I thought I would share with you a week “in the life” of a Realtor in this market! And what a week it was! My poor buyers, bruised and brazen all at once!
I know you’ve heard that the market is flat, dead, dowdy but I’m here to tell you, t’isnt true!
On Thursday of last week, my clients decided to bid on a house, after weeks of looking. This was it! Offer night was upon us. We registered first, hoping to discourage any buyers who did not want to compete to drop out of the race! We may have been successful, you don’t know. But still, THERE WERE 9 OFFERS! So we went in with our best foot forward….you know, that number that if someone else bid above we would say “good luck”, I wouldn’t have paid that. After an hour of waiting at a local resto, we finally get a call from the listing agent who invites us to come back with a better offer. I asked him where we ranked in the 9 and he said, “9th!” (I would not have asked the bottom bid to improve as it is HIGHLY likely that you would have to leapfrog over 8 other bodies only to land in a price bracket called…”this house will not appraise”, so we declined to improve that night.
Nine am the next day we warriors were at it again. We went to 3 new listings. Number 2 was REALLY “the one”! So we drafted a BIG BOLD offer, got a certified cheque for a FAT deposit, and submitted our offer as a pre-emptive bid and gave the seller only 2 hours to accept or decline our offer. We did not want to wait for offer day, and compete with another 7 hungry buyers (you know, the ones who lost out on last night’s house which was only a few blocks away!) This was our day! We had a willing seller, a very good listing agent, a willing buyer and me all working to the same end game….getting this house sold for the best price possible, in the shortest time, with the least stress while being sure to protect the interests of each side.
We prevailed and the listing agent sent me a note of congrats as well as a note about the number of disappointed agents and buyers who were lined up to bid on this property. “In the end, you guys were prepared” she said and the successful sale of this dream house was our reward!
Clients “over the moon”!
The following day of the same week, I put in an offer on a luxury condo for clients who have been looking for ages! There were 5 bidders and this time I could not “jump the queue”. Sellers wanted to wait until offer day and so we did. Again, we went in with our best foot forward and this condo was PERFECT for my older clients who were downsizing from a large home. Again we were asked to improve. I suggested a conservative increase, which I thought was well within the fair market range for this 2000 square foot unit, but my clients wanted to offer a smaller amount. It turned out that the condo went to the bidder who improved to the number I had given my clients and we lost by 1% of the purchase price!
Clients “so sad”
And that’s a good example of the ups and downs in just 3 days, for clients and Realtors in this popular, under supplied housing market. Sometimes you win and sometimes you don’t. But, we live to try another day with optimism and determination!
If you (or someone you know), are looking for a Realtor who cares MORE about focusing on you, your concerns, goals and the successful purchase or sale of YOUR unique home, than they care about their volume of
transactions and awards, please let me know the best way for me to connect. I would love to offer my highly personal service. Contrary to that old expression, not only IS this business, but it IS personal! And, please, I encourage you to ask me any questions you may have about this post. I value your input and appreciate the time you took to read it.