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When Flakey Buyers Cause Back on Market Listings in Sacramento
Back on market are the last words any home seller wants to hear.
Dealing with flakey buyers that result in back on market listings is always a pain. It’s extremely painful for the sellers who were blindsided. One day the sellers are counting on closing by the end of the week, and the next day, wham, the buyer is canceling. Fortunately, it doesn’t happen very often, but when it does, the listing agent’s duty is to resell the home. No listing agents I know want to sell a home twice and get paid once, but we do it when it comes with the territory. Because we have no control over the buyers. That’s the buyer’s agent’s job, and it’s tough for them to be a buddy and an agent. So they choose buddy.
This is one of the reasons I am happy that I made the decision years ago to work solely with sellers. I care deeply about my sellers and do everything in my power to ensure a smooth transaction, but I am not in the position of having to choose between being a buddy or an agent. Some of my sellers end up close friends, but my primary function is to reach their goal, which is a closed escrow. A buyer’s agent goal is not always to close escrow. If they cause a back on market listing, they’ll just go out with their buyers to find something else.
Except in the case of a property where we were all the way down to the wire and that’s when underwriting noticed this first-time home buyer’s payroll stub. Apparently, nobody else looked at it. Not the mortgage loan officer, not the processor. The name of the company on the payroll stub was a temporary agency and not the name of the company where the buyer worked. The company where she worked refused to write a letter addressing her permanency. That resulted in no approval and no home for this buyer. This buyer might never buy a home now.
Then, to add insult to injury, the seller had elected to paint the eaves on a day the temperatures were over 100. The underwriter called for the painting as a loan condition, even though everybody else thought it looked fine. Paint the eaves and we will close, we were promised. We decided it was better for him to tackle the job to make sure it was done correctly and to clear loan conditions, although it was really the buyer’s responsibility due to the AS IS clause. After all of that hard work and sweat, closing was a no-go. The buyer’s agent had developed her own personal problems and pretty much vanished the day we went into escrow, which was also part of the on-going issues.
Back on market listings can be a source of joy for a buyer who has lost out on offer after offer. First go-around we had 8 offers. We have a solid appraisal from FHA with no conditions. All we need is an FHA buyer who can close escrow. After gravitating toward conventional offers for so long, now we have an FHA approved property and no FHA buyer. Well, we’ll just shake it off and go forward. It’s not the first and it won’t be the last.
Sacramento Home Buyers Can Buy Today and Move Before Christmas
Sacramento home buyers have enough time still to close before Christmas.
Sacramento home buyers have got to be driving up the insanity level of buyer’s agents. There seems to be an increase of activity in which buyers are submitting purchase offers and, upon acceptance, withdrawing those offers. I would almost be tempted to suggest that agents are not counseling nor vetting their buyers prior to writing an offer, but I know for a fact that is not the case in many situations. Just the other day a buyer canceled an existing escrow because the state-mandated natural hazard report disclosed the property is located in a flood zone, although the lender did not require flood insurance. Or, at least that was their story and they were sticking to it.
Most of Sacramento is located in a flood zone. And even if a property is not located in a flood zone, if Folsom Dam bursts, we’re all hosed downstream. Sacramento County is the most at-risk area for a flood in the entire country. Believe it, baby.
It is not the job of buyer’s agents to drag their clients kicking and screaming into escrow. I know some Sacramento home buyers think agents can be pushy but most of the agents I know truly want what is best for their clients. That attitude might be for somewhat selfish reasons because a happy client is a client who refers business to the agent. Unhappy clients push business away. Nobody in her right mind wants an unhappy client. Yet, it’s tough for agents right now.
It’s tough on sellers, too, when Sacramento home buyers fail to perform. Especially when sellers receive a full-price offer and the buyer cancels before the paperwork can make its way to escrow. I’ve had two of those types of situations yesterday, on two different listings. The buyers flaked out. Well, in one instance the buyer could not perform because the agent wrote the wrong kind of offer and made a mistake when she did her homework. The proper way to view that particular situation is: a problem averted down the road. We did not go into escrow as a result but at least we were not the dreaded “back on market” home listing.
With my ear to the ground — the good ear, not the one that I stuffed soda straws into when I was a kid and punctured my eardrum — I hear that almost half of the listings that are pending right now are blowing up. This means we are unlikely to see an uptick in closed sales for December. If it’s gotta happen in any month, December is a good month for a slow down because it’s seasonally a quieter time of the year.
There is still time to buy a home today and be settled by Christmas, though. Call the Elizabeth Weintraub Team at 916.233.6759.
