By Living Room Realty, April 17, 2020
My buddy Lauren bought her house in Woodlawn back in 2009 and lived there with various roommates and girlfriends for 10 years until she moved into her girlfriend Karmen’s house a couple years ago. Since then she’s been renting to friends until she figured out what she wanted to do next. When she told me a few months back that she was thinking of selling we made a plan to get the house spruced up and get the tenants sorted out so we could hit the spring market. We made a punch list for the handyman, lined up the painter, and Lauren, being an electrician, installed some new lighting. The place was looking good.
Simultaneously, some friends that work for Equal Exchange came into Sloans for happy hour back in January. One of them, Shawn, was telling me she and her girlfriend, Raina, were about to get pre-approved and start looking for a house. They wanted a 3/2 and figured they’d have to be looking pretty far out to get that in their price point. I mentioned to her that my friend Lauren was getting ready to sell her 3/2 super close-in and around that price range and that I’d let them in for a sneak peek before it hit the market.
So fast forward to March, we had everything ready to come on the market mid-month and shit starts getting serious with the Corona. I had shown Shawn and Raina a handful of houses all over town but they weren’t finding anything they liked. They really wanted to see Lauren’s house before it came on the following weekend so I took them through it and they wanted it. I talked to Lauren to see if she’d be open to selling off market and she was excited about the possibility of an easy sale and keeping it in the community.
When a situation where two sets of our clients enter into a deal together, my business partner Teddy and I split off from each other and represent one party each. That way, there’s no conflict of interest and both sides are represented fairly. I worked with Lauren and Ted worked with Shawn and Raina.
To accept an offer off market, it has to be enticing enough that you feel comfortable letting go of whatever possibilities a multiple offer situation might bring you. Shawn and Raina wrote an attractive offer and Lauren took it. The deal was super straight forward and easy. There were a handful of things to fix/repair and we were able to get them done before the world shut down. We were even able to close early.
So, that’s the story of my recent win-win. Lauren was able to dodge the Corona bullet and Shawn and Raina got their 3/2 house in Woodlawn at an unheard of price. My only regret is that I wasn’t able to work with those two, but they were in good hands with Ted. Congrats my dudes!
