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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.
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.
