For this home I sold in San Jose for $2,250,000, I was the agent for the buyers. I actually sold them a townhome 22 years ago! The way the listing agent set up for offers was a bit chaotic, because he posted on MLS that there was an offer date, but the seller was open to preemptive offers. Frankly, that just makes for confusion. As a buyer’s agent, it makes for a situation in which it is hard to guide buyers. Typically, the sellers do wait for the offer date so that they can receive all of the offers possible, rather than accepting an offer in advance, and then wondering if they could have received a better offer if they had waited. But, some sellers do take a preemptive offer quickly if they think it is the best they will receive. It’s a dice roll.
In these situations, if the seller will take the preemptive offer, then great, we will write an offer and try to get it accepted before the offer date. If the seller decides to wait for the offer date, then I feel it puts my buyers at a disadvantage to make an offer that the seller just holds and does not accept. Plus, it makes for concern that the offer will be ‘shopped’ and then our offer not as competitive on the offer date. Of course, we can modify our offer on the offer date, but it’s best not to submit a preemptive offer that the seller won’t even work with until the offer date.
So, from Day 1, I kept in touch with the listing agent, just to make sure the home did not sell from under our feet. We did not want to submit a preemptive offer if the seller was not going to actually accept it. The listing agent did get 2 offers within the first couple of days being listed, but the seller seemed to be holding off on decision making, so I just kept in touch with the listing agent to make sure we didn’t lost it before we even were able to make an offer.
Days passed and then the seller did decide to just wait for the offer date, so that is when we submitted our offer. At that point, there were 5 offers on offer day. We were NOT the highest offer, but our price and terms were solid and I had kept in touch very closely with the listing agent. The buyers wrote a wonderful letter to the seller. The seller told the listing agent that it did make a difference. And, the sellers wanted the home to go to a family that would love and care for the home as they did. So, in combination with our offer being solid in price and terms, and also the letter that touched the seller, and that I was keeping in good communication with the listing agent, they came back to us rather than just taking the highest offer in hand. I believe we ended up matching the highest offer, or at least was VERY close, because the seller decided to work with us.
A few quirky things that happened in our transaction that I want to bring up that may help others…
Home insurance has been interesting, to say the least. So, I tell my buyers to get the home insurance set up right away to ensure they can get home insurance and at a decent rate and such. Buyers may need time to shop around, so home insurance is something to jump on quickly. And, some big names have left CA, at least for now, so there are less choices.
In this case, a situation came up that I have never had an issue with in the past. It may be just a one off, but nonetheless, I will bring it up in case it can help someone in the future. The buyers are putting the home in a Living Trust, very common, home insurance and lenders to this all the time. We thought everything was in order, but closer to closing time, there was a discrepancy for the home insurance and lender in regard to the name on title. They needed to match, and one was the Living Trust name and one was the owner’s names. And, that became an 11th hour situation that could have so easily been avoided if it was noticed earlier in the transaction. Key point…if you are putting the home in a Living Trust when you close, make sure you tell the insurance agent upfront and ensure that the names match for the insurance and the title. If worked out upfront, it won’t become an 11th hour matter.
Also, in CA at least, there is a lending law that requires the buyer to wait 3 days after they receive the Closing Disclosure (CD). This time period can NOT be waived. It is supposed to give the buyers a chance to review the documents and have ‘proper’ time to review and let things sink in. Frankly, the 3 days are a pain in most cases and more-so upset buyers and all the other parties to the transaction, because most of the time, we are all in a rush to close, and it can be very frustrating to have to wait for the required 3 days. In an 11th hour rush situation, make sure to sign the CD ASAP because that could also cause a delay in closing. In this case, the buyers signed it after the cut off time for the day, and then was not able to sign the day they were supposed to sign and had to wait until the following day. I thought it was signed, and found out after the fact. I will definitely follow up on these 11th hour rushes to ensure the CD truly gets signed in time for the cut off.
Another situation that actually ended up causing a 1 business day delay, to take us through the weekend in this case, so essentially 3 days, is that the listing agent is local, but for some reason used a San Diego title office. I have no idea why. So, it was impossible to do a same day signing, funding and recording, because the office was too far away to provide the original documents the same day. We have a MILLION local title offices. Frankly, too many! So, it just seems a bit silly to choose a title company that far away, when we already have too many to choose from locally.
My final thought I want to bring up is to sellers and listing agents. Sellers and listing agents, please give ALL of the proper information at closing. It is NO fun for buyers when we have to chase down sellers for information we should have received at closing. In this case, we were told there was a physical key to the front door smart lock, which in fact, the seller didn’t have one. We found this out after closing. We didn’t have the proper master codes, instructions, etc for changing codes. On closing day, it was a bit of a mess, trying to chase down keys, information, instructions to change smart lock codes, that needed a master code in order to change, devices that open the locks so that they can be changed, etc. I asked for this information a week in advance and again on closing morning. I was informed that everything we needed would be there, but it was not. So, then the texting back and forth began…for days…And, some of the information the seller just didn’t have at all, which would have been nice to know before closing. Basically, not having all of the keys and information a buyer needs for their new home puts a damper in the excitement on closing day.
The good news is that this home is absolutely beautiful and has amazing views! It has many awesome features that makes this home truly unique and special. A wonderful entertaining home for sure. I’m certain that many wonderful memories will be made there.
https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/3450-Valley-Vista-Dr-San-Jose-CA-95148/51074830_zpid/
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