The Story of Selling an Overbuilt Rancho Cordova Home

One of my listing specialties is selling white elephants like this overbuilt Rancho Cordova home. We call them white elephants when they don’t conform to the neighborhood, not that there is anything specifically wrong with the home. Most of the homes in this subdivision are 1,200 to 1,600 square feet. This particular home is over 2,100 square feet. Pricing is different when a home is larger than others around it. Usually the per square foot price is less than the surrounding homes.

A recurring complaint from buyers was they didn’t like the fact this home mirrored the home next door. The exterior appeared identical, except for a reversed floor plan, which meant the garages, which were side facing, also faced each other. One potential buyer from Chico called to say he was submitting an offer. A few minutes later he said he looked at the home on Google, spotted the garages facing each other and said, nope. No offer.

Other buyers complained that the baths were vintage with canary yellow fixtures in one bath, pink in another. It’s odd how people can pull apart and shred the appeal of a mid-Century home by expecting it to look like a brand new home in 2018, but that’s buyers for ya.

Once we found our sweet spot on pricing for this overbuilt Rancho Cordova home, we got an offer within 3 days. This particular property’s location fell within the no-income restrictions for Guild Mortgage’s free down payment assistance program. I explained the program to the buyer’s agent. What about their own lender, she asked? He’s done a lot of work.

My response conveyed forget about that lender in not so tender terms. That lender can’t give the buyers $7,000 in free money that they don’t have to pay back. No brainer. Of course, that lender was upset when he heard about it and called to “introduce himself.” That’s code for: I’d like you to like me so you’ll send me more business. Then he began to tear apart Guild’s program, telling me the buyer made too much money, blah, blah. Au contraire, sugar bear, there are no income restrictions in this neighborhood.

I wished him greater success elsewhere. Goodbye.

Now, the buyers were thrilled with Guild Mortgage’s program. They could not believe their good luck. Apparently, according to their agent, they were planning to receive gift funds from family members, and now they didn’t have to. Not only that, but we were able to bump up the price to cover their closing costs. They truly came in with only 1% and the seller got a little bit over list price.

Since their other lender could close within 15 days, we asked Guild to match that timeframe. Guild met that schedule and issued loan docs within 12 days. From start to finish.

At one point, the buyers asked for a larger sum of money and repairs. The seller suggested splitting it with them. Well, he could, if he wanted to give away money, but I suggested he not. I have my seller’s best interests at heart. Further, facts don’t lie. The buyers wrote other offers without success. They can’t get this particular loan anywhere else since it’s sunsetting mid-June. Their family is a source of funding. They aren’t walking away. Finally, the seller said he hired me for a reason and followed my advice.

No repairs. No additional cash. All righty, then, and the buyers removed their contingencies.

By closing on this overbuilt Rancho Cordova home, though, everybody seemed happy. Of course, I haven’t yet gone over there to remove the lockbox. I could still get sprayed with a garden hose.

10829 Glenhaven Way, Rancho Cordova, CA 95670, closed escrow on May 11th, 2018 at $358K.