The Story of Closing a Home in Greenhaven in Sacramento

This pool home on Greenhaven Drive is now under contract.

Our story of closing a home in Greenhaven begins with an email I received from the sellers last September. I’m finding many of my listings lately involve sellers who are planning ahead. I could be working on a listing for 6 months before it hits MLS, unlike the fast-paced world of 2016 — a distant memory now. My experience shows better results when working in advance on a listing because that gives us a lot of time to get it just right. To tweak and perfect.

The seller mentioned his wife might find a job out of state. It could happen a year from then, or two months or a couple of weeks. Their timeframe is mine. They wanted to know if I could please come over to discuss which things they could fix up. What could be sale-worthy improvements. They also mentioned that they had been reading my blogs for years. Which means they decided a long time ago that when it came time to sell, I was the listing agent they wanted to hire.

Apparently, they weren’t very happy with their agent when they bought the house. There were also quite a few drawbacks to their house. But because every listing is a customized job for me, I don’t give cookie cutter advice. I consider the market conditions, how much a buyer is likely to pay, and minimum work required to sell. Part of how much a buyer is likely to pay in my mind depends on how I market the listing as well. Not any Sacramento Realtor can take my suggested sales price and run with it. To get top dollar, you need strategy.

Every super blood moon or so, I spot a listing in which the seller hired some other agent at a price lower than perhaps I suggested. I just think to myself: their loss. And then I get a bit irritated with myself that somehow I failed to show what I can do. They hire a cheap agent at a cheap price and I feel a bit sorry they lost money. But they don’t know. They wrongly put too much emphasis on commission.

Not these sellers. They wanted to hire me and I wanted to do a good job for them. That’s a good match. To spruce up the kitchen, I suggested they replace the worn, tired counters with granite and replace the broken electric range. We discussed staging and moving furniture. The rest of the house could stay in its present condition because we have a hot market in Sacramento. Yes, it is on a busy street. Yes, you can hear freeway noise. Can’t ignore the funky layout.

Time passed and I did not hear from them again until January. I was working from our home in Hawaii then. We agreed on a price of $395K. In line with the comps for a 4 bedroom with that square footage and being a pool home on Greenhaven Drive. I promised them I would work diligently for an AS IS sale without any credits or repairs. My goal was closing a home in Greenhaven with no hassles. I listed the home from Hawaii, and a team member attached a lockbox for me.

Sure enough, after 2 open houses, we had a full price offer at $10,000 over list price. I warned the agent that if her buyer tried to cancel, I would drive over to the agent’s house and let the air out of her tires. So many buyers go into escrow today and immediately cancel. But the agent assured us her buyer was committed. However, the buyer made a contingent offer, with her home presently in escrow. That status allowed me to keep the listing active in MLS and to hunt for backup offers.

This all happened with me working from Hawaii. Due to technology, I do not have to physically be in Sacramento to work miracles and focus on my Sacramento real estate business.

As luck would have it, we later received a back-up offer that was now $20,000 over list price. We held on to that offer as insurance, just in case the existing buyer wanted to renegotiate. (I’m telling ya, if you have a difficult home to sell, this is the market for you.)

We met the goal of closing a home in Greenhaven with no repairs or credits and closed last Friday. I called the sellers on the East Coast to let them know the home recorded. At that point, the seller confided to me that I did exactly what I said would do. He said many agents say they will do a good job and they talk a good game, but it’s just talk. I actually performed on everything I promised. They got exactly what they had hoped for and then some. I exceeded expectations.

Well, I did not realize they had any doubt, LOL, but even so, the best thing a seller can tell me is how happy they are. That means I did my job right. I want every review to be a 5-star review. That is my goal and I never lose sight of it. Further, there is no question that the sellers wrung every dime out of that sale they possibly could. A very happy ending to closing a home in Greenhaven.