Selling a Home in Sacramento on Thanksgiving

Selling a home in Sacramento on Thanksgiving is reason to celebrate.

Because the county assessor’s office is closed in Sacramento today and tomorrow, selling a home in Sacramento on Thanksgiving happens the day before, on the eve of Thanksgiving. The story of this sale is extraordinary, not in part because the amount of money I ended up with from the sale after taxes and overhead is barely enough to cover the cost of Thanksgiving dinner at The Firehouse today, but because the tale is really more about the seller. The 4th escrow was the charm.

I threw in that part about the commission because I happened to look at my ledger when I entered the sale as closed this morning and am astonished at how little I earned, particularly in relation to the amount of work I put into it, which was 4 times as much as any other sale. You know how they say don’t think about the money and it will come to you? Well, it’s true. Most of the time I make a good living because I am free not to care about how much I make. In comparison, though, this check was just so tiny in terms of income but it was huge, enormously so, in terms of relief for my sellers.

The sellers were nervous enough about hiring me because they erroneously believed that an agent of my caliber would not help them. They had this impression that top producers don’t work on lower priced sales, and nothing could be further from the truth. At least not for me. I work on all sales. Million dollar homes to condemned tear downs. Little did I know I would be selling a home on Thanksgiving when I started in mid September.

This property was a triplex that had been in the family for years under a trust. One of the trustees is scheduled for cancer surgery next week and might not make it. His wife spent thousands to clean up the property plus she hired a full-time security guard to patrol it. They can’t afford that kind of money. They are people of modest means.  I listed the property and we received multiple offers. The sellers do not own a computer, so every time we received an offer, I drove over to their house to present it, just like in the old days.

We went into escrow 3 times, with 3 different buyers, and all 3 buyers flaked out eventually. Every week or two, a buyer canceled, and I had to start over. News at 11: Sacramento Realtor found wandering the streets naked, yelling at the sky. Who knew we would be selling a home in Sacramento on Thanksgiving to our 4th buyer?

I would tell buyer’s agents this is a teardown, buy this knowing this is a teardown, buy it for lot value and salvage, but still, their buyers would tie up the property at one price and then try in vain to renegotiate before they finally would just throw in the towel. They didn’t want to believe it was a teardown. The city was pressing my sellers about filing a lien after tearing down the structure itself, so I called the city and talked to the guy in charge. Pleaded with him to give us more time. It wasn’t my seller’s fault their family members had destroyed this property.

Finally, an agent I know came along with an offer. This was the 4th offer. How hard is it to sell a teardown in Sacramento? It’s brutal because the buyers for this are often very difficult to deal with. Every time I appeared on my seller’s doorstep, I would apologize for the bad behavior of the buyers and by extension, their agents. They would hug me, “That’s OK, honey, these things happen.” Yet I felt guilty, like I should be doing something more productive like holding the buyers hostage at gunpoint and not freeing their asses until it was time to close. I promised the couple no matter what this would close.

Last Friday, we signed the offer. By pulling strings, calling in favors, and pushing, even with our escrow officer on vacation, we closed this sale yesterday. This means my sellers can now celebrate Thanksgiving with one extra thing to be grateful for. They’ve gotten rid of the thorn in their side. The nastiness is over for them. Selling a home in Sacramento on Thanksgiving is not for everybody and rarely happens like this, but for these  sellers, it was a miracle come true. Just to hear the relief in my seller’s voice and feel her joy when I called to wish her a happy Thanksgiving and confirm the sale had closed made the whole transaction worthwhile.

Hallelujah, Leonard Cohen, RIP. Here is to clinging to your own personal gratefulness this Thanksgiving. Happy Thanksgiving, everybody.