A few weeks ago, while I was having a phone chat with my boss/mentor/teacher, regarding the contract I have that is now less than a week away from closing, he said to me, "This is how it is supposed to be." All of the struggles, the endlessly uphill battle I've had through the first year and a half of my new career has been a collective anomaly. Most often, deals progress without the catastrophic failures that met my first three contracts. It really was freakish that my first experiences in real estate all died sudden deaths at the inspection stage, without even the slightest chance of asking the sellers to correct the problems encountered. They were supposed to go like the current one, with inspection resolutions that made both parties happy, clear title work, appraisals that meet the purchase price, or close enough to make the deal proceed, and sellers who want to sell and buyers who want to buy. Today was the last deadline before closing, the loan objection deadline. I almost missed it because I was so busy today. At three o'clock I texted my buyer (I almost wrote "texted my friend," because I think of her that way now) and asked her if it was all good on that front. She said yep. We verified that we'd meet at the house before heading to the title company in Fort Collins to sign the zillion and a half papers. It should have been this easy all along. But knowing me, if it had been easy from the start, I wouldn't have experienced this much satisfaction and appreciation for a deal done right.
The reason I was so busy that I nearly missed the deadline was I got a call before lunchtime from one of the very last people to walk through my two-day open house extravaganza this weekend. He and his wife wanted me to write an offer, but first he wanted to talk it over with her at lunchtime to make sure they were on the same page. He said, "Don't write anything for us yet." As if. I immediately sat down with a notebook and cheat sheet, and started prepping the dates and looking up the proper language for potential clauses that may have needed to be in this particular deal. I wrote it all out longhand, because I didn't yet have the proper names for the contract, which is the first part of the file before the actual offer form is pulled up in the MLS. I was 80% ready to go by the time he called back with the green light and the amount of money they wanted to bid. Unlike previous incarnations, this offer took me less than an hour from the time I initiated the form online. I waited longer than that for them to read it (and to tell me an embarrassing mistake I made with the name of one of the couple). We had it submitted to the listing agent with 45 minutes to spare before the deadline.
I was told that our offer was number 9 of 10 submitted on this property, but it ranked higher than 60% of them. We were jockeying for position among the top four, and I don't know what the primary motivation of the sellers might be that could indicate whether we win or not. I don't think we necessarily are the highest dollar amount, but that's not the only thing a seller looks for. Our financing is strong; our timeline is exactly average length. We did not ask for anything out of the ordinary. So time will tell, and not much time at that. We should know tomorrow whether we are chosen, or at least chosen to have a counter offer. But honestly, all I can think is that thing the boss said on that phone call: "This is how it was supposed to be all along."
No comments:
Post a Comment