Sunday, February 28, 2010

And That's How It's Done

Hi People.
Finally. A good story. A story of how good things happen to good people who work hard and strike when the iron's hot. This story is for everyone who put in an offer to purchase a home after offer after offer with no success. This should be an inspiration to those folks.
Yesterday I was out with some clients ("Clients" sounds kind of sterile. These are friends of mine. I do have friends you know) looking at some property in Poway. We've been trying for several months and have wrote multiple offers on a gang of houses and just have been beaten like the Padres (Sorry), so we finally broke down and decided to start writing offers on the dreaded "short sale" (Short sales are dreaded for several reasons: 1. The ugly short sale can take up to a year to close. The tax credit of $8000 is up in April (You have to be in escrow by April 30th and close escrow by June 30th)Who can wait a year? 2. Since they take so long there is no guarantee that the bank will not foreclose on the property while you're in escrow. Kind of like a 5 year engagement and then you find out your fiance' wants to be a nun. 3. You have no idea what the seller is going to do to the house before you buy it. People selling their house as a short sale are not getting any money back. They are just trying to salvage some credit. Plenty of sellers in this predicament trash the house and take anything that's valuable out of the home and sell it on Craig's List. Bottom line, in a short sale you do not know what you'll get or if you'll get it). But, I digest (big breakfast). so we're looking at these places that my clients really do not want but they realize that in their price range they get what they get. So, we're trying to have a good attitude about the short sales in their price range when my clients got an email.
Right when we were about to leave my clients were notified , via email on their phone, that there was a new home on the market in there price range in that very neighborhood that was a regualr sale(I set them up on an automatic notification of anything within their parameters). We thought we should at least drive by.
We showed up and I knocked on the door. "That was fast, I just put it one the market. Come on in" said the friendliest lady ever. We went in and my clients loved it. Through some conversation I realized that the owner was the listing agent too. I pulled my clients aside and whispered "Do you like it"? They eagerly nodded their heads. I asked them if they wanted to pull the trigger right now. Again with the eager head nodding (Kind of like human bobble heads). I then asked the seller/ listing agent if she wouldn't mind if I used her computer to write up a full priced offer right then and there. She was a human bobble head too. Sold in less than an hour of being on the market.
So, People, keep trying. Don't give up. Your house is waiting for you out there.
God Bless.