Seller Success Stories
Putting the Cart Before the House
To begin the process of moving up to a larger home, we started casually touring neighborhoods in Del Mar and La Jolla with our clients Fred and Nancy to see what types of properties they might be interested in. One day, without warning, the "perfect home" for them became available. Through our quick, back-and-forth negotiations late into the night with the seller's agent, we were able to get Fred and Nancy's offer accepted before the upcoming weekend and open house that would have certainly found another buyer for the house. They were very excited to have found their dream home. Unfortunately, there was just one problem: we hadn't listed their existing home for sale yet. We were just "casually" looking, remember? Now we had to find a buyer for their house in time to be able to use the proceeds for the purchase of their new home, a daunting task many years ago just as the market was just beginning to heat up.
We quickly formed an action plan, setting up a massive broker's open house, complete with agent enticements to get as many people in to see the house as quickly as possible, as this was back before using the internet and modern real estate marketing techniques had been established in our industry. Not only did we find a buyer quickly, we sold the property within 5% of the list price, and had the proceeds from the sale available to close escrow on their dream home.
A Last-Minute, Costly Decision
Our client was selling her family's beautiful $1,650,000 estate on the top of Mt. Helix in La Mesa. It was a place where she had grown up and had many fond memories. But just two days before escrow was scheduled to close, the buyer decided to cancel the transaction. Why? The buyer had found another home he wanted to purchase instead. All contingencies had already been removed, and we had all our documentation in order. The cost to the buyer: his ernest money deposit. Upon receiving the request for cancellation, we immediately delivered paperwork to the buyer's agent, informing them about the consequences of their decision, and the possibility of legal proceedings should they cancel and not release their deposit to the seller as damages. It seems the buyer's desire for the other property was too great, as he continued with the cancellation and released his deposit to the seller. The amount of his deposit forfeited to the seller: $10,000.00. We then went on to find a replacement buyer, who fell in love with the home and its sweeping views, and are now building their own family memories there for years and years to come.
Down to the (Bank) Wire
Kathy and Dan needed to short sell their house and were referred to us by one of our satisfied clients, who wanted us to take care of them the way we were able to help her with her short sale. But she wasn't sure we would be able to do so, because Kathy and Dan lived well north of San Diego County, far past Temecula, Lake Elsinore, and even past El Cerrito. We rarely decline referrals, even ones that are a two hour drive away. The first time we met with Kathy and Dan was at their home the day we listed it. We met with them, filled out all the paperwork, took photos and measurements, went to the local Realtor office to list the property in their Multiple Listing Service, then drove back to San Diego. We coordinated the entire listing, marketing, and showings through the internet from our San Diego office (how times have changed from our first success story above), and received multiple offers in a short amount of time. That was when trouble began.
Once we received short sale approval, we had a very limited timeframe to complete the transaction. Working together with our dedicated short sale negotiator, we had everything in place for a successful transaction. Unfortunately, the buyer's lender did not. Very long story short, we had to step in and work directly with the buyer's lender (something rarely done) in order to keep the transaction on track and get loan documents in time to close escrow before the short sale approval (which had already been extended several times) expired. Had that happened, we would have to start the entire process all over again, even though the transaction had already lasted over five months (average for a short sale).
From our constant inquiries and followup with the buyer's lender, sometimes on an hourly basis, we were able to get loan docs and close escrow, and wire out funds for the payoffs to complete the short sale. Kathy and Dan were not only extremely satisfied knowing we were able to close a painful chapter in their lives, but also very relieved, since we completed the transaction with less than 48 hours to spare before the short sale approval would have expired.