t be working together to achieve their goals. If there are three ways to proceed in my professional opinion, we discuss the three ways together like two intelligent human beings tossing around ideas, and decide together how to proceed. But my clients always defer to my expertise, as a real estate professional.
“Pitting price to price” is never the be-all-end-all of multiple offer situations. Never. If an agent and their client are only looking at price and pitting price against price, the agent isn’t approaching the situation correctly.
2) “How did you explain to the other agents that this was your strategy and what were their reactions?”
I didn’t. Why would I “explain my strategy to the other agents”? Their reactions were varied. That’s all I’m gonna say about that.
Just four years ago when I started the real estate business, we were still presenting offers in person to the seller with the listing agent present, it is quite helpful in getting the seller to know the buyer and the buyer agent to know the seller. We would present the offer, and describe the buyers, and then bow out so the the L/A could explain the details of our offer to the seller. At least the buyer could get my feel for the seller hearing his offer and then we didn’t have to blindly wait hours upon days to find out the offer was rejected and no explanation other than “someone else” had made a better offer. PS I am from the bay area, live near there now and lived in Seattle as a transplant for two years, I worked at Microsoft and for the city of Seattle, it was grotesque, the behavior of folks up there to our presence, I was one of 12 out of 18 employees for the city in that department who were also from the bay area, the problem is if you don’t like any of us coming there, your home prices escalated because of us coming there and you don’t seem to mind putting your properties up in the higher price ranges that we created. Why don’t you keep selling your homes near the $115,00 range like before all the bay area people came up there? If it were not for us, you wouldn’t have anything to complain about. My husband was born and raised in Seattle, and on Whidbey Island, his parents and grandparents lived there their entire lives and he brings in this nice person from the bay area and you try to make him suffer too. Don’t worry, we are gone now, the weather was great there and the home we owned was brand new and beautiful, the company that transferred my husband up there went bankrupt the month after we bought that home, so we had to make plans to leave as soon as we got there. We are planning on invading Tennessee soon, better let them know!
Bay Area Babe,
Sorry you had a bad experience in Seattle, I just LOVE it here and I am a “transplant”. Best of luck to you in Tennessee. I’ll let them know you are on your way
[...] I am buying a new hot water tank for the seller and buyer of the condo I have in escrow. When I sold the condo to the current owner/seller, the hot water tank was 14 years old. I bought him a home warranty at the time and a new coil was put in, during the first year that he owned the condo, by the warranty company. Now that I’m selling it for him, I’ve decided to have the tank replaced for the new owner (who is not my client). [...]