Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Incredibly Lucky

Serendipity seems to strike every once in a while in real estate.

I was in the office making my open houses flyers and the front desk paged me. There was a walk-in customer that wanted to talk to an agent.

I was rushing to get to my opens and I did not have much time to talk. I went away with some doubts -- first time homebuyers, small budget, grand ideas. Not sure this was going anywhere, but I agreed to meet him next week.

I was really busy and scrambled to put together a couple houses to show them. I thought at least I could talk to them more and find out if buying was a possibility for them, or just a dream.

I showed them two houses in their price range - both foreclosures on the West Side. One was a grandpa house that needed a lot of work. The other was a beautiful house that had been overlooked for a long time because it was a foreclosure. It had just been reduced in price, and the buyers loved it. It was in great shape and just needed appliances.

It's unusual to find a beautiful house in a great neighborhood for dirt cheap, and my buyers knew it. They acted quickly, and found out that night that they were approved for $5,000 less than the list price.

We wrote the offer for $5,000 less than the list price -- exactly what the buyer was approved for. The next day I was sick with the flu, and the bank counters with a few thousand over the level the buyers can spend. I was demoralized and I told the list agent we would work with the lender to get my buyers approved to go to the new level, which might be hard. While I slept off the flu, I got an email that the list agent had simply re-submitted our offer and we got it!

I was thrilled. It's so rewarding when you have a buyer with a small budget and you can find them a beautiful house in a good neighborhood. We are all thrilled, I'm excited to see this one close.

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