Third Time is a Charm for These Sacramento Real Estate Sellers

Third time is a charm for Sacramento home sellers.

You know where I learned how to say “third time is a charm” in Sacramento real estate? Twelve years ago when short sales were getting started in Sacramento as the market began to crash. Because nobody back then wanted to buy a short sale. Soon that was pretty much all there was to buy, so that attitude changed. Now that we have almost no short sales at all in Sacramento anymore, you would think a Realtor would never have to say “third time is a charm” ever again. Ha!

Listen to this story. I first listed this home in Natomas in August, just as I headed out to Hawaii for a few weeks. Although this home has many nice features, the drawback was it faced the freeway. It didn’t just face the freeway. The freeway was in its face. You could see big trucks on the overpass and cars whizzing by the front yard. Oy, this will be a challenge to sell, I thought.

But then I brightened up. I’ve sold a lot of homes that face the freeway, now that I paused to reflect. We have low inventory. High demand. Sure enough, we received an offer. The agent typed the wrong seller’s name, which made me wonder about multiple offers. I could tell how much this excited the sellers. We just closed on their new home, which involved paying more than list price, so they thought they could apply that principle to this offer.

I didn’t want to burst their bubble and say do you know how lucky you are to have an offer for a home that faces the freeway? But I did discuss why protocol suggests not demanding more than list price when you have only the one offer. Then, suddenly the buyer’s agent withdrew the offer. Turned out her buyers purchased something else. Did they write multiple offers? Possible.

A few weeks later, whammo another offer arrived. IIRC, the buyer’s agent partnered with the buyer’s lender, and they were both out-of-area. That makes transactions more difficult because  they don’t know local custom. Sacramento is very much its own local marketplace, unlike the Bay Area or Southern California. Also different from Placer or Yolo.

The lender sent the offer, too, which made it even more confusing. When escrow did not receive the deposit, we issued a Notice to Buyer to Perform and only then did the buyer finally wire funds. Too many red flags with this file but you cannot cancel a buyer for red flags.

We came to regret the whole ordeal. Shortly after the home inspection, the buyer flipped out. Some of the windows needed to be replaced. Since they were under warranty, the sellers hopped on getting new windows ordered. These things are never easy to do because builders pass the buck and the warranty companies pass the buck. So a seller needs to be really diligent, persuasive and committed to the process.

The buyer did not like the fact we ordered new windows. Say what? She made no sense. She then demanded that the sellers re-stucco the 8-year-old house. Why? Dunno. Nobody knows exactly why, and her agent / lender didn’t seem to help the situation. Next thing we know, the buyer canceled. To us it appeared to be cold feet.

Well, third time is a charm. A few weeks later, we received an offer in early November. Another buyer agent / lender situation. I am not in the minority when I say you could can be a fantastic Realtor or a expert mortgage loan officer but you can’t wear two hats. Something has always got to give in this situations. I don’t believe you can be an expert at both.

Sure enough, this buyer loan file ran into delays. Delays, loan conditions that were undisclosed, and extensions. We had four extensions with this escrow. That’s positively insane. But you know what? We experienced a Christmas miracle. We closed with the third set of buyers last Thursday, all the while I am back in Hawaii for the winter. Third time is a charm. It is weird, though, to start work on this in Hawaii in August and still be working on it in Hawaii in December.

Further, who figured 3 sets of buyers would want to live in a home that faces the freeway. In a buyer’s market, that house would probably still be for sale. In a seller’s market, no such thing as a bad location.