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The rocks and the roses: The pain & reward of working with out of state & international buyers & a little technology

By
Real Estate Agent with Keller Williams Integrity First

One of the truly enjoyable and fulfilling aspects of being a REALTOR(R) is helping people.  Now I know you've heard that before in a variety of ways from all types of professionals but in my opinion it truly is fundamental to being successful and rewarding not just in Real Estate but any profession.


It seems lately I have been tasked with a few "find the needle in the haystack" scenarios from my clients.  I wanted to illustrate one of those examples today.  I've been working with an international buyer who's many thousands of miles away and there's an eleven hour time difference.  As if that wasn't enough for most to take on, my buyer initially had a very broad sense of what he was looking for.  "Just get me a killer deal, something in the low $50.00/sq ft & in excelling school district etc. etc." Essentially the equivalent of, I want the Rolls Royce but I want to pay the price of a Honda Accord.  Now I'm all up for the challenge of a good buy but as it turns out so is the rest of the world.  

This is where experience pays off.  I'm going to leave out the mundane details but suffice it to say I had to pull all my strengths together and help the buyer narrow his criteria so that we could really zero in on this crazy market where short sales, lender/bank owned REO's, multiple offers and auctions run the gamut.  It took time but essentially we got there.  Patience I should say is also needed here along with experience when working with out of the norm challenges.

Let's fast forward to how we actually got under contract finally!  This is where technology rocks!  After zero-ing on location, type of house, and all the other necessary components we used early MLS alerts, I put the word out with my colleagues etc. had contracts pre-sent in PDF to my clients so they could sign and send back to me ASAP via email, web conferencing etc. we found a short sale home that my clients really liked.  I got there within an hour of it going on the market.   Previewed the home, gave my clients a call (long distance int'l on my cell, ouch) checked with the agent and there were no offers.  It was tasting good already.  

By the time I made the trek back to the office my clients had already signed the offer and sent it back to me.  Before making one more call to the listing agent to let him know I'm sending the offer I got back on the MLS to check tax records (something I always do but neglected to do first before heading out to the property in the rush of getting there asap) - a - ha - it's slated to go on auction in 3 weeks and the listing agent neglected to point that out, didn't even bring it up when I questioned him on he handles his shortsales, his experience, etc. etc. with the bank yara yara yara.  Hello???  Do you think that might be a material fact!  Oh well, I'll take the blame on this one, I shouldn't have jumped out of my seat and log an extra 30miles to my car without checking the  tax records first.  I know better.  Heck, I do it all the time.  No worries.  I call the agent, I said "hey, so how confident do you feel that an offer will help at this point, do you think the bank will postpone the auction date and let the short sale go thru, do you think you can do it, have you had any conversations with them about it"....

Let's continue to house no. 2 - yep, the above scenario has been repeated a few times.  Not the part of my not checking the tax records, but the fact that while I may have spotted a home, tried to get there before anyone else so that my clients get the immediate feedback and decide if they want to put in an offer (remember there's a huge time difference) and hopefully get theirs accepted before the multitude of others that are heading that way.  (Side note: in my market anything under 300k gets multiple offers - regardless of condition)  

Finally! And maybe it's just the Holidays that did it.  Earlier this week my clients called me as they were excited about a home they found online.  I pulled it up on the MLS (online sites sometimes show homes listed as active but in the MLS they may show Active with contingency which typically means there is an offer already but that does not reflect on the online sites like Trulia or Zillow) and it actually really showed active.  I was stunned.  Days on market were under 30, I was thinking cynically oh darn, the agent or her staff may have been on vacation and probably didn't update the status.  I got voicemail, left a message, an hour goes by and I get a call back, the house is available no offers!  Now I jumped out of my seat, headed over there but this time with my handy dandy sony video camera.

It was about 11pm at night for my clients but I know them well enough to call them and they won't mind.  I walk into the house and it's lovely.  I capture it all on video, and even before I've left the property I've already uploaded it to youtube, called my clients and now they've just seen the property as if they were there with me.  LOOOOOOOOOOOVE technology!  

The end result - the Gods were smiling, the Angels on our side, everything was lined up perfectly, luck was on our side, the roses were blooming, the sun was shining.  You get the metaphor and the picture, we're under contract!  We still have a long way to go before this is a "closed deal" and before I've made even a penny on it but I feel fulfilled.  I've found a way to finally get something this challenging executed and help out a family heading back home before fall.  2010 what else you got for me?

Comments (2)

Li Read
Sea to Sky Premier Properties (Salt Spring) - Salt Spring Island, BC
Caring expertise...knowledge for you!

Love this story...it's the scenario for the 21st Century, and I hope this becomes a featured post.    The internet erased both time and geography, and we're all going to see a lot more "international" buyers in our local areas...it's now a "global village", right??

Jan 07, 2010 03:29 AM
Uzi Husain
Keller Williams Integrity First - Scottsdale, AZ

absolutely right.  Thanks, I hope it's featured too.  I'd like it to be inspiring for others to take on challenging scenarios.  It's rewarding you know and changes it up for us a bit, although no two transactions are alike so it's not like there's anything remotely monotonous in our field.  LOL

Jan 07, 2010 03:32 AM