You know what I'm talking about; everything's fine and dandy and then you catch a glimpse of the perfect house and it just hit the market. Maybe you've been eyeing that house for several years; maybe you love the yard and want to see the inside; maybe you were out for a drive and found a phenomenal neighborhood that would just be perfect for you and your family. BUT, you hadn't been planning on buying and you're not prepared.
So, what do you do?
Let's start at the beginning. I have a couple that is very happy where they are. They love their neighborhood, their yard, and their view. They've lived there 14 years and really made the place their own but the house is nothing special. It's a simple home and although it's obviously worked for some time, they would love a bigger layout, an updated kitchen and just more space. Their bedroom is small and the master bath leaves much to be desired on the word "master". So from time to time they look around and see a house here or there that they think they love. Most of the time they see the inside and find something wrong or it's just not perfect enough to move.
Well, for quite a while they have been eyeing this home, not too far from their current house, with a sensational Japanese garden in the front and back yard. The house is stunning and they called me to say they just saw a sign go up for sale in the front yard. The trick is, it's a FSBO, for sale by owner. While this is not uncommon, it can be a bit tricky when they've been dealing with a buyer's agent for some time.
Here's how this went down. I called the owner and asked about the property. He said it was listed for sale for, what I thought, was a reasonable price, but that he was unwilling to work with real estate agents. I told him I had a couple that loved the home and would like to see it. I know that my clients are very loyal to me and would not attempt a deal without me so I told them to stop by and see the house and find out if they even liked it.
Turns out they did.
They loved the inside just as much as the outside! Everything was perfect. The only thing they would be sacrificing is their view but it was still in the same neighborhood and it had everything else they wanted. However, they had not planned on buying a house and were completely unprepared.
Here's what we did:
First up, I talked to the seller. In this hot market, it was not appropriate to put in a contingent offer, especially on a home that was just listed and priced right. I also asked the seller if they could increase the price to cover a buyer's agent commission. He agreed and I was pretty sure the home would appraise for it.
Then we got their home ready. We did an immediate pre-inspection, corrected issues that needed correcting and did a mass cleaning over the weekend. The house was listed on Monday. I was sure we could get enough out of the sale of their home to warrant a 20% down payment on the new house. This is where the funds came from when they didn't have a few thousand sitting in the bank. Once listed, we put in an offer on the house they loved, over price to cover commission with as much earnest money deposit as the buyers could handle. We did not make a contingent offer because we added a financing contingency to the transaction. This stated that the deal could only go through if financing were to go through and if their house did not sell in the mean time, they wouldn't have had the finances to buy and it would have fallen through anyway. I priced their home aggressively and marketed the heck out of it the first week. We were able to get a full price offer in the first two weeks and were able to roll the equity from the old house into the new house and closed in 50 days.
My buyers are just ecstatic! They were able to sell and buy at the same time and they did it with less than $5000 in the bank.
It can be done but everything must work like clockwork with reasonable parties willing to make the deal happen. The FSBO also got two other offers in addition to ours but because I was kind and communicative to him, he agreed to go with our offer first.
So, you see, it really doesn't matter where you are. If you find the house of your dreams, let's go for it! Who knows, you may love it, or you may hate it, but at least you'll know and maybe it will get you thinking about saving a bit more when the right house comes along. CALL ME TODAY! 561-440-1000
Additional Resources:
Should one agent represent both the buyer and seller?
How to Sell a Home without Listing it on the MLS