Coming Soon! New Homeowners, New Friendships - For Love, Not Money; A True Story
Well, money may have had a little to do with it but, the deeper story is 100% emotional!
When Carol Williams & Anna Banana Kruchten CRB, CRS put their collective minds together and announced this challenge, I had so many transactions that came to mind to share with you; I couldn’t decide which one to share. This one though, has to be the one that is dearest to me that I haven’t previously shared here in the Rain.
One October, I had a lovely couple who had purchased a home a few years before with me. They had renovated to the 9’s and then discovered they wanted to live closer to their family after a very short time in their lovely home. So, they decided to sell.
Very little prep was needed so, photos were done right away and the home was listed & marketed as ‘Coming Soon.’ I have a little ‘guiding light,’ which I won’t share here but, after a number of conversations with other agents and finding out that there is great (genuine) interest in homes that I have listed as ‘Coming Soon,’ I typically encourage the sellers to go ahead and change the status to active. This was no exception.
In fact, we received two Offers on their home, sight-unseen. In our area, you can’t show the property until it is active and available for all MLS members and their buyers to show it. I am not a rule-breaker so, I find myself in a quandary when I receive pre-active Offers on properties. Why? I worry that once the buyers go for the inspection, after already having listed the home as ‘under Contract,’ they may not like the home and back out. That leaves the sellers in a pickle - and putting their home back on the market.
So, with this particular home with the two Offers, it made sense to go ahead and make the home ACTIVE on the market. The sellers had heard the story of buyer #2 from the neighbors so, they had already decided that is who their buyer was going to be. “Let’s just put it on the market for a day, get buyer #2 into the house and then we’ll sign everything.” Thankfully, I didn't tell buyer #2's agent this...
I knew we would receive other Offers and I knew we would receive higher Offers. I told them that and to keep an open mind when it came to other Offers. Oddly enough, one of the agents who I had ‘pre-called’ about the listing who sells in the area, had a buyer with an impressive story that I knew my sellers were going to love. She had tried to get her buyer in to see the listing before we ever got the paperwork signed to share it in MLS but, couldn’t. So, her buyers wound up being able to get into the home the day it went active and became buyers #7.
You see, the husband seller is a veteran and the wife (seller) is a nurse & a 3-time breast cancer survivor. The buyers were a veteran (husband) and the wife wanted to live near to the hospital as she is in the midst of chemotherapy and soon-to-have reconstructive surgery for her own breast cancer - her first bout with the dreaded ‘C.’ I think these were buyers #7.
Buyers #7 were obtaining a VA loan but, were prepared to bring cash to Closing, should the home not appraise for the elevated price they were Offering. They REALLY wanted this house and they wound up being the big winners and ultimately buying the house. They were in the home in time to spend their first Thanksgiving there as well as their first Christmas.
Besides the incredible pre-purchase coincidences, the really heart-warming part of this story is that the sellers and the buyers became fast friends at Closing. They are still in touch with one another and, in fact, the former owner accompanied the new owners to the hospital for the wife’s reconstructive surgery several months later. Being a nurse, she knew the hospital well and made them feel right at home for the big surgery and hospital stay.
They’re more than just ‘in touch’ with each other - their friendship continues to this day. The best part of this whole story is that the wife buyer has been cancer-free for 3 years now!
Again, thank you Anna Banana and Carol for hosting this wonderful challenge. I’m still reading the stories and have so enjoyed them throughout the month.
© Debe Maxwell | The Maxwell House Group | RE/MAX Executive | CharlotteBroker@icloud.com | Coming Soon! New Homeowners, New Friendships - For Love, Not Money
Comments(51)