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Mary and Stephen were looking to buy their first home and were referred to me by some of my favorite clients that I consider to be friends.
Before COVID, I typically would set up a meeting so that I could learn a client’s criteria, and we could determine if we are a good fit to work together. Of course, with COVID, an in-person meeting wasn’t possible, so I set up a Zoom meeting for us and that’s how we got to know each other.
Once I learned their criteria, I set up an MLS search for them and started sending listings. We then began touring homes. We followed the governor’s protocol, which when we first started, only allowed me and one of them in the house at one time. That meant two tours for each house. We wore masks and stayed six feet apart.
We toured around 25 homes before finding “the one”. After the tour of that house, they let me know that they were interested in making an offer. I contacted the listing agent and he let me know that they were reviewing offers upon receipt and didn’t have any offers in hand at the moment. I asked him what terms were important to the seller, and we ended up chatting about other things that we as agents run into. We had a long conversation, and afterwards I went home and wrote the offer right away and sent it to Mary and Stephen to sign electronically, which they did without delay.
As soon as the signing was completed, I submitted their offer. The listing agent called and said that he had received another offer that was a bit higher than theirs and had terms that protected the seller more. He said that the other offer was from a discount broker and that he really didn’t want to work with them. I let Stephen and Mary know and asked if they wanted to match the other offer. They weren’t comfortable making those changes to their offer, and the seller accepted the other offer.
We thought that was the end of the opportunity for them to get that house and continued to tour other houses. They found another one they liked, but due to the buyer traffic and my conversation with the listing agent, we knew that it would be competitive and that it may get out of their comfortable price range.
Then, a few hours later, I received a call from the listing agent on the first house who said that the deal with the first buyer was falling apart. He wanted to know if Mary and Stephen were still interested. They were, so I made changes to their offer and got ready to submit it when the listing agent called again and said that an all cash offer just came in. He sent me a copy of that offer. He and the seller felt bad and said that if they could match the price and terms, that he would accept their offer. I made changes, had them sign the offer and submitted it again. They accepted and were officially under contract.
Then they had their inspection and sewer scope. I helped them negotiate inspection items and the seller accepted. The seller completed all the items by the time that we did the final walk through before closing. They closed on time and got their keys. I felt a little sad that I wouldn’t be working with them any longer because I enjoyed touring houses with them and getting to know them. My clients have the best friends!
“We worked with Don entirely during Covid -19,” said Mary and Stephen. “He is professional, always early, very communicative and very knowledgeable. He’s a former electrician so knows a lot about houses, and we would often ask him about how much something would cost to fix and if it is something that is easy to do ourselves or something we may want to consider a professional for.”
“Don was responsive and always got us viewings of houses we wanted to see in a timely manner. He worked well with our lender and the seller’s agent, and I think his good rapport is what helped us get our house since there was a cash offer that was higher than ours. I am so grateful for working with Don and highly suggest him as a Realtor!”
