For this home I sold in Los Altos Hills for $7,700,000, I was the agent for the buyers. This is our THIRD time working together, and they have also referred me a number of clients over the years. I so greatly appreciate their support of my business over so many years!
We negotiated for weeks for this home. The seller initially was determined not to sell this home for under $8m, and the buyers were pretty set on the max price they were willing to pay. We weren’t very certain this deal would ever come together for price and terms that both buyer and seller could agree on, but with patience and persistence, and the fact there were no other buyers bidding on this home for a higher price, we managed to chisel the price down from the seller’s ‘minimum’ price to a price that the buyers were willing to pay. This home had been in contract for a higher price with another buyer, but the deal fell through, and the seller was having a hard time taking a price under what it had been in contract at with the other buyer.
Something that was very important to the buyers was that they will be able to build a pool and that the cost would not be outrageous, since the property is sloped where they would want the pool to be built. After 25 years as a realtor, I am still learning!!!! Go figure! Wow, building a pool is no joke! We had to get a Geotechnical report just to see if a pool could be built in that location, and that ain’t cheap! Plus, all of the grading, permits, pre-work, the actual pool construction, access to the site, etc, etc. I worked on the pool information practically every day during this entire transaction to get all the info needed in regard to simply (or what I thought was simply) building a pool.
We did have a bit of a surprise toward the end of the transaction, in which the loan officer wasn’t giving the buyers the warm and fuzzy to remove the loan contingency. She would verbally tell both of us that the loan was fine and basically approved, but would not put anything legitimate in writing, and also would tell us that the file wasn’t officially approved by the underwriter. She would say not to worry, but then not really follow through with some things in regard to the loan, so it made the buyers nervous to remove the loan contingency, since they weren’t quite sure if they could trust her, and being that this is such a large amount of money at risk, decided to wait for the final loan approval which took a couple more days past the loan contingency. It was fine, and the seller understood their dilemma, but it made for some stress at the end, just not really having 100% confidence in the loan officer.
Lastly, we closed this transaction not even a week before the huge news broke out about the virus and the Shelter in Place orders took effect. The news was out, it was becoming more and more prominent each day. In fact, one of the sellers was in CHINA of all places, and the American Consulate was closed, and the seller had to jump through all of these hoops to even sign his papers and FedEx over to America in time to record the sale per the contract. We were literally counting hours at that point, because in China, things were already going on lockdown, or in lockdown, so we were uncertain that the seller could even get the docs signed and over to us in time to close on time. Thankfully, he was able to get it done, and we did, indeed, close on time.
So, this was quite a roller coaster ride…and the timing was just totally surreal. Life was just moving right along in the beginning of this transaction, and then toward the end, the news of the virus starting to become more and more prominent, day by day, things were changing, and all of the sudden things started changing quickly every single day. Unbelievable!
The good news is…this is an incredibly beautiful forever home on a very private and serene property…so this is an amazing home to Shelter in Place with no need to leave…a home that you don’t even want to leave…no doubt!
Just Sold in Los Altos Hills for $7,700,000!
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