The Story of Closing a 1911 Fixer Craftsman in Woodland

When I was about to list this 1911 fixer Craftsman in Woodland, I called a few agents in that area. Small towns are typically tight-knit. One of the agents said she thought our price was too high and it would never sell over $399K. But I’m pretty good at pricing homes, even if I don’t have an intimate knowledge of a street or certain area, I know how to get that intimidate knowledge and price accordingly. It’s just a knack I have. So it’s a good thing I specialize in listing homes in the Sacramento area. I say put that skill to good use.

We listed the 1911 fixer Craftsman at the end of March. Held the home open on Sunday and snagged 4 interested buyers. One buyer did not want to offer over $350K. Well, that’s not a buyer in my book. That’s a guy looking for a needle in the haystack. Another buyer was out of the country. A third buyer could not make up her mind, and then there was the buyer whose agent swore up and down they understood what they were buying, were old pros. They just wanted to check on the historical preservation and would close.

Later, the agent said it was too expensive to rewire the house so her perfectly credible buyers were bailing on us. This is after the seller had found a place to move. Yikes. Agents don’t often think about how flakey buyers affect sellers. So we went back on the market. All of the excitement had vanished for the sellers, but after a few more days, we found a new buyer who was one of the 4 interested buyers from the open house. This was the buyer who was out of country and could not act fast enough.

Everything went smoothly except for some confusion between the buyer’s agent and the seller, which I was not involved in. The main problem was the buyers could not close on time. Like usual, it boiled down to loan docs not arriving in escrow before the contract expired. And when the buyers signed, they did not sign correctly so the documents had to be resigned. It was one thing after another, and the seller was becoming stressed. Most mistakes and buyer-side issues I can manage in an escrow but not when it comes to lender performance. Or buyers signing.

The seller was mad at the buyers because they could not close as planned. Her new home could not close if this 1911 fixer Craftsman did not close. Due to a small glitch on the buyer’s part, it could not close. I shared the circumstances with the buyer’s agent: the seller had moved out all of her furniture, had no bed, no refrigerator. Of course the seller expected compensation, and the buyer’s agent, after a few delays, made it over to the house to rectify the situation.

Finally, on the following Monday, we received the docs back from FedX and released to record. In a surprising twist, a few hours before closing, a relative of the seller left me an unexpected voice mail. She insisted that we could not sell this house and demanded that I call her immediately. Well, like I reassured the seller, that relative is not my client. I have no fiduciary to her, and in a few hours we will be closed.

I prefer to focus on the good aspects of this transaction and that my seller is happy, moving on with her life.

70 2nd Street, Woodland, CA 95695 closed escrow on May 14th, 2018 at $425,000.