-We listed the house at $640k since it needed work.
-The brokers' open house drew so many people that there was a traffic jam of Realtors all the way down Benedict Canyon. I received over 100 calls about it the first two days it was listed. This is the most activity I've ever had on a listing. Fifteen separate parties asked me to represent them in the transaction and I said no, because concessions would have been expected during the process.
-We received 20 offers within 5 days. The offers ranged from $555k to $725k, with most being slightly above the asking price. Half of the offers were all cash.
- We chose the highest cash offer. They immediately backed out because they didn't like the condition.
- We went with our first backup offer, also all cash. They backed out because they didn't like the condition.
- By now, we had two inspection reports indicating more fixing was necessary than we had originally known. This included foundation damage. Uh-oh.
- Flop sweat.
- The trust attorney had a couple of issues to resolve as well, which caused us to put the property on hold for 10 days.
- We went back to the original offerors and furnished the inspection reports to them. Five of them came back with reduced offers.
- We again went with an all cash offer. The buyer immediately released $1000 to the seller and removed all contingencies.
- Still, more flop sweat. And still plenty of phone calls.
- ...But there were no further incidents thanks to buyers' agent Art Oganesyan and stalwart escrow officer Harlene Dunn. The trustee was a model of patience and graciousness, too. It closed a little over two weeks later for $604k. Whew!
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