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Selling a Newer Home in Elk Grove is Not Always Easy
Selling a newer home in Elk Grove can mean overcoming obstacles.
When an Elk Grove seller called me about selling a newer home in Elk Grove, she thought it would be a piece of cake. Apparently the seller interviewed a bunch of Elk Grove Realtors and rejected them all until she met me. She wanted to hire me because she heard I sold the house on the corner in one day at a record price. I did do that. But I simply lucked out by selling to a buyer from the Bay Area for all cash. The price I sold it at would not have appraised. No comps to support it.
I pointed this out to the seller and suggested we start the list price at the same price. It was the same square footage. Similar condition. This seller was leaving for Europe shortly but I assured her once we had an offer, she could sign the deed at title and be done with that part. Everything else could be handled via email and web.
No sooner did we put this home on the market than bam, we received a full-price offer. I sent the offer to the seller and asked her what she thought. She didn’t want to take the offer. She didn’t like the buyers. Her gut instincts told her not to sell to those people. Well, you can’t really do that when you’re selling a newer home in Elk Grove. If she didn’t want to take the offer, we would need to raise the price. I removed the home from MLS, signed a new listing at a higher price. This also reset the days on market and made it look like it was a brand new listing.
Talk about a crazy market. We raised the price and the same buyers wrote another offer at the new price. This time the seller accepted the offer. Within a week, the buyers developed cold feet and canceled without cause. Well, the seller was certainly right about them! By now, though, the seller was off to Europe. It’s OK, I assured her, she can go to the US Embassy in London to get the deed notarized.
Along came another buyer. We went into escrow and neared the date to release the inspection contingencies. The new buyer did not seem to trust anyone. There was a language barrier as well. We were also in the process of replacing 7 defective windows in the house. They were ordered, just not yet received. We gave the buyer all of the information regarding the installation process. The seller made an appointment at the Embassy in London to sign the deed. Everything was hunky dory, when all of a sudden, the buyers canceled.
I don’t know if he didn’t believe the windows would be installed. Or, whether the story he shared about too much noise behind the homes held any water. In any event, he canceled. So the seller canceled her appointment at the Embassy. We went back on the market as a new listing again. Agents in Elk Grove began to think we were a little crazy or touched in the head.
One thing I know how to do well is selling a newer home in Elk Grove. I then got my hands on the appraisal and discovered it appraised for a $1,000 more than our sales price. Not only that, but the square footage was a lot different than the square footage in the public records. It was not identical to the home I sold in the spring.
Whoa! That meant we needed to change the price. We bumped it up, reset the days on market, and created a brand new listing again. No sooner did it go back on the market than the buyer called to say he had changed his mind and no longer wanted to cancel. You know, you just can’t make up this stuff.
The seller appeared angry with the buyers for canceling in the first place, upset over the grief they caused, so she inserted a smiley face in the cancellation agreement. Knowing this, I had to share the odd news the buyer wanted back into escrow. But not without a plan for her. I suggested she demand a complete release of all contingencies and insist that the buyer give her the earnest money deposit outside of escrow, as non-refundable. In addition to raising the price.
Fortunately, those 3 things satisfied her. The buyer agreed and we closed this week. Not without a few other hurdles to climb. Partly because we could not secure a new appointment at the Embassy and it closed for a move. But I don’t have all day to go into it, and it was enough just to live through the process of selling a newer home in Elk Grove. Suffice to say, it closed on the very last day the buyers had before being kicked out of their apartment.
This is what a Sacramento Realtor does. Resolves issues. The seller made almost $10,000 more than she initially expected, and the buyer has a nice home near his relatives. If you’re thinking about selling a newer home in Elk Grove, call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759.
A Second Chance for Cold Feet Home Buyers in Sacramento
The Sacramento Regional Transit Light Rail passes between Ella Dining and Brasserie Capitale.
When one door closes, another opens and gives home buyers in Sacramento a second chance. I admit that I was a bit bummed yesterday when a previous client bailed on listing his home to sell to some stranger he met in the street, on top of They Might Be Giants canceling the show in Berkeley, but I solved that disappointment by focusing on other things. Things you can’t change you need to let go of, immediately. Especially in Sacramento real estate. But that thinking does not apply to canceling a transaction because home buyers in Sacramento have cold feet.
It makes me wonder if buyers who have canceled transactions for my sellers over petty issues later regret those actions. We are closing an escrow next month that I had to sell twice because the first set of home buyers in Sacramento elected to cancel escrow. They expected the seller to replace the entire fence, which was not only unnecessary but an odd request to receive.
Other buyers who canceled a transaction a few weeks back decided yesterday that they should now buy that home. This could be a dilemma for the agent. I mean, what do you do when the buyers have canceled once? Do you give them a second chance and hope they don’t do it again? Probably not. Not without some sort of assurance or guarantee that the same situation won’t repeat itself. However, due to limited inventory in Sacramento, once buyers are in escrow, most buyers would do just about anything to stay there. If these home buyers in Sacramento understand our market.
I thought about that last night as I poked my lobster carbonara at Ella Dining Room and Bar downtown. Mustered all of my strength to twirl the hand-cut chitarra pasta around the butter-poached Maine lobster on my fork, dribbling with spring peas, which included a tasty bit of pancetta accentuated by spicy black pepper and stuffed it into my mouth. My team member and I advised the home buyers in Sacramento to sign a contingency release and include a Request for Repair for the already agreed-upon work to get back into escrow. We apologized profusely. These home buyers in Sacramento were ready to move forward and deeply regretted previous actions.
You don’t see that happen very often. Buyers who come to their senses. Or, sellers willing to take them back. But the sellers granted these home buyers in Sacramento a second chance yesterday.
I also tasted my husband’s artichoke and mascarpone tortellini. His dish featured a bluefoot mushroom so meaty and thick I forgot for a moment that I was eating a fungus. Between our appetizer and first courses, we were almost too satiated to finish our main courses. I’ve included a few photos below, just in case you’re getting hungry reading. I paired the lobster carbonara with a Patricia Green pinot noir from Willamette Valley in Oregon. I’m seriously enthralled with wines from Oregon lately, including the Hood River.
This was a nice ending to a day that started out pretty crummy. And our second chance home buyers in Sacramento are back in escrow.
Lobster Carbonara served at Ella Dining Room and Bar for Whole Hog Month at Ella in March 2016.
Artichoke and Mascarpone Tortellini served at Ella for Whole Hog month of March 2016.
Photos © Elizabeth Weintraub
