Day 7 - March 10, 2007

9:00 - 12:00  Floor Shift

I was greeted this morning with an email from a home inspection that was 27 items long.  This house and its owners have tested all my negotiation and communication skills from the beginning.  The sellers have been on the market 381 day.  That doesn't include 4 months of being under contract with a buyer in late 2005 and early 2006.  That contract fell out because the agent they were using failed to explain the dangers of a lease option in a falling market.  They thought they were going to sell the house for $600,000.  The current contract is for $492,000.  That has been a bitter pill for them to swallow and they have blamed everyone but themselves. 

The current home inspection items come from 18 months of renters and neglect.  I forwarded the list to my client in Colorado and he immediately told me he wasn't fixing anything.  20 of the 27 items are plumbing, heating, air conditioning issues that will have to be fixed unless he wants to sell the house as-is.  As-is will put the value of the home closer to $450,000.  For some reason he doesn't understand that making $2000 worth of repairs is a better option, but given all that he has done it shouldn't surprise me.   I let him vent for about twenty minutes, we go over the list one by one and come to a much more reasonable response to the items.  It takes about 2 hours but it keeps the deal together.

I think my main job is not to sell houses but to keep people from making dumb mistakes and failing to do that, my job becomes trying to keep people from compounding their mistakes with even bigger mistakes.

Negotiations continue with the condo.  I think I have come up with a solution that will save my client about $2000 thereby making the current offer from the buyers only $450 worse for my seller.  By moving the settlement date up three weeks, we save the interest, taxes, insurance, HOA fee, and utilities for 21 days.  This takes about 2 hours and one elaborate spreadsheet to explain to my client.  Thank god for a background in finance.  Even after explaining the net difference is only $450, my client sends me an email that is the ultimate vent.  It has cuss words and various other references to getting the shaft but in the end he finally sees the light.   Maybe we can get that wrapped up tomorrow.

12:30 - 2:00  Listing Appointment

Another appointment with a lady who wants to make lateral move and exchange her three story, one car garage townhouse with a two story, two car garage house.  Her house was very nicely renovated so selling it will not be a problem.  Finding her a house might take some time, if in fact it even exists.

I'm taking the rest of the day off and going for a bike ride.