The Philadelphia Real Estate Blog

The buyer pulls out a personal check on a $250,000 cash deal (this happend last week)  What do you do ?

1.      Scream and yell !  Maybe argue a little bit. 
2.      Tell the title company they should take a personal check.
3.      Arrange for last second seller financing.
4.      Get someone to agree to do a bridge loan.
5.      Keep your cool and have the buyer go to his bank.

Obviously number 5 is the best answer.  If you picked a different answer, I would reconsider immediately !!!! 

(Update - the buyer was reminded several times via email and phone to bring certified funds to closing)

So on to the next question:

When the buyer has not come back from the bank 4 hours later, what do you do when you call him and the buyer says "The deal is off - bank cannot give me the money." ?

1.       Scream and yell at the buyer and call the buyer names.
2.       Keep your cool and inquire with the title company as to what your options are.
3.       Ask the buyer if he is interested in receiving a loan from yourself.
4.       Ask around the office for the fastest hard money lender.
5.       Threaten the buyer that he will lose his deposit and get out your boxing gloves.

But there is not too much time to talk as the buyer just hangs up the phone !!!! 

Oh boy, the thinking hat goes on... what is going on here ?  Of the above, I guess there are a couple of options that are not too bad, but the best one is number 2 which is the one we did.  Actually, I was in shock and dumbfounded not really knowing what to do next.  The sellers were elderly folks and would be extremely upset if this deal were not to go through.  But we had already talked about the worst case scenario.  If we had to put the property back on the market, so be it !  But let's look into all the options first with this buyer...

A few minutes later, the buyer strolls into the office smiling with his certified funds for the deal !

Wow, what kind of practical joke was that ?

I am glad we kept our cool !

What wacky settlement stories do you have ?

Settlement Success in Castor Gardens

We had a settlement yesterday that was a culmination of a lot of hard work, communication and patience.  We originally listed this property in Castor Gardens in November 2007 and had the settlement in January 2009.  That is a long time !  There are a few very important items to take away from this.

o  Never give up on the path to success.

o  Reassess, adjust and make recommendations along the way.

o  Communication with your clients is essential, imperative and critical.

o  Know your market inside and out .

The property was one of few mixed used properties in the neighborhood and not the easiest to price or to appraise.  The sellers expectations were too high in the beginning but not too far off.  It took a couple of price reductions and the seller rejecting a deal before the first deal was accepted.  One deal blew up after the buyer could not obtain financing which 4 months were lost and then finally the last deal went through.

Every step of the way we communicated with our seller, got the necessary extensions and navigated through the process.  Without this, I am sure the seller would have relisted with another realtor.   We never gave up and were determined to have the goal achieved.   Further, with the trickiness of the market and the property, without our knowledge in terms of knowing the market and the sales, the last deal probably would not have gone through.

The big picture is what our market is providing is for the opportuntity for the energetic and experienced agents to gain market share as customers really need this expertise more than ever.  Further, those agents that specialize in internet marketing for their sellers will be that much more in demand as well in 2009 and the years to come !

What are you doing today to excel in this market in 2009 ?

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The Somers - Philadelphia Real Estate

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Protecting Your Listing from break-ins

Have you or your seller ever had one of those properties that was a difficult sale due to vandalism ? 

Our poor seller overpaid for a property in Fishtown (did not have us as buyers agents), tried to sell it several times with different realtors, ended up having a bad tenant who did not pay rent, had to restore the property after the tenant moved out and then gave us the listing...

Property was on a challenging block next to an abandoned property which makes it a difficult sell.  Still, Chris and Stephanie Somers hunkered down and got it under contract.  We were nervous about a FHA loan but we worked with what we had.

On the day of the FHA appraisal, we get a call from the termite inspector that the property was broken into.  We drove to the property and saw for ourselves that the bathroom was ripped out, all of the copper was stolen in the basement, a few doors were taken and the central air unit outside was stolen !!!!

Ughhhhh !!!!!!!  So close but now so far away !!!

The seller got an estimate from his contractor for close to $12,000 - we called one or our contractor teams who ended up restoring it for around $6,000 so the seller was extremely happy we saved him about $6,000 !  (Tip - to be a great listing agent it is imperative to have really good working relationships with contractors.)

From that point on, we had the sign come down, we had the lock box code changed every week, we had the property secured from the inside (windows boarded and the back door secured).  We planned explicitly for the FHA reinspection - passed !   We were all ready to go to settlement but wait a second, the FHA mortgage is not ready to go !  A day delay ! Then two !  Then two more !!!!  And then yesterday the property settles !!!

Curse no more !!!  Mission accomplished by The Somers Team (contractors and all) !  The benefit of working hard is that this Fishtown seller will probably never think twice about which realtor he will use in the future or which realtor he will recommend for his friends and family.  Further, the neighborhood just received a valuable addition with these buyers and now the next door property is on the market too - it is another example of a neighborhood going through revitalization !

Hard work pays off !!!

Are you going the extra mile for your seller today ?

If interested in purchasing or selling a property in Fishtown or any part of Philadelphia, contact Chris and Stephanie Somers at thesomersteam@yahoo.com or 215-400-2612.

Philadelphia Real Estate - Chris and Stephanie Somers

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 Listing to Closing in less than 30 Days in Philadelphia

Yesterday I got an email from one of our seller clients that read:

Hi Chris     You did great.  I think the buyer was generated by you e-mailing the buyers that looked at my other property.  Listing to closing in under 30 days !!!!!!!!!
THANKS,
Ken

Let's face it.  The last year has been difficult.  For us, the last couple of months have been very very hard and draining.  We put our hearts, our energy and pieces of ourselves out there and sometimes it is very appreciated... other times it feels like we are stepped on or sucker punched.  It is just our nature to work very hard and our goal to surround ourselves with people who enjoy working with us and who value what we do. 

In any event, in the midst of having a tough week, we did have 2 very successful and smooth closings on Friday.  The day after settlement I received the above email and smiled - that is what makes it all worthwhile.  I did not even realize that it happened that fast, but sure enough in the first week we accepted an offer with a 30 day settlement.  The buyers ended up moving the settlement date up (great job Wells Fargo !) and sure enough we had a listing to closing in less than 30 days even with a FHA loan !

With hard work and service, our relationships with clients can flourish and stories like this can and do happen !  In this case, as soon as we listed his property, we notified all the buyers agents who recently showed another property that went under contract that this one was now available.   One of those buyers agents had a buyer who was interested in the other property and pounced on this one.  In the future, I doubt this seller will think twice about who will list his next property (or next several properties as he owns a lot) !

Philadelphia Real Estate - Chris and Stephanie Somers

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