I briefly talked about the potential buyer for House #1. It turns out that her mother is a "retired" RE agent from out of state (IOW, she didn't have her license in Texas). The buyer told me this early on and in the back of my head I knew it would come back to haunt the deal - and it did. In the 2-3 weeks since the couple first "fell in love" with the house, I must have showed it to them at least three times, maybe four.
Well, last Friday we were to meet at the house and sign the contract. I get there and the wife has the contract and EMD waiting (the husband is not with her as he had another commitment all weekend). The bad thing, though, was that it was all filled out wrong and she was missing an addendum. So, I made the necessary corrections, and told her that she would need her husband to initial the corrections or redo the contract and have them both sign. Of course that meant at least another day of waiting.
Saturday, I realize my foolishness and call the wife to tell her that she will need to put down an option fee in order to hold the property in the meantime. She says that she is on her way out of town and won't be back until Sunday evening. I tell her that she has no interest in the property yet and that if someone else wants to buy it then I'll have no other choice but to accept their contract. She says if that's the case then there is nothing she can do to prevent it at the time.
On Monday, I haven't heard from either of them. I got picked for jury selection, so had to spend most of my time Monday in court. During a break, I called the title company to reassure myself of what all wee need to do to start escrow. On another break, I call the wife back, but get her VM, so I leave a message. About an hour later, I get a call back, but can't answer it since I'm in court. On the next break I answer the VM, and it's some man saying he's the buyer's father. He says that he wants to ask some questions about the house and to see if we will negotiate the price. WTF?!?! With hardly any time to talk, I call my wife and tell her to call back and see what the deal is. We had already negotiated a price that both of us agreed to.
A little while later I get in touch with my wife and she says the couple decided not to buy the house. It turns out the buyer's mother (the 'retired' RE agent) really influenced the couple enough so they backed out of the deal. My wife said she talked to the father first and told him we were all set to sign a contract but the buyer didn't fill it out correctly, but that the price was already set. She then talked to the mother who told my wife that it was overpriced and there was mold on the outside of the house. She then talked to the buyer who told my wife that they found cheaper houses in the area, and that this property was "too high" for them as they wanted to make some improvements later (totally opposite excitement from when I met with her).
It's apparant from backtracking the 3-4 days prior that the parents really got to the couple. I'm not sure if the mother told the buyer to intentionally fill out the contract wrong just to stall a little while she had time to look at the place (and the prices around the area, etc). Either way, we were both pissed as we feel we were conned by this couple - maybe not intentionally, but who knows. Of course, we learned a HUGE lesson in this process, which we will definitely not repeat.
The funny thing is the buyer told us that she would still give us the $100 option fee, and she put it along with a termination letter under the door mat. When I got it, I realized that on the check AND on the form, the buyers put "May 10, 2008" instead of "March 10, 2008". I'm supposed to meet the husband tonight to get a corrected copy of both, but not sure if he'll even show up.
Lessons learned? (1) Don't get hopes up even if the buyer seems overly excited about buying a property, since nothing matters until closing, (2) make sure ALL parties are present when filling out a contract as it leaves things "dangling", and (3) if the buyer is an agent, or has a relative that is an agent, understand that headaches will probably ensue.
While I was at the house, I looked around and noticed a few small patches of green, which could be surface mold, which can easily be removed with a bleach/soap solution. It's not like it was toxic mold. In central Texas this stuff grows just about anywhere that the sun doesn't hit. As far as overpriced, I did a check from a postcard I received from my agent showing market trend analysis for the subdivision. House #1 IS one of the highest-priced homes in the subdivision, but (1) it's right inline as far as price-per-sf, and (2) it has features most homes in the subdivision DON'T have, like stunning views in the back, no neighbors in the rear, and the largest 1-story floor plan.
The good that came out of this is that I plan to clean the few "mold" spots on the outside wall and repaint the entire outside. I'm also thinking about raising the price afterward and offer a $2k bonus to the buyer at closing. Additionally, I may spend about $30-$50 on some colorful flowers for the front to make it even more attractive.
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2 comments:
I have learned never to get my hopes up when somebody is THAT in love with a property. I had a couple like that interested in buying our House 8. All was going well until they went for financing--and, suddenly $100/month higher "broke the bank" where they were concerned. I'm of the opinion if somebody's that immediately emotional about a property, any little thing will spoil it. And, it's completely out of your control to stop it! What they're looking for is perfection. It's just an indicator of their inexperience more than anything.
The buyers you should get excited about are the ones that have already owned a house before--and, are moaning or complaining about something concerning the house. If they're moaning or complaining, you know you got 'em!
I wholeheartedly agree.
It's interesting, but last week we were on our way to the property and a couple call and say they are at the property and would like to see it. We get there, I show them around, and as they are leaving, the wife makes a comment something like "I or more agent will be calling you first thing in the morning." I thought that was highly unusual and instead of getting excited, I blew it off. Good thing as I haven't heard from them since. I told my wife just this morning that it very well could have been a friend of the tenant that had recently moved out, and she just wanted to go through the house to make sure the tenant didn't leave anything behind. You never know.
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