Here’s the follow-up to the Glendale story that started here:
https://www.bubbleinfo.com/2016/08/28/realtor-video-tour-2/
As you can see in the video, the house was all original from 1941. There was a deliberate attempt by the trustee and agent to price-in the condition, and select a list price towards the bottom of the range.
This is the type of neighborhood that can vary block to block, depending on upgrades – so you’d like to have comps within a block or two, ideally. The most recent comp on the block was the $685,000 for a 4br/2ba, 2,114sf house across the street that closed in April, 2015:
(the $707,000 is a pre-foreclosure)
There were others further away in the $600,000s, so starting with an attractive list price of $624,999 made sense (the subject property is green dot on map).
The half-hour open house took place on a Sunday, and bidders had until Wednesday to submit their offer.
18 offers were received, and six were all-cash!
The cash offers were asked for their highest and best, and not one but TWO offers of $730,000 were submitted – one was from the next-door neighbor! But his agent struggled with the paperwork, and there was some mis-direction too. But the other buyer had made the best initial offer of $725,500, and had upped it to $730,000 just to add a little extra mustard.
With the identical cash offers and both with short escrow periods, it came down to the agent – who best had their act together. The neighbor didn’t get it – which could lead to some frosty conversation over the hedge!
Seven days later, the escrow closed at $730,000 as-is (no repairs requested).
It shows the power of the auction format, and how turning the sales process into a competition gets buyers fired up about winning – usually at all costs!
Two cash buyers were willing to pay more than $100,000 over list!
The good things that happened to assist:
- There was one comp at $740,000.
- It must have been a fair competition.
- Prices are going up so fast in these older but quality neighborhoods that it feels like a runaway train to buyers, and they are desperate to grab anything.
But more than anything, it shows that with a good agent and a proper bidding process, it makes sense to put an attractive price on it. If they would have listed for $729,000, they would still be sitting there!
Anything needs to happen other than all the crooked short sales that go down. Give everyone a chance to buy and see what the property is worth.
Banks need to move past the “foreclosures are bad” thinking.
how does one (the neighbor) botch an all cash deal? especially with no contingies……
It’s also possible the sellers just didn’t like the neighbor?
In this case they actually had good relations with the neighbor.
But he had an out-of-area agent help him with the paperwork, and it wasn’t spiffy like the winner’s.
Then the neighbor approached the listing agent to see if he would represent him, which muddied the water further. You’d be surprised how many times that backfires.