Heart Warming, Investor, these are two words phrases that you normally would not associate together in the same sentence, paragraph or even possibly the same story. But what we would like to share with you hopefully will make you feel as good as we do right now.
Heart warming Investor? Really?
We are working with a first time home buyer right now, we will call her Samantha (to protect her identity) she is the daughter of a long time client of ours. She is a single mother with one son, has a good job and wants to purchase a home to raise her son in. She is Approved for a loan for $140,000. So right after the holidays in January we started looking for her new home.
In this price point if a home is in good condition it is a feeding frenzy. Investor owners, flipping homes, trying to make the most money than can. And on the other hand, a lot of the homes will not even be able to get financing based on the condition of the home. So about 6 weeks ago we found her a home that she fell in love with. We submitted an offer, and naturally there were multiple offers on the home. We were $7,000 over the asking price with her offer, and unfortunately the investor owner selected a higher bid and so we continued to look. We removed a few of the requirements for the house, so it would increase the amount of available homes for her to look at. Several times, while she was working her father and Nick would go look at homes and mostly eliminate them from the list.
So yesterday was like a many days before. Samantha’s father called and gave us a few addresses to look at. One was Cash or Hard Money under financing and there were three others. So we went to work scheduling for the afternoon. Home #1 when we turned into the neighborhood, realized it was a mobile home, we both looked at the MLS Sheet and it said Single Family Home, looked at the picture and will have to give the agent credit. They did great job of deceiving us, you could not tell from the angle of the photo that it was a mobile home. So we did a U-Turn and headed to house #2.
House #2 was owner occupied and by the photos, looked to have been renovated and in good condition. Samantha’s father is a pretty handy guy and retired so he has told her on many occasions that he will help her out with doing any work that needs to be done. So we get to the house, it’s on a pretty busy street, and when we get inside, it has been renovated, unfortunately there was different tile flooring in every room. And some of the work looked like Nick did it himself. (He is not the most handy person nor would want to hire him to do the renovations on your home) (LOL) Also there were probably 6 to 8 video cameras inside and outside of the home. The neighborhood was a little rough. So her dad eliminated this one.
So we headed to house#3, we pulled onto the street and immediately noticed several homes that looked as if they had been recently updated, painted, the yards were well maintained and into the driveway we were. The home was slightly smaller than others we had looked at before. The home was built in 1958, Block construction and in the description it said New Roof, New Hot Water Heater and New AC had recently been installed. The house was very cute and from the outside looked like it could be the one.
We walked inside, and immediately were drawn to 18 inch porcelain tile floors that were installed throughout the entire house. So we walked through and every inch of the home had been renovated. Granite counters, railroad tile back splash, new bath tubs, sinks, appliances and the list just kept on. This was about 230pm and Samantha worked until 330pm, so her dad sent her a text and said that she needed to come see this home. Also this home had been on the market just a few days and we noticed 9 or 10 REALTOR business cards on the counter in the kitchen. So we knew the home had several showings already.
This is where we got nervous, so Nick called the listing agent to ensure that the home was not already under contract, like so many other times they are, but just have not been updated in the MLS System. Here is where things got interesting. The agent answered the phone and explained that the investor just got back into the US yesterday and he has already rejected several offers, because they were looking for the right buyer and the right price. So we explained that our buyer was a first time home buyer, single parent who was purchasing the home to raise her son in. The agent said then they thought we should put our offer in, the seller wanted to have the home under contract before the weekend was up.
Now it’s Friday afternoon and we still had some time before Samantha would be off work and she had to pick up her son from daycare and then come to house. So we decided to wait at the house for her to get there. In the mean time Cindy called to check in since it been awhile since Nick & Samantha’s dad left the office to go look at homes. So we updated her, she pulled up the house we were at and said Wow, that is a really nice home.
So when Samantha pulled up, we toured the home again, and she was immediately in love with the home. So, we had looked at the comparable sales and knowing that the investor had rejected other offers already. Decided that we needed to be very aggressive with our offer to enable Samantha to have a chance in being the buyer that the investor selects to purchase this home.
Here’s where thinking outside the box comes into play. We decided to include a letter from Samantha with the offer.
Thank you for the opportunity to make an offer on your beautiful home. Our client fell in love with the layout, the condition, and the location of the property. Our buyer, Samantha, is a single mom with her son. She is delighted that your home (we had the address here) has everything that she is looking for in her home to raise her son. She is also excited that your home has a spacious backyard. She is looking forward to moving out of her rental. Samantha currently works for (XXXX).
She also loves that the home is only a short drive to her work and daycare where her son attends. Samantha was very excited too when she saw that the kitchen is close to the living room, this way she can spend time with her son while she cooks.
Our client is in love you’re your home on (XXXX). She feels it is the perfect home to raise her family in. Your home is the right size, has a great layout and is only a short distance from all the things that they love to do as a family. Our clients are prepared to make an above asking price offer of $xxx.xxx but would request that you allow 3% be paid towards her closing costs and prepaid items.
Thank you for your time and consideration, we greatly appreciate the chance to write an offer on your beautiful home.
We even decided to include a picture of Samantha and her son standing in front of the home with a sale pending rider that Nick had in his car. And we put text that said Hoping to place the Sale Pending Sign on Soon. And we submitted the offer.
Knowing that an investor was the owner, we were not 100% sure that this would assist in Samantha’s offer being accepted. We informed the listing agent that we were submitting an offer and then sent it. Within 90 minutes later we received the following email.
Nick and Cindy
Thank you for presenting your buyer’s offer. CONGRATULATIONS !!!!
Please find enclosed the executed contract ! I am very excited your buyer got the home. We LOVE her story and hope she creates beautiful memories with her son in her new home.
Congratulations !!! I will be sending an e-mail throughout the weekend to all interest parties – title, mortgage, transaction coordinators, etc. .. but wanted to get this to you so you could share the GREAT news with your client, and I could change status to PNC and cancel all the showings that had been schedule for the weekend 🙂 – It is a revolving door.
You and your buyer provided the right offer, and put heart into it. My investor really appreciates it.
I look forward to working with you and your team
Have a GREAT evening
What a perfect ending to the day. We were able to let Samantha and her dad know the good news and she is so excited. We will keep you updated, and do not foresee issues based on the condition of the home. We know selling homes is just not about a check. You have to love what you do and do it to assist buyer in finding the right home for them. We work with sellers too, guiding and assisting them in pricing their house to sell for the highest amount, in the shortest time, with the most favorable terms. If you want Nick & Cindy to assist you, we are always just a click here or call t0 813-300-7116 away.