What Happens After Escrow is Opened in Sacramento?

After escrow is opened, buyers should stop looking at homes.

After escrow is opened in Sacramento, any number of things can happen. What is supposed to happen is the buyer is excited and wires funds for her earnest money deposit, and the listing agent changes MLS to pending. But that doesn’t always occur like it should and, even if it does, there is more that can go haywire. Especially if the buyer is not counseled by her agent and is not fully committed to the transaction.

Buyers are not supposed to be online combing through other houses and wondering if there is something better to buy. I hate to say this, but there is not something better. There are hardly any homes at all available for sale.

I’ve got a home closing this week that I had to sell four times. Four times. And why? I was kidding with the seller and saying, Oh, third time is a charm, and then that buyer canceled, too. It’s generally nothing to do with the property. Mostly, it’s the buyers. If buyers did uncover some small defect, it’s often blown out of proportion to such an extent there is no piecing it back together, regardless of how much sense a listing agent might make for the case.

We had an offer accepted on Thursday for another of my listings. I discussed with the seller at length about whether we should accept backups and whether we should change MLS to pending. MLS rules grant listing agents 3 business days to change a status, so with an offer accepted on Thursday, we don’t have to change the status until Tuesday. By changing the showing instructions to call listing agent, it means I am inundated all weekend with calls. That’s the downside.

I did it for the seller. Kept the listing active and let callers know we are pending but welcome a back-up offer. Sure enough, though, just as soon as we changed the listing status to pending, the buyer canceled. That’s not how it is supposed to go. Buyers are supposed to be completing the documents their lender requires to process the loan, reviewing the loan estimate and preparing for a home inspection.

Instead, after escrow is opened, buyers are canceling and then we’re selling to somebody else. It happens so much lately it’s becoming the norm.  Criminy, I don’t care who buys the home as long as the buyer is prepared to close. One thing is: I do not bail on my sellers. No matter how many times I have to sell that house, I’m in this to close this.