CASE STUDY: Serious Buyers Get Down to Business & Buy Great Home

I met Aaron and Breanne at a gathering of Alan’s coworkers, and we made arrangements to meet at another time to discuss the home-buying process.

When we met, we discussed what they could expect as well as their criterion for a home. Since getting a pre-approval is the first step of the process, I sent them a few lender referrals. All are lenders that I’ve worked with in the past and had successful transactions with. I knew they were serious about their search when they decided on one right away. They got their paperwork done and their preapproval received in almost record time. Buyers often procrastinate on this important first step. I suppose it is more fun touring homes than providing documentation to a loan originator.

Once they had their preapproval in hand, I set up a search for them and we started touring homes. We typically toured twice a week so as not to miss anything.

They quickly found a home they wanted to make an offer on, and it was very close to the review deadline. I contacted the listing agent and she let me know that she already had multiple offers in hand. She also shared the current high price which was above their budget, so they decided not to make an offer on that one. When it closed, it sold for $200,000 over their budget.

The next house they wanted to make an offer on was an estate on a lot of an acre and a half. We crafted their offer and I presented it. The listing agent called and said that they now didn’t want to use the escalation addendum and they were now asking for highest and best offer. I had a hunch that theirs was the highest offer, but that they didn’t have a competing offer high enough to push the price as high as the seller would have liked. Aaron and Breanne decided that they didn’t want to play that game and decided to keep their offer as is. The seller chose another offer. This one closed at $65,000 less than the maximum on their escalation addendum. That confirmed my suspicions about what the seller was trying to do.

The third place that they found was a very cool house on a lake with an amazing garage / shop. I knew it would be very competitive. They made an aggressive, strong offer on this one but the seller chose another offer that was higher, and that buyer waived all contingencies.

I took a short trip out of town, so I arranged for a colleague to help me with showings for the weekend. It turned out that they really liked one of the houses that they toured, and they wanted to make an offer. They were reviewing offers upon receipt so that meant that we would need to get their offer presented right away.

Always prepared, I brought my laptop so I’d be prepared for a situation like this. We discussed their offer terms, and I wrote the offer which I presented as soon as they signed. The listing agent called the next day to say the seller had accepted their offer. I sent the agreement to escrow, their lender and my office, and arranged their inspection, which I attended with them.

Aaron and Breanne decided on a few things they would ask the seller to repair. The seller agreed and they were now pending. Once the seller completed the septic inspection, there was an issue that we had to negotiate with the seller who agreed to compensation. We then did a pre-closing walk-through and scheduled the inspector to be there also to confirm the repairs were done in an acceptable way. Everything was good and they closed on time. They are now enjoying their new home!